Glitch: Exquisite Textiles, Made from a Circuit-Bent Point-and-Shoot Camera

As winter’s chill sets in, any self-respecting lover of digital visual distortions will no doubt be curling under the protective warmth of a glitch blanket. New York-based artist Phillip David Stearns, himself a kind of guru of glitch, has produced detailed, organic patterns spun out of camera hacks. Via machine knitting and weaving, complex, non-repeating […]

Rendered Toy Theater: 'Brave New World' Short, Set in Rotating Box

Brave New Old from Adam Wells on Vimeo. In electronic animation, there really are no limits to space or object. The challenge can become, then, grounding motion in the physical. Adam Wells sends CDM his short “Brave New World,” which has been making the festival circuit. It takes a novel approach, setting the action in […]

Rendered Toy Theater: ‘Brave New World’ Short, Set in Rotating Box

Brave New Old from Adam Wells on Vimeo. In electronic animation, there really are no limits to space or object. The challenge can become, then, grounding motion in the physical. Adam Wells sends CDM his short “Brave New World,” which has been making the festival circuit. It takes a novel approach, setting the action in […]

Out-There Electrified Jazz, Trumpet + Electronics, Meets North Carolina and the Moog Factory

Look closer, as that’s not a Moog – it’s a clever, two-Elektron rig. Love that retro-styled case. Photo courtesy RPE Duo. Melding trumpet with live electronics and synths, RPE Duo is doing some hybrid jazz, further out. The pairing of (Doctors) Matt Postle (trumpet/synths) and Radek Rudnicki (electronics) is straight out of England – the […]

Wow… Mouse on Mars, Charting New Sonic Worlds in Two New Releases [Listen]

It’s a good time to be following this duo: Mouse on Mars seem to have entered a period of explosive creativity. And so it’s doubly a pleasure to be working with them now. As I hear younger artists complaining that they feel confined in musical expression, here are artists unafraid to explore strange, wonderful sonic […]

Grains as Instrument: Free and Open Source Hadron Synth, Now VST, AU Plug-in [Videos]

Synthesizers can sometimes seem stuck in a groove, an endless, repeating parade of identical virtual analog synths. If you want something different, the Hadron Particle Synthesizer could fit the bill. It’s a synth. It’s a sampler. It’s an effect. It’s a synth that can morph from synth to sampler to effect. Based on granular synthesis, […]

New Instruments with Electricity: Kalimba + Ring Mod, Continuum + Kyma [Videos]

Combining even a couple of pieces of equipment can yield a kind of new, hybrid instrument. Our friend Chris Stack shares the latest in his fantastic ExperimentalSynth.com series, that haven for exploring strange, new sounds, seeking out new life and new electronic civilizations. Above: “Kevin Spears explores new soundscapes playing his kalimba through a Moog […]

Moldover, Playing Live with Latest Sensor-Laden, DIY Controllers (The Mojito!) [Music Video]

Matt “Moldy” Moldover helped champion the notion of controllerism, focusing live performance on manipulation of digital parameters. In his latest music video, he shows off his latest creations. What’s nice about what he’s doing currently is that he’s able to augment traditional live rigs with buttons and sensors. Having your controls clamped to a mic […]

MadMapper, In New Release and Beta, Manipulating Mapping and Lights Alike [DMX, Quartz Composer]

A thousand points of light! Okay, really, just a whole bunch of “Fixtures,” which allow DMX/ArtNET integration of lighting goodness with your MadMapper mapping rig. Image courtesy GarageCUBE. The future of mapping as technique is doing more than just mapping as a technique. And so, having seen how ArKaos targeted LED lighting, here’s the popular […]

Samplr is an OP-1-Inspired iPad App Focused on Touching, Slicing Waveforms

On computers and most hardware, waveforms have been a “look, but don’t touch” affair. Now, that view is coupled with multi-touch capabilities. Samplr is, as the name implies, an app that focuses on working with sound. With rhythmic slicing modes and multi-touch manipulation of samples, it’s a lovely-looking way to surf sounds from your fingertips. […]