You deserve a summer break. Here’s a dark disco love ode to a moustache, made by Greek-Argentinian partnership of Local Suicide and Skelesys, with a cheeky video by Lebanese-born video artist Zaher JR. Come for that silliness, stick around for a who’s-who of music artists redefining queer identity and the harp, acid to post-punk and beyond.

The modular sound environment Pd (Pure data) is wonderful. Pd is free. Pd runs everywhere. Pd is … frequently lacking some of the stuff you’d ideally want out of the box. Enter Piloslib, totally free and just released.

The “daxophone” is a new acoustic instrument invented in the 80s. Its creator was a German typographer. It’s name is derived from “badger.” It sounds like an half-human, half-alien vocal. And virtuoso Kazuhisa Uchihashi has been able to coax a whole album out of it – with jaw-dropping results.

When it comes to chilly polar sounds, it’s tough to top the incredible Antarctic Weddell seal. These creatures live in some of the most extreme conditions on Earth, above and below sea ice – and scientists are discovering more and more about their audible and inaudible vocalizations.

If you feel like a kid in a candy store, here’s still more eye candy you can make for free. A little bit of patchable generative graphics, a little bit of rendering live and interactively, and a little bit of keyframe animation and editing so you can hold it together? That really satisfies. Check out […]

Arturia’s V-Collection 9 is more than just another “add some more instruments, update a few things” V-Collection refresh. This one goes somewhere new and dreamy – both with new instruments that aren’t remakes of old stuff, and some of the biggest advancements coming in the form of rebuilds for some of your favorites.

It’s time to become a visual escape artist. Houdini, the 3D procedural tool from SideFX, is vital secret sauce in visuals, including live and immersive AV. But what’s it about – either technically how to use this thing or why and how to get inspired? There are some great recent videos from the Houdini folks with just that in mind. Don’t forget, too – it’s free for Unreal and Unity use.

From Yogyakarta, Indonesia comes a glitchy, powerful delay effect unlike any other. It’s a stompbox with an earthquake setting. And it’s a special collaboration – between Yogya’s engineer of sound and mayhem Andreas Siagian aka squaresolid and instrument builder and musician Wukir Suryadi of the band Senyawa.

It’s spring, it’s Superbooth – modular is in the air this May. So you’ve got your modular, and you’re an Ableton Live user – now’s a great time to revisit how to use the two together effectively.

Superbooth is back in the woods of Köpenick for the second time in under a year – an unmatched meeting point for synths, instruments, and music. Whether you join on CDM or (ideally) come in person in Berlin, here’s what to look forward to in May.