A little snippet from the black channels live visuals. Some exciting announcements coming soon.
Buchla patching macro and micro update
Some close up Buchla Electric Music Box patching filmed on the fun Harinezumi camera, and using the very lo-fi camera microphone.
More updates coming soon. I've been busy doing lots of Studio Managing for Pier Productions/BBC Radio and a very exciting project that I can't talk about yet.
an oldie
A remix I did (with Matt Ford under our The Simonsound guise) of Laura J Martin's Spy.
And a Luke Insect sleeve for the 7" vinyl release on Battered Ornaments.
Constellation of Gemini mix
If all this sun is getting too much for you, take a listen to this musical cloud.
black channels videophonic collage
Here is a videophonic collage I made as a teaser for Third Rail festival. I'll be playing (in black channels) at the festival, held in Reading, on the 5th of July alongside Grumbling Fur, Lakker, Polar Bear, A Winged Victory for the Sullen and many more.
Walt's Lost Luggage
An alternate reality project I created with Curtis and Emily. More about it here.
At the start of the year I worked with Emily & Curtis to create an alternative reality story based around Walt Disney's theme parks and the Imagineers who designed and created them. We imagined a past where Walt had been secretly planning a UK based Disneyland using the name 'The Simonsound Transit Authority'. In our fantasy world, the project recently came to light when a suitcase of Walt's was found in the attic of a man who used to work in lost property at the Dorchester Hotel (where Walt and his family would stay on visits to Europe) in London in the '60s.
Third Rail Festival
I'm excited to be playing (with black channels) at the new Third Rail Festival in July this year. Setup by the original team behind the Green Man festival, Third Rail will take place on July 5th from noon until 10pm at Thames Prom in Reading.
Find out more and get tickets here.
Chroma - John Hiom
John Hiom's Chroma exhibition opens on the 6th of April and runs till the 31st of May. I'll be joining John and Ian Helliwell on the 31st for an evening of live electronic music.
I'm going to do an improvised Buchla 200e Electric Music Box performance.
Oracles video
Really excited to be able to share the video for black channel's Oracles. Its a DIY affair made by myself and Becky with help from Kyle Bean, Curtis James, Emily Macaulay, Ian Helliwell and Rollo. The Quietus premiered it this morning and we are now busy putting our live show together in preparation for some events in the not too distant future. We have an album almost ready and are looking for the right label to work with.
Wheels That Go
I love the collaborations between puppeteer and film maker Jim Henson and pioneering electronic musician Raymond Scott. Created for a film competition at Montreal's Expo '67, Wheels That Go, explored motion and movement and featured Henson's son Brian.
This next film Paperwork Explosion, for IBM explored the problems of too much information and not enough time and how computers might help readdress the balance. Scott's electronic treatments are perfect for this hectic fast paced montage, with a noticeable contrast between the cachophony pre IBM and the organised rhythms and tones once we start finding out more about their new time saving technology.
More about Scott's electronic sound design company Manhattan Research Inc. here. He was way ahead of his time, building early sequencers and collaborating with Bob Moog to build many more of his own musical inventions.
'Machines should work, people should think'
The Ancient Ones
Found on an old super 8 film with the label - The Ancient Ones - Recorded on the long stairs, Tarkerland 1972.
A Cellar Haunting
black channels paranormal investigation
Toy Drum synthesizer programming
I've been doing a bit of synthesizer programming for Pablo Clements and James Griffith at Toy Drum/Underscore. With a studio full of highly desirable synths, I'm like a kid in a toy shop every time I visit. In the pics below you'll see an EMS Synthi K, Oberheim 4 voice (serial number 001 - rumored to have belonged to Stevie Wonder) , and just in the background a Yamaha CS80 and Macbeth M5N! - good company for my Buchla 200e which I took along for the second session.
Out of shot is Pablo's impressive Eurorack system which got a lot of use during my first session. I sold my Eurorack setup shortly after getting my Buchla 200e as I wanted a nice Polysynth (Sequential Circuits Prophet 600 with latest update), but I always love to have a go on the Make Noise and Intellijel modules.
The sessions were to add some electronic elements to a new project coming soon from Toy Drum.
Thanks Q
Oracles by black channels is Q Magazine's track of the day.
Plastic Infinite animated picture disc
This is stunning. Animated picture disc by Sculpture. Order yours here.
black channels
I'm really excited to start sharing bits of this new project I've been working on for quite some time now. We (me and singer Becky) have an albums worth of music and are currently busy preparing a live show. There is a video coming soon but for now here is 'Oracles' by black channels.
a still from the forthcoming Oracles video
Buchla and Samplr
Here is a little electronic collage I created using the Samplr iPad app to manipulate Buchla 200e sounds. If I'm traveling I always make sure I have some Buchla sounds loaded onto my iPad. This piece was created en route to Brussels to visit the Atomium.
Now that's a music workstation
Happy Christmas!
Korg Little Bits exploration
My brother received his Korg Little Bits kit today and I got to have a quick play with it. It's great fun to connect the different 'modules' together and create your own synthesizer circuits. I suspect there will be more experimentation with this over Christmas.
Forms 3 - Controls, Sources and Treatments
The third installment of Benge's 'Forms' series focuses on the EMS Polysynthi.
"One of the interesting things about creating an album using just one synthesiser is that it puts you in the 'sonic era' of the machine that you are working with. So for this reason I decided to create these tracks with this idea in mind, resulting hopefully in a sound reminiscent of the musical cues found on certain late 1970s soundtrack or library albums. Therefore when listening to this record it would not be inappropriate to try and imagine yourself immersed in a progressive Television Play such as would have been broadcast on on a sunday evening in 1978
This record was made using the EMS Polysynthi electronic polyphonic synthesiser. All sounds were created and played on this single machine, and then recorded directly to multi-track tape in overlaying passes. The only exception to this was the minor addition of monophonic spring reverberation via the EMS VCS3 and some occasional band-pass filtering courtesy of the EMS 8-octave filter bank
Download it here.
