Podcast 281: Stefan Brunner

06/23/19 • 45 min

I've known Stefan Brunner for some time - going back to some of the early Cycling '74 company meetings (I somehow remember him laying out a figure-8 bike path in an alleyway in SF...), but I've never really cornered him on his artistic work. This last February, we found ourselves in a restaurant, and I poked him to explain a little more about his artwork. He started revealing, and I was stunned - I knew he was an active artist, but didn't realize how deeply he was embedded into the thing. From Arto Lindsay to large orchestras to a duet with a mad turntablist, he was multi-disciplinary to the extreme.

And he is also a killer developer - both of deep C++ code as well as a variety of devices in Max for Live. All of this reveals itself in his work, which tends to simultaneously be abstract and deep, and which is always exploring the edges of the medium. His work with Pedro Lopes as The Hour Of The Wolf is a great example: just when you think it is totally non-representational, Stefan will peel off a beautiful guitar riff to center your mind. And that's just one manifestation of his work; whether it is coding, working on installations, working on compositions or performing, there's a grounding in the world along with the flights of impressionism.

You can check out more of Stefan's work at https://stb.klingt.org/, The Hour Of The Wolf at the link above, and his work (along with Timm Ringewaldt) as Audiokolor at http://audiokolor.org/. Enjoy!

You can check out more of Stefan's work at https://stb.klingt.org/, The Hour Of The Wolf at the link above, and his work (along with Timm Ringewaldt) as Audiokolor at http://audiokolor.org/. Enjoy!

Previous Episode

Podcast 280: Leonardo Laguna Ruiz

Fans of VCV Rack and Voltage Modular will be all over the name VULT, but it's also making its name known for both hardware modular gear as well as nifty DSP trickery. Created by Leonardo Laguna Ruiz, Vult produces some of the best virtual modules I've tried, and is branching out into hardware modules and even DSP programming languages. And, of course, this amazing body of work is coming from an equally amazing guy.

Leonardo is one of those pan-continental, pan-discipline people that will make you love the modern world. Leveraging a love of recording technology with an education in electrical engineering, he is one of those guys that thinks in differential equations. His passion is in modeling, and his work shows it: the filters, oscillators and other devices that he's created are fabulous examples of math-in-audio at its best.

In our chat, we talk about the modules, the language, hardware developments and Leonardo's beginning story. The whole thing is inspiring, and it'll make you want to crack those books again. Enjoy!

In the introduction of the podcast, I mention the opportunity to support Paul Birken's upcoming 'zine release. If you are interested, you can check out the first edition here, find out more on Facebook, or touch base with him at [email protected]. Support the 'zine cause!

Next Episode

Podcast 282: Geeta Dayal

Not long ago I taught a class at a local college that was about the history and practice of electronic music. As part of that, I wanted to find good articles about various artists that could inspire as well as inform. I was surprised how often I ran across a single name - Geeta Dayal - behind the best articles. When I asked some friends for names of people to interview, Geeta's name came up, and I leaped on the opportunity to talk with her; I was fascinated to learn how she did such consistently great writing on subjects I care so much about.

Turns out, she's a worker. Deep research, digging out the details and not settling for simple Google searches. A love of both the people and the engineering. And a desire to reveal something different from what had been written before - that's a pretty good cocktail. The result is the articles I've grown to love.

If you want to go into a deep dive, you can check out her writing at http://theoriginalsoundtrack.com/, which is a compendium of some of her recent work. She also has started a Patreon site (https://www.patreon.com/geetadayal) where you can help support her work. As she states in the interview - Patreon has a powerful position in helping journalists like her pursue the best possible stories.

Enjoy the podcast - and the reading!

For this podcast, I want to express my appreciation to 1010music (https://1010music.com/) and the Deft Esoterica zine (https://deftesoterica.bandcamp.com/) for creating products that I enjoy, and that keep me engaged with the art and music world. Cheers!