SHOP

Tom Hall - Past, Present, Below Cover Art
Apr 2010
<a href="http://shop.overlap.org/album/tom-hall-past-present-below">Tom Hall - Where Nothing Touches, You or Me by Overlap.org</a>
Electricwest - Detatch Cover Art
Mar 2010
<a href="http://shop.overlap.org/album/electricwest-detach">Electricwest - Still by Overlap.org</a>
I AM THE EGGMAN
30 Jun 2009, 7:06pm +0000 by Sam_Barnett

“I AM THE EGGMAN”  a  Sam Barnett Film.

A man trapped in a room attempts to maintain an unsustainable cycle of self destruction. When he commits absolutely to his goal and this paradoxical progress,  a questionable salvation is achieved.

 
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i-am-the-eggman-dvd-cover-small

I Am The Eggman has been shown at festivals world wide, including a showcase of American experimental  films at the Cinephantom in Moscow and a showcase of up and coming experimental film makers at the Pacific Film Archive in Berkeley CA.


Max/MSP/Jitter/Live Salon – July 22nd
29 Jun 2009, 11:09pm +0000 by barry threw

Overlap.org Max/MSP/Jitter/Live Salon, 7-9 July 22nd. RSVP to info@overlap.org for the address of our July meeting location in Downtown San Francisco.

It’s getting time again for our monthly Salon devoted to sharing code, ideas and projects built with Cycling ‘74s New Media Toolkit Max/MSP, and Ableton’s electronic music performance application, Live. This one promises to be the biggest one yet, and we are incredibly excited to be joined this month by the Bay Area Computer Music Technology Meetup Group.

ohm64_features_design01

This month we will have the following presentations:

- UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies (CNMAT) has had a twenty-year involvement with Max. Currently, CNMAT manages a distribution of dozens of objects and hundreds of patches covering controllers, additive and resonant synthesis, analysis, (electronic) music pedagogy, and open sound control. Michael Zbyszynski will present a brief overview of what is available, where to get it, and how it is being used both on stage and in the classroom.
- Peter Nyboer will be showing the new Livid Ohm64 controller. Peter says, “I’ll talk about how to control the LEDs, show off the editor, and show some max patches that I’ve been developing that will provide good fodder for discussion on how to make instruments for this beast!”
- Matt Ridenour (VJ Mattbot) will present and perform with his Euclidian sequence generator Max external. There will be a web link provided to the Mac OS X beta version of the Max external, example Max patches and a Ruby class implementation for non- Mac/Max users.

BIO:

MATT RIDENOUR (a.k.a. VJ Mattbot) escaped the linear world of single channel film/video after discovering interactive multimedia in the Spring of 1995. His work occupies the liminal spaces between random and generative chance, impromptu decisions, preprogrammed structures, emergent behaviors, meaning and noise. His work has been presented in installation, live performance, theater, architecture, recorded media and network based formats. He has been coding audio, video, and installation pieces using Max/MSP since 2001. Matt Ridenour received his BFA in Filmmaking from the University of Oklahoma in 2000.

PETER NYBOER has been making software as a partner of Livid Instruments for about 5 years. Livid Instruments has a variety of open-source and commercial applications for audio and video artists. They have been making low-volume, high quality MIDI controllers and look to carve out a unique niche in the controller market with the Ohm64.

MICHAEL FERRIELL ZBYSZYŃSKI is a composer, sound artist, performer, and teacher in the field of contemporary electroacoustic music, is Assistant Director of Music Composition and Pedagogy at UC Berkeley’s Center for New Music and Audio Technologies, and teaches Electronic Muic at San Francisco State University. Playing flute, saxophones, clarinet, Yamaha WX-5, live electronics, or things made from coffee cans and PVC, he has appeared with Respectable Citizen, Roscoe Mitchell, Myra Melford, Frank Gratkowski, the Berkeley Symphony Orchestra, the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, Capacitor Performance Group, Frances-Marie Uitti, at the Other Minds Festival, the Oregon Bach Festival, the Getty Center, and the Montréal Jazz Festival, and has been a resident fellow at the Montalvo Arts Center. He holds a PhD in composition from the University of California, Berkeley, studied at the Academy of Music in Cracow, Poland, on a Fulbright Grant, contributes to Make Magazine, and can be heard on the ARTSHIP recording label.

In addition we will have some other surprises in store as the Salon crew always has interesting projects to demonstrate. We will be also be starting to develop group project drawing on all the talents pooled in the Salon, so don’t miss this meeting so that you can get in on the ground stages of idea development. We are also the official Ableton Live users group for the Bay, so expect to see some Live action…maybe even some control from the Ohm 64.

Also, bring the things you are working on. The purpose of this event is not only to network and learn from some of the best Max programmers around, but also to share ideas…because everyone has a new perspective on programming or music creation to teach.

Last but not least: While you have to RSVP for our meeting location, you’ll have to trust me that it is a new exciting location that will be of interest to anyone that is fond of media art or live audio visual performance.

Some refreshments will be provided, but bring your laptop, code, questions, curiosity and thinking caps. We all look forwarding to seeing you.

About Overlap.org:

Overlap is an online platform for experimental media, releases, and events. Through innovative special events and exclusive online releases, Overlap shares new independent music, video and experimental art via its website Overlap.org, and provides anyone with a blog to share their media with the world.

Symbiosis on overlap – Episode 14 – Seth Horvitz (Sutekh) Solo Piano Selections
25 Jun 2009, 7:09pm +0000 by Simon Hampson

You know those comics where our hero has an alter ego? I imagine Seth Horvitz as that man.. by day he is a 5-hour pianist virtuoso and by night he operates under his pseudonym, Sutekh. Perhaps this interview will shed some light on things. In fact.. for those of you reading here we can cut to the chase and explain his move away from the productions you may know him for as Sutekh:

I never really liked the word “career” and never really wanted my music to become one. It may just be a matter of semantics, but I always equated career with job, and job with something you do for the express purpose of making money. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with making money, but my aim, perhaps a bit idealistic, is simply to do what I love. As I get older, practical considerations become more important, but I’ve always told myself that if music starts to feel like a “job,” then I will need to either quit or re-think my approach. If I was interested in making a career out of it, I probably would have stuck more firmly with dance music. But that side of music has lost much of its interest for me. In fact, even though I continue to produce beat-driven electronic music, I hardly listen to it in my spare time at all.

I contacted Seth and asked him to submit whatever his heart desired (as I do with all the artists that I contact about doing mixes for Symbiosis). The result is stunning and deserves an hour out of your week to really listen to.

PS. Seth has hinted that he might be back later on in the year to do an ‘anti piano’ mix ;)

Symbiosis on overlap – Episode 14 – Seth Horvitz (Sutekh) Solo Piano Selections Listening Guide

“Those who know me, know I have been fairly obsessed with the piano for about seven or eight years now. This podcast gives me a great opportunity to provide a condensed overview of some of my major inspirations, from Bach up to Kevin Blechdom. I have attempted to create a sequence of songs that covers a diverse range of styles and eras, but at the same time makes connections between them. In this age of attention deficits and overstimulation, I sincerely hope that listeners will find 40 minutes in their day to really *listen* to this music, not only for textures and styles, but for sounds and ideas too. Now sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Listening Guide

00:00-02:13
Alvin Lucier
Music For Piano With Amplified Sonorous Vessels
Panorama
Lovely Music

A short excerpt from one of many brilliantly simple compositions from Alvin Lucier, an originator of what we now call “Sound Art.” From the liner notes: “Several small vessels such as wine glasses, sea shells, clay pots, and bamboo cups are placed inside or near a grand piano, not touching the strings. Microphones are inserted into the vessels, routed through amplifiers to loudspeakers. As single tones, intervals and chords are played on the piano, resonance tones in the vessels are sounded, picked up and amplified.”

02:13-04:35
Kobat
Ilm
Pieces for Prepared Piano
Source Records

An important, often overlooked 1996 album on Move D (David Moufang)’s Source label from Heidelberg. Long before the prepared piano came back in style with Hauschka and Aphex Twin, this guy produced an album with much more depth than either. I’ve only managed to include a short excerpt here, but for those interested in prepared piano, I would highly recommend hunting this one down.

04:36-06:07
John Cage
Sonata V (performed by Darryl Rosenberg)
Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano
VQR

This is where it all started. In 1948, John Cage completed what remains one of the masterpieces of the 20th century, his Sonatas and Interludes for Prepared Piano. It never ceases to amaze me how terribly *funky* many of these pieces manage to be, while adhering to a strict compositional method involving precisely calculated rhythmic proportions. Anyone who owns (or should I say possesses?) Drukqs or a Hauschka record without having this should be (gently) spanked!

06:07-09:24
Erik Satie
Trois Morceaux en forme de Poire, Pt. 1 (performed by Bojan Gorisek)
Complete Works for Piano, Vol. 3
Audiophile Classics

A huge influence on Cage, Erik Satie is also often cited as an influence by many contemporary electronic composers, yet few go deeper than the Gymnopedies and Gnossiennes. This piece for two pianos, composed in 1897, is sometimes referred to as “Gnossienne 7″, due to its similarity to the famous series. After becoming obsessed with the series myself, I was excited to discover this lesser known treasure.

09:24-12:59
Cecil Taylor
For the Rabbit
For Olim
Soul Note

From one of the giants of free jazz, this 1987 album was recorded live at the Academy of Arts in Berlin. Cecil Taylor is one of those rare improvisers who, on the spur of the moment, can approach the level of intricacy and complexity that would have taken someone like Stockhausen three months of charting and graphing to compose. And he does it with so much soul…

12:59-14:01
Frederick Rzewski
The People United Will Never Be Defeated, Variation 5 (1975)
Rzewski Plays Rzewski: Piano Works 1975-1999
Nonesuch

Rzewski is a virtuoso pianist, composer, and improviser who somehow manages to balance his respect for classical tradition with a fierce sense of modernism. Some have called him the only living composer/performer to carry the torch of Beethoven and Brahms. While that may be going a bit too far, he is certainly a genius, and this excerpt from his monumental set of 36 variations on a Chilean revolutionary song barely gives a taste of what he is capable of.

14:01-17:22
Thelonius Monk
Well You Needn’t
Monk, Alone in Paris
WNTS

Monk needs no introduction – let’s just say that no one ever has, and no one ever will be able to swing like he could. Recorded live in 1964 or 1965, this track comes from one of those mysterious eMusic albums that doesn’t appear in any official discography, but it’s a great solo rendition of an original Monk standard.

17:22-18:31
Conlon Nancarrow
Study 19 for Player Piano (Canon 12/15/20)
Vol. 2 – Studies 13-32
MD&G

Nancarrow (1912-1997) lived much of his life in relative seclusion, composing music for player piano. His most important compositional invention was the “tempo canon” – for the first time, making tempo the central structural element of a piece, overshadowing melody and harmony. For this reason, it could be said that Nancarrow did not compose with notes, but with time itself. This short (and for Nancarrow, relatively mellow) piece doesn’t really do him justice, but it will serve as a gentle introduction to the two insane pieces to follow…

18:31-20:58
György Ligeti
Continuum (1968)
Ligeti: Mechanical Music
Sony

Where Nancarrow used tempo as the defining element, Ligeti, in his seminal late 60s period, used timbre. This piece was originally composed for an actual human performer on harpsichord. In Ligeti’s words: “A harpsichord has an easy touch; it can be played very fast, almost fast enough to reach the level of continuum” – hence the title. However, the human performer is avoided entirely in this version, prepared by Pierre Charial for player piano. To put it bluntly, this piece and the next by James Tenney simply turn my brain inside out, and that’s why I love them so much.

20:58-25:11
James Tenney
Spectral Canon for Conlon Nancarrow (1976 version; piano roll punched by Conlon Nancarrow)
Cold Blue (compilation)
Cold Blue

Three in a row for player piano – is there a pattern forming here? This is one of my all-time favorite pieces of music, period – a very strict process piece inspired by Henry Cowell’s Rhythmicon invention, applied to a piano tuned with 24 pure harmonics on the lowest note. Some fairly intense math is used to calculate the unfolding of the piece, but forget about that for now and just listen. The actual sound, the actual unfolding of the music in the ears and in the mind, is all that one needs to understand, without words, the sublime nature of this masterpiece.

25:11-27:05
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
La Poupee Malade (Luba Edlina, piano)
Album for the Young, Op. 39
Chandos

Now let’s wind down the gears a bit and head back to the 19th century. The title of this piece by Tchaikovsky, written for children, translates to “The Sick Doll.” Simply beautiful and heartbreaking – why doesn’t anyone write sad songs for children anymore?

27:07-29:22
Moondog
Chaconne in A minor
The German Years, 1977-1999
Roof

Louis Hardin aka Moondog lived much of his life as a street musician in New York City, yet in my mind, he is one of the most important composer/performers of the 20th century. It’s hard to know where to start when describing his work. Most know him for his percussion music (played on instruments of his own invention in a meter he called “snaketime”) and his vocal canons (one of which was covered by Janis Joplin’s band Big Brother and the Holding Company). His experiments with repetition have led some to call him the first minimalist (Glass and Reich were both aware of his music early in their careers – Glass even put him up for a while in his Manhattan flat). But he also wrote many brilliant solo piano pieces that sit confidently, as this one does, between Tchaikovsky and Bach, which is something you’d be hard-pressed to say for any other composers of the 20th century.

29:22-33:35
Glenn Gould
J.S. Bach: Sinfonia No. 9 in F minor
Inventions and Sinfonias
Sony

Glenn Gould is the only classical pianist in my iTunes collection who earns the ‘Artist’ meta tag. A perfectionist to the core, this guy could glance at a score, play through it a few times, then never have to look at it again. In addition to being the best interpreter of Bach in the history of recorded music, he had some fascinating views on the recording medium itself. At the peak of his career, he stopped performing in public, deciding that studio recording was the best way to achieve a perfect representation of his abilities (even with his constant humming and groaning bleeding through). Many of his interpretations are either blisteringly fast or achingly slow – I have chosen to include the latter.

33:35-39:22
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Sonata No. 17 in D minor, Op. 31, No. 2, Allegro (Alfred Brendel, piano)
Piano Sonatas, Vol. 2
Vox

At the risk of being a total dork, let me just say that Beethoven rocks. This is perhaps my favorite movement of Beethoven’s piano sonatas. The intricately syncopated, but utterly propulsive rhythms could teach us techno artists plenty, and the cascading arpeggios could certainly give Philip Glass a run for his money. I generally prefer Gould’s interpretations of Beethoven, but in this case, I think Alfred Brendel handles the piece more delicately and with more swing.

39:22-42:00
Kevin Blechdom
Turn Around
Gentlemania
Sonig

Bach, Beethoven, Blechdom… she may be full of jokes, but look a little deeper and deeper and deeper and DEEPER, and you’ll find a genius worthy of her place in this list of (mostly) dead (mostly) white men.

Get in touch, leave your comments and shout about overlap to the world…

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/symbiosisradio
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHampson
Email: simon[at]symbiosis.com.au
MSN: simon640[at]gmail.com
AIM: aujinga
Skype: simonhampson

Next week: Jason Kahn
Jason Kahn joins us for Episode 15. An old friend of Symbiosis, he is celebrating his appearance at the Liquid Archtecture Festival in Australia this month.

Coming up: Orien / ieva / Pacheko

Drop me a line if you have got an artist you want to see featured or if you want to submit something to Symbiosis.

Peace,

Simon

 
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23 Jun 2009, 6:58pm +0000 by ninjaspew

I’d like to highlight the work of little-scale , a hacker from adelaide, who has made consumer devices from sega megadrives to toy space swords sing.

He is playing a show in melbourne, australia on the 17th july 2009 at the queensberry hotel, swanston st, carlton.
sound bytes round 4 melbourne july 2009

sleep patterns at climate theater. hypnagogia. 27 june 2009.
, 9:15am +0000 by Louis

Sleep Patterns work-in-progress.

Hey Everybody! This Saturday I’ll be showing a sound interface, Sleep Patterns at Climate Theater for a group show based on sleep and the unconscious. Above is a peek at my work-in-progress to keep you wondering.

The interface produces drones for sleeping in response to the movement of threads on its surface. By combing, shifting and twisting individual “hairs”, varying tones and rhythmic patterns emerge. It is a supplement to sleep that one can reach over and tussle until a pleasing drone is found, then fall peacefully back to sleep.

sleep patterns at climate theater. hypnagogia. 27 june 2009.

http://www.climatetheater.com/component/content/article/35-theater/124-hypnagogia.html

The show is one night, $10. Saturday 27 June 2009 at 285 9th St at Folsom in San Francisco. There will be many different works and live music. Come on and check it out.

I hope to see you there.

Symbiosis on overlap – Episode 13 – Gravious in the mix
18 Jun 2009, 4:54am +0000 by Simon Hampson

Hey folks,

Hope you’re all well this week. Cold weather in the Southern Hemisphere – perfect for enjoying this mix in front of a warm fire – or for those of you in the Northen Hemisphere put your speakers out the window and have a dance in front of your house (or on the move if you’re listening to it that way;).

I recently went to the launch of a new night by the Melbourne dubstep crew Too Much and witnessed a truly spectacular performance by Gravious. I dropped him an email in the aftermath and this is the finished mix.. Thanks to Ali and I hope you all enjoy this 45 minute slice of his world..

Some info..

Gravious a.k.a. Ali Jackson is Dubstep producer based in Glasgow, Scotland. He has had four warmly received releases through the HotFlush/Scuba record label and followed them up this year by the Futurist EP on Highpoint Lowlife, following a brief hiatus in 2008 where he focused on taking his live show out on the road.

Ali started making music in 2001 after being shown the basics of DIY production by a friend. After experimenting in a variety of styles, he was converted to the fresh sounds of Dubstep, Dark Garage and Broken Beat after hearing the selections of DJs such as J Da Flex and Femme Fatale in early 2004. From this starting point, he quickly discovered the bass-heavy productions of Kode9, Digital Mystikz, Horsepower, Skream, Groove Chronicles and Ghost – and was instantly hooked. Taking inspiration from these sounds, Gravious also brought in elements from his wider musical tastes in both electronic and traditional music to make his first few identifiably Dubstep tracks in 2004 and 2005. Artists most inspirational to him include The Future Sound of London, Boards of Canada, Radiohead, LTJ Bukem, Aphex Twin, and Autechre. His current productions still owe as much influence to this raft of Electronica and alternative music as they do to the early Dubstep that drew him in to the sound.

Having DJ-ed regularly around Scotland after his first releases, 2007 saw him perform his first ‘live’ laptop set of strictly Gravious material at the Triptych music festival in Edinburgh. 2008 saw him hit venues across the UK, as well as a handful of European cities. The live show rolled out further afield in 2009, with a short tour of Australia and a smattering of European festival appearances in the first half of the year. Venues included the deep end of a swimming pool, a huge home-made “treehouse” in the Australian bush and a Soviet era TV tower!

2009 is shaping up to be a big year for Gravious.. check this exclusive Symbiosis mix for proof!

Most recent release is:
Gravious – Futurist EP: Jupiter Jazz/Vultures/World of Tomorrow (Highpoint Lowlife)
http://highpointlowlife.com (also via iTunes, Amazon, Juno etc.)

Forthcoming:
Deep Child – Wannado [Gravious Remix] (Sub Continental Dub)
Gravious – DoubleThink (Pollen)

http://www.myspace.com/gravious
http://www.virb.com/gravious

Symbiosis on overlap – Episode 13 – Gravious in the mix

[00.00] 1.  Brklss – Of Sun and Beach
[03.38] 2.  Sines – Games
[05.27] 3.  Hatti Vatti feat. Sara Brylewska – Different Music (forthcoming Mindset)
[09.03] 4.  Scuba – Klinik  (forthcoming Hotflush)
[13.05] 5.  Chimpo – Love is Here  (Bass Punch)
[16.41] 6.  Psychonaught – Vibes
[19.37] 7.  Hyetal – Pixel Rainbow Sequence (forthcoming Reduction Records)
[24.14] 8.  Funk Ethics – Dub FLuid
[28.16] 9.  Geiom – No More Tears (Berkane Sol)
[31.37] 10. DJG – Buena Vista (Untitled!)
[34.20] 11. Subhuman – Say You Will
[38.49] 12. Mala – Hunter (DMZ)
[40.58] 13. Gravious – Continuum

Get in touch, leave your comments and shout about overlap to the world…

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/symbiosisradio
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/SimonHampson
Email: simon[at]symbiosis.com.au
MSN: simon640[at]gmail.com
AIM: aujinga
Skype: simonhampson

Next week: Seth Horvitz (Sutekh) – Solo Piano works selection
I am very honoured to be hosting a mix by Seth Horvitz. Many of you will know him by his techno pseudonym, Sutekh. Seth is currently studying at Mills College in San Francisco and for Episode 14 he has put together a selection of solo piano works with some very detailed notes. This one is designed for your full listening attention folks. Turn off the tv, computer, ac.. close the blinds and your eyes.. and press play.

Coming up:  Orien / ieva / Pacheko / Jason Kahn / Om Unit / Kuma / Simonoff

Drop me a line if you have got an artist you want to see featured or if you want to submit something to Symbiosis.

Peace,

Simon

 
icon for podpress  Symbiosis on overlap - Episode 13 - Gravious in the mix [45:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (1505)
algofunk
13 Jun 2009, 9:35am +0000 by morganjenks

Hey everybody.

 

I got lucky enough to get a summer job as a student technician at my local university, mostly building cables and installing racks so far. yesterday, I told my boss that I was working on a generative sequencer, and he gave me a link to a paper he’s done dealing with the topic.  some cool ideas!

here’s his site

http://morrismusic.org/

and the paper

http://m620sound.files.wordpress.com/2007/12/electrorhythm.pdf