Modular Music

#INSTANTBONER are Joe Steyer and Matthias Millhoff, two musicians and producers from Berlin, Kreuzberg. They believe that modular systems and improvised electronic music are a perfect fit for the dance floor. The duo works with a combination of modular synth (for melody, basslines, drones and vocals; this is Matthias’ part) and a computer-based drum machine (Joe’s part) and prefers to create their music live on stage than in the protected context of the studio.

On the 1st of May 2015 we had our first official show in Berlin. In the following year we worked a lot on our setup and tried to make it as flexible as possible but also establish a significant sound within this flexibility. We were never trying to work on tracks in the studio, we decided from the beginning that we want to be a real live act, create everything on stage, with the pressure to deliver something to the people. We tried to play as much as possible, mainly around Germany. This year we played again on the 1st of May at the same spot and this time it was streamed by Be-At TV [ed. link is below]. It’s really fun for us to play a set, the vibe and the venue influences us from set to set and we try to create something special every time.

Their video Instantmotion was born as a way to explain what they do in their live shows.

[…] we got many questions about what we actually do with all these knobs, lights and cables. To give some answers we put together a short video which we believe speaks for itself.

For those who are interested in knowing the technical specifics behind this video:

[…] The sound you experience is actually the simple patch you see in the video. Only the Hexinverter Mutant Bassdrum is not visible but is triggered by the very first cable plugged into Pamelas Workout. The hihat is a noise from the FMVDO with MakeNoise Maths envelope 2, the bassline is played by the Doepfer Dark Time into Verbos Complex Oscillator and Manhattan Analog SVVCF with the TipTop Z4000 Envelope. The Pad is the mighty OP-1 shaped by Maths envelope 1. Modulation of bassline and hihat are coming from the QuadLFO. The Reverb is Z-DSP with the Valhalla-Card and is also modulated by the QuadLFO. And finally the Mixer/VCA is the ADDAC Quintet Mixing Console.

The Be-At TV live stream (well the archived version of course) can be found on the Be-At TV website here: www.be-at.tv/artists/instantboner

Time for some modular beats, the video above shows a live-performed version of Waveguiding by Joseph Fraioli (who’s track Swarm we have seen in our first post about modular music). The track opens in what we could almost call “classic IDM” fashion, with some complex rhythmic structure (I think mostly curtesy of Circadian Rhythms) and then later adds more melodic/harmonic layers to it. The structure is simple, but effective.

His Vimeo page tells us that:

Joseph has established a reputation for complex and fearless sonic experimentation with his ten critically acclaimed albums as Datach’i, which seamlessly weave together everyday sounds with avant-garde textures and beat making

His Vimeo channel (which can be found at vimeo.com/jafbox) features several similar videos. The choices in titling his pieces (eg. Circadian Rhythms, Basimilus Acid or Nebulæ) hint at him focusing quite a bit on the technical side of modular music and the video’s description usually contains a detailed overview of the patch and the modules used. Still, most of his videos are not technical demos, these works are musically refined, with a great attention to detail and timbre and go way beyond what we usually see and hear in this type of videos.