Inside their Funkhaus studio, records ready for release. Photo: CDM. In one of the records we’ve been most anticipating this year, Mouse on Mars today release Parastrophics, a densely-layered Magnum Opus of a full-length album. If you want to audition the release before buying, there are two places where you can do so: [soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/1439433″ […]

FRACT is a curious combination of music studio and puzzle game, merging elements of games like Myst with the sorts of synths and pattern editors you’d expect somewhere like Ableton Live. You have to make sounds and melodies to solve puzzles; by the end of the game, say the creators, you’re even producing original music. […]

Robert Henke’s new album is out this month, and definitely counts among our anticipated albums of 2012. But what has not gotten wide coverage is the visual element of this upcoming performance, which will accompany the surround-sound tour of the show in audiovisual splendor from Slovenia to Portland. (We’ll be catching up with Robert, I […]

Robert Henke’s new album is out this month, and definitely counts among our anticipated albums of 2012. But what has not gotten wide coverage is the visual element of this upcoming performance, which will accompany the surround-sound tour of the show in audiovisual splendor from Slovenia to Portland. (We’ll be catching up with Robert, I […]

Even the artwork changes. This is my personal copy – #148. Digital: disposable, identical, infinitely reproducible. Recordings: static, unchanging. Or … are they? Icarus’ Fake Fish Distribution (FFD), a self-described “album in 1000 variations,” generates a one-of-a-kind download for each purchaser. Generative, parametric software takes the composition, by London-based musicians-slash-software engineers Ollie Bown and Sam […]

Ready for some focused listening time? Photo (CC-BY-SA) Toshiyuki IMAI. [website – JP] Writing about the meeting place of technology and music, we cover potential: what’s possible, what might be in the future. So as he launches a new music column, our new contributor Kid Kameleon has coined a cheeky title: “created.” This isn’t just […]

What does it mean to disconnect from time and space, from our bodies, when communicating and making? “Timeless” is a meditation on that question, refracted through the ideas of a number of thinkers from various backgrounds, and interspersed with a mysterious, glowing object in the form of a regular polyhedron. (This alien device seems to […]

What does it mean to disconnect from time and space, from our bodies, when communicating and making? “Timeless” is a meditation on that question, refracted through the ideas of a number of thinkers from various backgrounds, and interspersed with a mysterious, glowing object in the form of a regular polyhedron. (This alien device seems to […]

Lured by the siren song of modular synthesis and DIY electronics, but not sure how to navigate the piles of requisite knowledge – or uncertain what the trip down this rabbit hole might have in store? For years, Tom Whitwell’s Music Thing was a beloved daily read, as that site and this one were among […]

Music making, child’s play. Photo (CC-BY-SA) Attila Malarik. You might not expect a handheld game console, the gadget kids use to play Pokemon, to prove much worth as a musical instrument. But even in the age of readily-available computer plug-ins and iPhone apps, the DS holds its own. In the hands of two sets of […]