Hannes
A blogzine about modular synthesizers, music experiments and life without presets
Chosen Waves 017: Lucid Grain
The world of modular synthesis is sometimes a world made of solitary exploration, of musical monologues. You don’t encounter many projects that involve more than one person, let alone “modular bands”. It’s neither good nor bad and there’s many things that could be said about this, but I’ll leave that [...]
Hannes
Modular Spaces Pt.3: Work/Music Balance
It’s been quite a while since the last Modular Spaces installment, but we’re back with a very special one. I’m calling this “work/music” balance, and it’s a topic that touches me personally quite a bit. As somebody who works in design for the music (instruments) industry, but also dabbles in the [...]
Hannes
Can I Borrow That Synth For a Moment?
Did you know that there is a Synth Museum in Switzerland? They are called Swiss Museum & Center for Electronic Music Instruments (SMEM) and are currently running a Kickstarter campaign to fund what they call Playroom: a space that will offer hands-on access to the museum’s collection and much more. So, now that you know, go [...]
Hannes
Modular Spaces Pt.2: Cozy Corners
In the first Modular Spaces episode we looked at wardrobes and closets. Spaces where music-making and the rest of life can be clearly separated when needed. In this new episode we’ll look at the opposite approach: here the musical space is part of a bigger whole. We’ll see corners, niches, slim tables beneath windows and [...]
Hannes
Chosen Waves 016: midcentury modular – arp of contemplation
arps is the first album by Raleigh-based John Mitchell, aka midcentury modular. His work has been influenced by some of the known acts from the modular world, mostly: Matthias Puech with his A Year Of Time and Emily Sprague’s Water Memory. Still, he has his own voice and focus when it comes to composition and process. There’s a [...]
Hannes
Matthias Puech, Explicit Intentions
The name Matthias Puech probably needs little introduction to most of you. He first became known through his alternate, “parasite” firmware projects for Mutable Instruments modules. Later he worked with XAOC on the software for their popular modulation source Batumi, and designed the excellent Tapographic Delay for 4ms. What [...]
Hannes
Billy Gomberg, Carving Towards Coherency
My first contact with Billy Gomberg’s work happened almost by coincidence. In the early days of Mutable Instruments’ inception, we were among the few people to get hold of a Shruti-1 kit. The community was still small back then and, obviously, we all knew each other. His minimalistic approach to making electronic music, the [...]
Hannes
Modular Spaces Pt.1: Wardrobes and Closets
In a time so close to Superbooth18 this article might surprise you. Right now everybody seems to be holding their breath waiting for all the new gear to be announced (or at least teased), and that’s great and exciting! I am certainly not immune to that myself! But with all the talk about gear (new and old) we sometimes forget about [...]
Hannes
Chosen Waves 015: Topographer
After being an emerging name in Romania’s Drone/Doom Metal scene under the name Tauusk and releasing several albums, Răzvan Lazea-Postelnicu turned to the modular for further inspiration, attracted by its extended sonic palette. His new project Topographer inherits some of the traits found in his previous musical journey, keeping [...]
Hannes