A Walk Through My Living Room with Cageian Environment and Cheeping Moose 1983

In 1983, in my living room in North Carlton, which held most of my electronics, books, CDs, etc, I set up my synthesizer to play a multi-voiced patch. Inspired by John Cage and Lejaren Hiller's tapes for HPSCHD, I had each voice in a different tuning, timbre, pitch range, etc. I used Aardvarks IV, my electronic random information generating box, to control the Serge synthesizer, and put the output of the Serge into four small loudspeakers placed around the room. I also took a circuit-bent Bullwinkle Radio (a present from my late artist friend, Richard Williams), which I had modified to produce semi-predictable cheeping sounds, and placed it on a chair in the middle of the room. Then, once this installation was going full tilt, I walked through the room with my Super 8 camera, documenting the room and the music in it. My wandering through the room formed the shaping of the piece for the camera. It was kind of dim in the room, but I thought that the lighting would be effective, anyway. I don't think I ever publicly showed the film (I might be wrong there), and for 37 years, it just sat on my shelf, and, like the super 8 film of Snodger in the Square, it occasionally glared at me, demanding to be converted to video and made a bit brighter. Finally in March 2020, I found a place to convert the film and had the money to pay for the conversion. I then took the conversion of the pretty dim film and treating it in Vegas, was able to adjust the contrast and brightness so that things were indeed visible. The amazing thing for me, on seeing the film 37 years later, is the interesting autobiographical documentary nature of the film. Things like the two Ian Robertson posters on my wall, the St Theresa of Avila text (found by Ned Sublette, caligraphed by Ernie Althoff) on another wall, the various records, cassettes lying around, (which shows what I was listening to at the time), the many Bullwinkle tchotchkes that were all over the room, and the electronic instruments, both playing (Serge and Aardvarks IV) and not playing (like the Aim-65 computer) for this piece. Reviving this piece almost 4 decades later, I'm delighted. It combines so many of my interests at the time, and I think it sounds great, in its own lo-fi way, and is visually a lot of fun. Maybe you'll like it too. In any case, I now offer it (as Martha Graham would have said, quoting Emily Dickinson) as a "letter to the world," and hope that there are folks out there who will appreciate seeing this 1983 slice-o-art-n-life.

Snodger in the Square 1981

For Moomba 1981 (Melbourne's Autumn Festival), we were commissioned to put on a live show in Melbourne City Square. As part of that show, Chris Mann, myself (Warren Burt) and Chris Wyatt performed a piece live and projected on the City Square Video Screen. This was a very large brown and yellow (as opposed to black and white) video screen usually used for ads, mounted high over Swanston Street. Chris Mann recited his poem Snodger Lip Lap, which was designed for live voice and computer modified voice recording (computer by Jim Sosnin). In addition, words from the poem were projected on the screen. The video was processed through an EMS Spectre Video Synthesizer operated by myself. Spectre patterns, Chris Mann's word graphics, and feedback all made up the lively graphics. Music was a mix of the Chris Mann computer voice recording, and electronic sound from, if memory serves me correctly, a computer controlled Casio synthesizer keyboard, programmed by Chris Wyatt. The whole thing was documented on Super 8 film. We needed a camera person. Arthur Cantrill, one of Australia's finest film-makers, was there. I asked him if he'd like to operate the camera, he said sure, and filmed the performance. The super 8 film was shown a few times, and then it lay in my archives for 39 years. I would occasionally see it on the shelf, and it was glaring at me - glaring because of it's lack of use. Finally in March 2020, I managed to find a place to convert the film, and actually had enough spare money to pay for it. The result you see here. Seeing the piece after 39 years, I'm amazed at how aggressive and complex it is. A BLAST from the past, indeed. I hope other folks like it, as well. Chris Mann is no longer with us, but I'm hoping that he would have liked this - or at least be embarrassed enough by it that somewhere in the afterlife he's happily smiling.

Four Most Recent Articles in Soundbytes

The March issue of Soundbytes Music Magazine is out now, and I have four articles in it, covering a variety of things.  

First is a review of Audio Damage's latest synth offering, Continua.  It is based on the idea of all aspects of a timbre being able to morph in real time, and it's microtonal as well:

https://soundbytesmag.net/music-for-tablets-continua-from-audio-damage/

Next is a review of Spitfire Audio's BBC Symphony Orchestra sound set.  This is a very expensive ($999 USD) and huge sound set (558GB) with the sounds of the BBC Symphony Orchestra.  It's really lovely, and if you can afford it, highly recommended.

https://soundbytesmag.net/review-bbc-symphony-orchestra-from-spitfire-audio/

In the Freebie of the Month category, I review two interesting semi-random control modules available as free additions to the wonderful VCV Rack synthesizer-on-your-screen project, as well as mentioning about 70 other interesting random composition resources in VCV.

https://soundbytesmag.net/freebie-of-the-month-unusual-random-generators-in-vcv-rack/

Finally, I review two new sets of modules by synth guru Michael Hetrick, for VCV Rack.  These are very reasonably priced payware, and they give you timbral and modulation resources that I haven't seen anywhere else.  Well worth the very modest price.

https://soundbytesmag.net/review-unfiltered-audio-plug-ins-for-vcv-rack/

Enjoy!

Interview by Alex White now on-line - with an old piece also available

In January, or was it December, Alex White, wonderful analogue synth performer from Sydney, interviewed me at Brunetti's in Carlton.  He used a very close mic, and wonder of wonders, my voice is very clear and the always very loud. Brunetti's ambience is well in the background.  We talked about a lot of things, mostly my history with electronic music equipment, but also other matters.  It's 54 minutes long, and he did a really amazing editing job.  I don't really talk THAT continuously or breathlessly, although I do admit at time I get close.  As well, he has included a 1972 piece of mine made with the Buchla synthesizer at UCSD, as a prototype of what I would compose with Aardvarks IV.  It's called "All Hell Broke Loose One Sunday Afternoon when the Checker Demon and His Buddies Hung Out At Dinty Moore’s Saloon" and it's 19:32 long.  It was eventually incorporated into my 1975 thesis piece "Aardvarks IV."  But here it is, in it's original format.  Those who know their underground comix history will recognize the "nod" to S. Clay Wilson, extreme comix artist extraordinaire.

http://midiisthemindkiller.com/news/2020/2/18/interview-warren-burt

Many many thanks to Alex for doing this, and for taking the time to edit it, and post it on line.  MUCH appreciated.

For one month only - FREE DOWNLOAD of my latest album: Hexany Diamonds and Others

HEXANY DIAMONDS AND OTHERS (2019) is a collection of 13 ten minute pieces from 2019.  All are microtonal in some sense, and all are algorithmic in some sense as well.  For ONE MONTH ONLY, you can download this for free from:

https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/B9ROTKMF7c

When you get to the website above, you don't have to log in or anything like that, just click on "Download" in the upper right.  278 MB later, the album in MP3 form, will be yours.  But hurry, this will expire on Feb 29.  If you do download it, and you like what you hear, drop me a line - I'd love to get some feedback.

The picture above is a Google Maps grab - it shows a picnic table at Chance Cove in Newfoundland.  One of the pieces in the album is called "Picnic Table in Chance Cove."  All will be explained in the liner notes of the album (grin).  Hope you like it!