Quick Links, News and Good Reads: Two via downloadsquad.com: (1) A mouse-based loop scratcher called Scratch (link) and (2) a Speak & Spell emulator (link), but can you circuit-bend a virtual machine? … Two via createdigitalmusic.com: (3) The website for Max/MSP software, cycling74.com, has re-launched. Recent additions include video of enhanced turntablist Daito Manabe (link) and an interview with Laetitia Sonami (link). … (4) Sounds from space, courtesy of NASA’s SuitSat (link), which turns an old spacesuit into a small satellite. The first SuitSat is transmitting its condition to earth via an FM signal. Tune your FM radio to 145.990 MHz, and check this site (link) for when the SuitSat will be in (well, above) your general area. … (5) Tips on composing music with the new Nintendo DS game Elektroplankton (link). … (6) An NPR story on composer and dub-violinist Daniel Bernard Roumain (npr.org), whom regular readers of this site may remember from the October 25 Disquiet Downstream entry from last year (thanks for the tip, Rob). … Catching up with Kyle Gann‘s PostClassic site: (7) totalism (link), the latest in a series on the subject, and belatedly (8) the death of Luc Ferrari (link). … (9) The All Saints label, which released music by Brian Eno and Harold Budd, is re-launching (marketwire.com). … (10) Is the new Firefox-based music platform, Songbird (songbirdnest.com), an iTunes-killer?
… Sound Art Special: (1) A less than positive summary of the What Sound Does a Color Make? exhibit at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (washingtonpost.com), with work by Scott Arford, Scanner, Atau Tanaka, Stephen Vitiello and others. Up through March 18, 2006. Curated by Kathleen Forde. More info at umbc.edu/cavc. … (2) Vitiello is among the artists making sound art for the Olympics (timesdispatch.com), for a project called Echoes from the Mountains (echoesfromthemountains.info); the website’s a bit slow and confusingly organized, but the event appears to also feature Joe Diebes, Enrico Glerean, Phil Kline, Charlie Morrow and Zimmerfei. … (3) Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery in Halifax, Nova Scotia, is currently exhibiting The Idea of North, a sound art exhibit curated by Rhonda Corvese, all of art from Canada, Iceland, Sweden and Norway, with work by Christoph Mignone and others (smu.ca). It closes in February 19. … (4) Just closed this weekend, a sound art exhibit in Toronto at Diaz Contemporary with work by Beagles & Ramsay, Stephanie Cormier, Brian Joseph Davis, Dave Dyment, Pete Gazendam, Adad Hannah, Doug Lewis, Daniel Olson and Laurel Woodcock, curated by Kelly Mark (diazcontemporary.ca). … (5) The San Francisco Chronicle has a brief mention today of a new “installation” due up at nearby Gallery Route One, featuring Rebecca Haseltine, Barbara Klutinis and (this suggests possible sound content) Joan Jeanrenaud, the former Kronos Quartet cellist. No info up currently at galleryrouteone.org. … (6) A report on the drug ketamine suggests it could trigger synaesthesia (bbc.co.uk). Hence its popularity in clubs, if not museums.
… R.I.P.: (1) Akira Ifukube (Godzilla composer, latimes.com), (2) J-Dilla (born James Yancey, old-school-style hip-hop producer, freep.com) and (3) Nam Jun Paik (video artist, nytimes.com: “In 1963, seeking a visual equivalent for electronic music and inspired by [John] Cage‘s performances on prepared pianos, Mr. Paik bought 13 used television sets in Cologne and reworked them until their screens jumped with strong optical patterns”).
… Disquiet Heavy Rotation: (1) Clarinetist Sabine Meyer and the Trio di Clarone run through a host of music from or inspired by an age when mechanization was thrilling composers, like Erik Satie and Darius Milhaud: Paris Mecanique (Harmonia Mundi). … (2) The Disquiet Downstream entry of the week is Univac‘s circuit-bent live set of seven MP3s (link).
… Quote of the Week: Richie Hawtin, interviewed at (popmatters.com): “Techno sometimes does become more about process than substance, and I think this is when techno is going a little bit the wrong way.”