This might look like a best-of-2020 list, but it’s not. It is, rather, a random – albeit carefully curated – list of the...
Modular Music
Music made with modulars. Because that’s what we got the thing for in the first place, didn’t we?
Intimate Spaces Making-of Pt.2: The Cavaedium
There’s an incredible sense of liberation being able to say the words: “it’s released!”. Something that has so far been a mental construct, caged in the artist’s mind, is being set free. But it’s also the mind of the artist being freed from this thought, this construct, which over time has occupied [...]
Chosen Waves 020: Benjamin Mauch – (H)over
Title: (H)overArtist: Benjamin MauchAlbum: A (C)able Tethered to the SkyYear: 2020Label: Self-released A (C)able Tethered to the Sky by Benjamin Mauch How was this track born? Benjamin: “(H)over” was initially a test for myself. I wanted to write a very long sequence, one that was melodically interesting, but also somewhat [...]
Chosen Waves 019: Hélène Vogelsinger – Illumination
Title: IlluminationArtist: Hélène VogelsingerAlbum: ContemplationYear: 2020Label: Modularfield Contemplation by Hélène Vogelsinger How was this track born? Hélène: Illumination was born in March this year, exactly 5 days before the lockdown in France. But the process of its creation really started a month earlier, when I first visited [...]
Chosen Waves 018: Lucid Grain – Lost Memories
Welcome back to another episode of Chosen Waves! Before we get to the track and what the artists have to tell us about it, a little service announcement. As you might notice in a minute, this format has changed. We’re going back to what we initially had envisioned this to be: a way to showcase […]
Modular Spaces pt.4: Focused Desks
In the previous instalments of Modular Spaces we’ve been looking at all sorts of places for musical creation: wardrobes, corners and even people’s workplaces. This time, it’s the most obvious location you can imagine: the desk. The two people featured in this article have one thing common: their desks are clean, minimal [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 […]
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 [...]