A Look Back and a Look Forward

We started this blog in 2015, on april 1st. It could have been an april fool, but our intent was actually pretty serious. We set out to create a magazine in blog form, that would provide the community with in-depth articles about making music with Eurorack modular systems and talk about artists who chose to use this instrument as their primary means of musical expression.

During these 4 years we’ve been writing about many topics and interviewed both musicians and module designers. We’ve been slow but kind of steady. Looking back, I am very happy with what we have created!

Ok, I know. This is starting to sound like: “so long and thanks for all the fish”. But don’t worry, Horizontalpitch isn’t going away! It’s just changing a little bit I guess. Like everything changes, all the time, doesn’t it?

Since its inception the blog has been in a state of constant transformation. Over time the “Chosen Wave” format became the dominant article type and the focus slowly shifted more and more towards the musical process. We moved from being a blog about Eurorack, to one that was about “modular synthesizers, music experiments and life without presets”.

When we started it was a 3-people edeavour, the blog was founded by me, toghether with two friends: Marco and Konstantine. Later on, life happened and I became the main poster here (more about that later). I guess for this reason, Horizontalpitch has become my personal blog to a certain degree and it will likely become more so, as time passes.

Here’s a couple of things that you will see happening on this blog in the future:

• I’ll start to write about more than just modulars. It will still be focused on music made with machines and modulars will still be part of it, but I’d like to expand beyond it.
• I want to post more and shorter stories. I still like the idea of writing long, in-depth articles and will certainly do so from time to time, but – as you might guess – this takes a huge amount of time and that is hard to find sometimes.
• I’d like to post more illustration and photography. No concrete ideas, just a general thing.

What you will still not see posted here is:

• news, announcements, and rumors about gear or music. Not that there is anything inherently wrong about that, but I’m just not interested in it.
• Articles that take position on, or analyze facts or events in a timely and up-to date manner. I write here on a “when I have some spare time” basis, and writing takes a bit of time, so that would just not work. I’m gladly leaving that to people who do that as their main job.

So what’s coming next? I’ve started to look into a phenomenon that has always fascinated me and which has seen quite a resurgence in the last years: magnetic tape loops!

I’ll probably be posting more articles around that in the – more or less near – future!

It’s also worth repeating that I’m totally open to guest posts, if the topic and approach fits the spirit of this blog! If you have ideas, just contact me! Be aware though, that Horizontalpitch is a purely non-for-profit thing.

A couple of further notes

First of all, let me take the occasion to thank Marco and Konstantine for having started this adventure with me! I would probably never have taken on the challenge without you!

Also, it’s due to note that, while I have been the only one writing artices in recent years, behind the scenes, there has been an ongoing and highly valuable stream of exchange with the other founding members of this blog.

Last but not least, big thanks to Konstantine for being my go-to proof reader and language consultant! It’s good to have a pro to ask for advice!

Horizontalpitch is all about the music in the end, so since both Marco and Konstantine are musicians, let me close this article by sharing some of what they do!

Konstatine

Call me eS (Marco)