Art + Music + Technology

Dan Derks opens doors. When I asked Dan about someone that I should interview for the show, he immediately said "Oh, you've got to talk to Andrew C. S." - someone he knows from the Chicago scene, and an active person on the Lines community. So I did a little searching, some Bandcamp listening, web reading and such - and I was entranced. Reached out, got a positive response, interview bagged!

This was a great chat because Andrew we open to talk about his process, and his vision for working with computers, monome grids and cheap hardware interfaces. By combining music creation, field recording, visual art creation and other work, he's developed a body of work that belies the fact that he's just kicking things off. I ended up spending a lot of time listening to his music, and it's actually stimulated me into exploring some new ways of making work.

You need to check out this podcast! You should also check out some of his online contect, which you can find at http://andrewcs.info/, https://andrewcs.bandcamp.com/music and https://github.com/AndrewShike. See if you don't find something interesting in that stack!

Enjoy!

It was ages ago that I first talked with Meara O'Reilly. She was looking for help with a project, and put her in contact with some friends of mine that were in the Bay Area. This led to a series of great collabs, and gave me the opportunity to see her grow in her work. And this work is pretty stunning - if you take a look at her site (https://mearaoreilly.com/), you'll see what I mean.

She's about to release a new album on October 25th, on Cantaloupe Music (https://cantaloupemusic.com/), featuring some amazing vocal compositions. They are based on hocketing - the use of multiple 'instruments' that are responsible for portions of a musical phrase. While this typically provides interesting variation in the sonic palette of the piece, Meara has used vocal techniques to really extend the idea of both voice and hocketing to make an amazing soundscape, and I was glad to be able to talk to her about the process.

She's also done work ranging from installations at San Francisco's Exploratorium to iOS apps, and everything has the sort of inventiveness that instinctively draws you into the next piece. I hope that you enjoy this chat, and that you take the time to check out her website and give her new album a listen when it is released.

Cheers!

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I really enjoy talking with Nina Young. Her excitement for her work - and music/art in general - is ever-present, and her approach to composition is something that will resonate with a lot of us. Her background is unique, combining a love of engineering and science with a deep passion for music, the result is a deep and satisfying body of work that is easy to approach.

I saw Nina talk at Expo '74, and the speech was very inspiring - it gave me the desire to work with people, combine concepts and iterative development into a greater whole, and to be willing to take a chance on new work ideas. The chat we had for the podcast takes that even further, helping me understand how she honed her work through education and trial-and-error, and how a constantly evolving set of work keeps her on her toes - and exploring options both new and ancient.

I really enjoyed this talk, and I also kind of envy the sound of the birds twittering in the background - it's starting to get cold here in Minnesota, and that sounds pretty idyllic! I hope you enjoy it too!

You can check out Kyle's music at his Bandcamp site (https://darksparkler.bandcamp.com/), and check out the Source of Uncertainty podcast at its locale (https://sourceofuncertainty.podbean.com/). Enjoy!

Ashley Bellouin's Ballads album is a revelation. On one hand, you could call it a drone release, but it's not quite that. You could call it electronic, or acoustic, or just plain alien and you'd be right, but not quite. It's the best of long-form music: subtly shifting, a dance with the collaborators and instruments, and a curiosity for the ear.

Ashley has been discussed in this podcast in the past - she often collaborates with Ben Bracken, and we talked a bit about her instruments in our interview with Ben. But we get into much more detail in this podcast - as well as the thinking and obsession behind the instruments. We also talk a bit about what how she processes interesting sounds into instruments, Max-based processes and location-specific performances.

We did this interview in a beautiful farmhouse studio, surrounded by instruments, recording gear, vinyl and books. I'll have to tell you - it was by far my favorite location interview ever, but you'll be able to tell in was in-person by the natural reverb in the room (and the different recording rig I had to use because I was traveling).

Enjoy, check out Ashley's work on Drawing Room Records and on her website: http://ashleybellouin.com/. And try to imagine what instruments you would build to get that sound from your head into the world...

Check out the software at granurise.com, and check out his videos on YouTube and Vimeo to learn more about the software - and his other work, too. And see if you can't embrace the enthusiasm that he has to bring some excitement into your world, too!

Enjoy!

https://vicmodcray.bandcamp.com/album/geometric-patterns-made-of-love-and-understanding

You can also check out the whole VICMOD label catalog here:

http://www.vicmod.net/

And, as Ross himself says, check out his work on discogs.com to dig into more of his past:

https://www.discogs.com/artist/621720-Ross-Healy

Enjoy!

If you spend much time around the Ableton video stash (https://www.ableton.com/en/blog/categories/videos/, you will have seen Ralf Kleinermanns' work. He is the head of documentaries at Ableton, and he creates some of the most inspirational and motivating artists videos I've ever seen. While it might seem like its a simple matter of finding the right artist and turning on the camera, Ralf talks about the process of choosing an artist, putting together a plan and executing the shoot - as the starting point of the storytelling process.

Ralf's background really set him up for this gig, too. As a writer in the MI industry, he got a chance to meet a lot of artists, and a lot of the players in the MI industry. As a photographer, he really learn about image and visual composition. And as a student of recording science, he found out he didn't really like being a recording engineer! All good educations, and it led to Ralf becoming the artist that he is.

Enjoy the interview, and learn more about Ralf's work at the Ableton link above, or at his personal website (http://www.ralfkleinermanns.de/). And if you happen to come across one of his Wizoo books in a thrift shop, let me know - it's the kind of thing I love collecting.

Cheers!

If you want to check it out, go to: http://deadtech.net.

The person behind this space is Rob Ray, and he's a great example of how personal passion makes an extraordinary difference in the world of art. Through his own desire to make a community, and with the help of friends and colleagues, he stitched together this space and provided a place for a lot of people to do amazing things.

We talk about the space, the art, the difficulties of running a performance spot and the wind down. We also talk about Rob's current work (as Shimmering Trashpile), and how running the space affected his own work.

In addition to the Deadtech link above, you can check him out on Instagram as "shimmeringtrashpile" and on Twitter as "shimtrashpile". And Patreon subscribers will have some additional info as well (Thanks, Rob!).

Cheers!