A little over a year ago, a simple live performance video made a strong impression. Using just two synthesizer modules, Peter Speer took brief moments from “Om Shanti” by Alice Coltrane and pulled them like one might Silly Putty, bending and stretching the audio until it was mere strands of its original state. In the process, he yielded something both utterly transformed and yet true, in tone and effect, to the source material. Speer’s latest video, posted two days ago, on March 30, has no familiar origin, but also delights with its simplicity. It’s a fairly compact and well-circumscribed synthesizer setup, the Serge Animal, played throughout, his hand guiding voltages and volume, and from them coaxing a drone étude, a gaseous cloud of arching textures.
Video originally posted at vimeo.com. More from Speer, who is based in Asheville, North Carolina, at diode-ring.com and instagram.com/peter.speer.