Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by jacquesm on Monday September 14, 2020 @03:30AM
(#24467730)
I find it interesting that I know an enormous number of bands that were influenced by Kraftwerk, but I'm pretty sure that a lot of Kraftwerk was inspired by Silver Apples.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by jacquesm on Monday September 14, 2020 @07:17AM
(#24468870)
Kraftwerk is plenty abstract, they just put a very slick sauce over it and were much better at marketing themselves and running a business.
Some digging around turned this up:
"Obviously inspired by artists like the Silver Apples German artists/musicians Conrad Schnitzler and Hans-Joachim Roedelius started The Zodiak Free Arts Lab in an old building in West Berlin in the Halleschen Ufer, Kreuzberg. In fact it was (and still is) a theatre called the Schaubühne but at night the duo could use parts of the building.
The Zodiak was sub-divided into two main performance areas, one of which was painted completely white and the other completely black, and was filled with all kinds of instruments, amps and speakers which people could more or less do with as they pleased. Here, musicians were allowed to experiment with free jazz, psychedelic rock and avant-garde styles. Conventional forms of music were frowned upon: a phrase frequently used to describe the spirit of the times was that "songs were considered bourgeois."
Among the many artists and bands who passed through the Zodiak in their early days were Ash Ra Tempel, Geräusche (Noises), Plus/Minus, Curly Curve, Per Sonore, Human Being, The Agitation later Agitation Free, Klaus Schulze and, most significantly, Tangerine Dream. The club played an important role in the development of a style of music that would later be called krautrock. Acts like Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Amon Düül, Can and Neu all originated from the lab and would take up tape loops and synthesizers as an important part of their act. "
The timing works out just about right, and I hear a lot of 'Autobahn' in 'Oscillations'. It'd be nice if someone asked while there is still a chance.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by ratww on Monday September 14, 2020 @08:33AM
(#24469321)
> I don't think Kraftwerk were ever quite that psychedelic, abstract, or naive. (Meant in a good way.)
They were kind of abstract and very naive in Organisation and in the Kraftwerk albums before Autobahn, IMO.
Before Autobahn they were also still learning their equipment, and sometimes even building it. Due to their limitations, they were probably unable to "channel" their influences and be as psychedelic as them. In the end that was for the better, of course. :)
Not so much their sound, but the minimalistic/futuristic electronic duo format reminds me of Suicide. But Silver Apples were post-psychedelic where Suicide were proto-punk.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by shortformblog on Monday September 14, 2020 @12:27PM
(#24472035)
Silver Apples is one of the most out-there musical acts ever created, and Simeon’s willingness to take risks that were bold even for the famously bold timeframe in which he created makes him an icon that remains essential even today.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by dfischer on Monday September 14, 2020 @03:12AM
(#24467644)
Off topic but related: anyone have examples of novel things to play with in electronic music / generative? I recently got an itch to experiment with some analog synths and some hardware / software hacking to make music. Novel or just... fun!
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by luluganeta on Monday September 14, 2020 @05:42AM
(#24468364)
Thank you for such a complete list. I'd suggest TidalCycles (https://tidalcycles.org) as an appropriate addition. It's a particularly powerful tool to make music/sound using simple code, running on top of SuperCollider.
The entry barrier is rather low, and the tool's author is running a very good and accessible online course right now.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by aasasd on Monday September 14, 2020 @11:20AM
(#24471208)
Modular synths seem to be in vogue lately, both in hardware and in software like VCV Rack.
Though I'm told that this started some years ago, possibly in the 2000s—maybe it's just that I finally figured out how it's supposed to work, with the Android daw Caustic. The app Hexen looks particularly impressive, but haven't tried it yet.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by munificent on Monday September 14, 2020 @12:59PM
(#24472410)
> possibly in the 2000s
Late 90s. It was Dieter Döpfer's creation of the eurorack standard that really kicked off the modular synth revival (though of course with anything, a lot of stuff was in the air and Döpfer was also in the right place at the right time).
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by scarecrowbob on Monday September 14, 2020 @11:48AM
(#24471549)
I've had a lot of different synths in my life.
Lartely, I've had a whole lot of fun lately just playing with a single groovebox, specifically a Novation Circuit.
Although I have had much more complex rigs (I've built several eurorack modules from kits, and owned several keyboards, groove boxes, and other tools), just having a super simple little box and trying to get as much as I can out of it has been a useful exercise of the last two months.
If the goal is to "make music", I'd probably start with a groove box. If the goal is to have fun making weird noises, I'd probably get either a Moog Mother or a Behringer Neutron... both of those are kind of gentle introductions to modular synths.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by dfischer on Monday September 14, 2020 @07:22PM
(#24476256)
I just picked up two Teenage Engineering synths based on the reviews of unique UX and just having fun. I was really eyeing the Moog subharmonicon and or drummer. Would either of those compliment well with Teenage Eng op-1 and op-z?
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by scarecrowbob on Tuesday September 15, 2020 @04:12PM
(#24486200)
To be honest, if were just starting out with those two instruments, I personally just focus on those two instruments and try to get to where I can do complete performances on them.
They seem like pretty deep pieces of equipment, and as I get older I find myself enjoying the limitations of specific device and getting around them..
That said, both subharmonicon and drummer feel like they would be really fun, though :D I would havea hard time producing a complete work of music with any of the Moog stuff by itself. They are all great intros into modular synth though.
Re:Electronic music pioneer Simeon Coxe has died
by shams93 on Monday September 14, 2020 @07:59AM
(#24469092)
Wow the more creative you are the more harsh this society treats you. We are highly creative people not because we were born in the us but despite the fact we were born here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1xOZyBc2Ck
RIP Grandmaster Serialized Oscilloscopes.
More info on their too-brief moment of fame: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/apr/09/silver-apples-...
It's more likely Silver Apples influenced early Tangerine Dream and other Krautrockers through the scene around the Zodiak Arts Lab in Berlin.
Some digging around turned this up:
"Obviously inspired by artists like the Silver Apples German artists/musicians Conrad Schnitzler and Hans-Joachim Roedelius started The Zodiak Free Arts Lab in an old building in West Berlin in the Halleschen Ufer, Kreuzberg. In fact it was (and still is) a theatre called the Schaubühne but at night the duo could use parts of the building.
The Zodiak was sub-divided into two main performance areas, one of which was painted completely white and the other completely black, and was filled with all kinds of instruments, amps and speakers which people could more or less do with as they pleased. Here, musicians were allowed to experiment with free jazz, psychedelic rock and avant-garde styles. Conventional forms of music were frowned upon: a phrase frequently used to describe the spirit of the times was that "songs were considered bourgeois."
Among the many artists and bands who passed through the Zodiak in their early days were Ash Ra Tempel, Geräusche (Noises), Plus/Minus, Curly Curve, Per Sonore, Human Being, The Agitation later Agitation Free, Klaus Schulze and, most significantly, Tangerine Dream. The club played an important role in the development of a style of music that would later be called krautrock. Acts like Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk, Amon Düül, Can and Neu all originated from the lab and would take up tape loops and synthesizers as an important part of their act. "
The timing works out just about right, and I hear a lot of 'Autobahn' in 'Oscillations'. It'd be nice if someone asked while there is still a chance.
They were kind of abstract and very naive in Organisation and in the Kraftwerk albums before Autobahn, IMO.
Before Autobahn they were also still learning their equipment, and sometimes even building it. Due to their limitations, they were probably unable to "channel" their influences and be as psychedelic as them. In the end that was for the better, of course. :)
Not so much their sound, but the minimalistic/futuristic electronic duo format reminds me of Suicide. But Silver Apples were post-psychedelic where Suicide were proto-punk.
- r/musicprogramming [1]
- #opensourcemusicians on the Freenode IRC network [2]
- VCV Rack [3]
- Supercollider [4]
- Overtone [5]
- ChucK [6]
- Awesome live-coding [7]
- Muffwiggler Forum [8]
[1] - https://old.reddit.com/r/musicprogramming/
[2] - https://freenode.net/
[3] - https://vcvrack.com/
[4] - https://supercollider.github.io/
[5] - https://github.com/overtone/overtone
[6] - https://chuck.cs.princeton.edu/
[7] - https://github.com/pjagielski/awesome-live-coding-music
[8] - https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/
The entry barrier is rather low, and the tool's author is running a very good and accessible online course right now.
Though I'm told that this started some years ago, possibly in the 2000s—maybe it's just that I finally figured out how it's supposed to work, with the Android daw Caustic. The app Hexen looks particularly impressive, but haven't tried it yet.
Late 90s. It was Dieter Döpfer's creation of the eurorack standard that really kicked off the modular synth revival (though of course with anything, a lot of stuff was in the air and Döpfer was also in the right place at the right time).
Lartely, I've had a whole lot of fun lately just playing with a single groovebox, specifically a Novation Circuit.
Although I have had much more complex rigs (I've built several eurorack modules from kits, and owned several keyboards, groove boxes, and other tools), just having a super simple little box and trying to get as much as I can out of it has been a useful exercise of the last two months.
If the goal is to "make music", I'd probably start with a groove box. If the goal is to have fun making weird noises, I'd probably get either a Moog Mother or a Behringer Neutron... both of those are kind of gentle introductions to modular synths.
They seem like pretty deep pieces of equipment, and as I get older I find myself enjoying the limitations of specific device and getting around them..
That said, both subharmonicon and drummer feel like they would be really fun, though :D I would havea hard time producing a complete work of music with any of the Moog stuff by itself. They are all great intros into modular synth though.
https://esolangs.org/wiki/Orca
https://sonic-pi.net/
https://teenage.engineering/products/po
Orca is live coding environment / procedural music playground.
This video gives an overview of what it is. https://youtu.be/RaI_TuISSJE
Maybe you also like this talk of Andrew Sorensen on live coding music for inspiration: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY1FSsUV-8c
The latter can bankrupt you easily ;)