Art + Music + Technology

In this second of two interview sessions, we talk with Ned Lagin about the compositional process behind his work (including echoes of Renaissance music), his Seastones collaborators, the ups and downs of the Seastones release(s) and his subsequent technical career. Ned Lagin is legendary. As a former performer with the Grateful Dead, he toured with a crazy rig that featured both standard keyboards as well as an E-mu modular controlled by a computer system. All this during the early 70’s (http://spiritcats.com/nedbase.html) – ya’ dig? You can learn more about All Things Ned Lagin on the Spiritcats website (http://spiritcats.com/index.html), and about the vinyl release of Seastones on the Important Records website (https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/12081). Enjoy! Transcription available at http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-0341.html

Ned Lagin is legendary. As a former performer with the Grateful Dead, he toured with a crazy rig that featured both standard keyboards as well as an E-mu modular controlled by a computer system. During the early 70’s (http://spiritcats.com/nedbase.html). Yeah. He also produced an amazing work, called Seastones, that is a ground-breaking electronic music collection. Unfortunately, it fell between the cracks of some label flip-flopping, and never received the attention it deserved. Featuring guest spots by some amazing collaborators (including Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, David Crosby and Grace Slick), the album has been reissued as a CD by Ned (http://spiritcats.com/music.html), and on vinyl by Important Records. In this first of two interview sessions, we discuss his work, his background and the various technologies that he employed (and in some cases had to invent) in order to play and produce his musical work. We also talk about the many people that influenced him, and the twists and turns of his musical – and

Jean-Baptiste Thiebaut is someone I have had the chance to work with at Cycling, and has been on an amazing journey. JB’s background is quite amazing, combining a background in computer science with advanced research in computer-aided composition. He then entered the MI industry – working at Novation/Focusrite in product development, then directing product development at ROLI. Through all of that, he founded and nurtured the London-based Music Hackspace, a place for music hackery to thrive. When the COVID pandemic hit, JB decided to expand the reach of Music Hackspace to include industry expert presentations and a wide variety of workshops and tutorials. The breadth of it is quite impressive, ranging from hardware hacking on ‘musical pom-poms’ to tweaky Node for Max workshops. Lots of different technologies, and a steady stream of interesting work. If you are interested in checking out the Hackspace’s lineup, you can find out more at the ‘What’s On’ list (https://musichackspace.org/whatson_list?). Are you int

As one of the founding members of the band Can, Irmin Schmidt left a permanent mark on the world of music. Since Can’s breakup, Irmin has left his mark on film music, having been credited as composer on more than 40 films and TV shows. Recently, he has released two albums on Mute Records featuring solo prepared piano work, with “Nocturne: Live at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival” coming out earlier this year. In our chat, we talk about his background, his sources of creativity, and his interest in prepared piano. We also learn more about his development of an opera (Gormenghast), and how he chooses the work that he releases. It’s an amazing view into the imagination of a groundbreaking artist. You can find out more about his Mute releases at mute.com (http://mute.com/artists/irmin-schmidt), and check out “Can – All Gates Open”, the book he co-authored on the band (https://www.amazon.com/All-Gates-Open-Faber-Social/dp/0571311520). Enjoy! Transcription: http://www.darwingrosse.com/AMT/transcript-033

I'd heard about the artist Strategy from Portland friends in the past, and always appreciated the subtle complexity that threaded throughout his work. When Joshua Clayton opened the door to speak with Paul Dickow - Strategy - I was excited to take the chance. As I prepared for the talk, I was surprised by the number of projects that Paul was involved in, and also his involvement with community support. As we got talking, I also found out that we shared something else: a love of samplers. Getting a chance to dig into the quirky differences between different machines is loads of fun, but also a way to find unique ways of pulling unique sounds out of a variety of gear. Paul also talks about how collaboration keeps him moving forward; how different group efforts lead him down different roads, and different labels helped push him into completing different sonic expressions. I came away with a sense of a guy that is sensitive to the world around him, and remains open to its influence. Check out Strategy's work at

Scott Lawlor reached out to me to start a conversation, and after hearing his story, I was anxious to get his story on the podcast. He is part of numerous collaborations, does live performances (including his "isolation concerts" during this COVID lockdown) - but my bell was rung when he mentioned that he'd done around 250 releases. 250 releases! I had to learn more... It turns out that Scott's work is really flow-oriented, and that he is able to drop into 'recording mode' really quickly. He also really enjoys long-form recording, so much of his work greatly exceeds the EP/LP-length work we've come to understand. He also fluidly moves from genre to genre, one day working on New Age piano pieces, the next day doing experimental noise pieces. Talking with Scott about his recording efficiency, style morphing and music-life balance opened some real perceptual doors for me. Check out his work here - https://scottlawlor.bandcamp.com/music - as well as on many netlabels. You can also check out his Isolation Sets on

I first got to know Ned Rush through some glitch-based sample packs that he made available - a long time ago. He's continued creating - making sample sets, music releases and Max for Live devices, and has also been making interesting videos on his YouTube channel. Now, he's started a remote weekly performance series called "More Kicks Than Friends" that brings together a lot of people that you know from other online locales. I was very excited to get Ned on the horn for a chat, and we cover a lot of ground - from his background as a guitar nut, to his entry into electronic music, through jacking into making videos and running MKTF. Along the way, we dig into his preference for cut-up editing, and some of his ideas for meshing guitar playing with effective music production. Very interesting, very revealing. You can follow Ned through his Patreon page (https://www.patreon.com/NedRush), YouTube page (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIbbeIvZgBiXikUJaYWXTcQ) and his Isotonik device page (https://isotonikstudios.c

When I first got clued into the A-Mint system, I was very curious: I've not been 'entranced' by AI and ML systems for music, and I tend to be kind of skeptical. But some of the video and audio examples I heard of Alex Braga's A-Mint were quite surprising - especially in their realtime use with other performers. This is something that caught my attention, and I wanted to learn more. Alex is an engaging interview, and our discussion ranged from his background, to his love of nerdy machines, and into his love of performing. The work that he and his collaborators are doing is in trying to create 'augmented' tools - tools that help you be more adept at the things that you want to do. You can learn more about the A-Mint project at its website: http://www.a-mint.it/ or you can see more of it (and Alex) in action, as well as learning about his "Spleen Machine" release, at his website: http://www.alexbraga.me/ I hope that you enjoy the discussion, and find Alex's enthusiasm as infectious as I did. I'm looking forward

Roger Neill is living a pretty charmed life. Working on film, TV and game music, he is able to dive deep into music of all styles, and create extended storytelling by working with directors of films like Valley Girl, 20th Century Women and TV work like JJ Villard's Fairy Tales. All of this requires the depth of knowledge that comes from getting an advanced degree in music, but also an emotional connection that comes from playing guitar in teenage rock bands. We had a great conversation that covered his education, his entre into the film composition work and how he approaches film score development. It's an improbable tale - but one that also shows the combination of talent, hard work and good luck that it takes to get a gig in Hollywood. You can learn more about Roger's work at his website (http://rogerneill.com/), and check out his music at his SoundCloud page (https://soundcloud.com/roger-neill-2). It's a pretty impressive body of work, and hearing about its creation makes this a fabulous interview. Enjoy!

I love it when I get suggestions from my listeners for something to research. Hearing about "acreil" - and tracking this down to Scott Nordlund - was a lot of fun, mainly because the starting point was on Bandcamp, and his music is so good. I'd learned that he was deep into working with Pure Data, and he had a great collection of releases, so I was all in! And it was worth it. Scott has a clear opinion about what works - for him. He doesn't really worry about the general case; he's focused on what works best for him. And the result speaks for itself: check out his releases on Bandcamp (https://acreil.bandcamp.com/) and you'll see what I mean. He also has a fascinating Wordpress site (https://acreil.wordpress.com/) where we get to find out about his research in Pure Data, his teardowns of EPROMs from different devices, and even in-depth dives into the obscure chips found in oddball synths. All of this is wrapped up into a thoughtful and focused package. I love it - enjoy! Transcription: http://www.darwingrosse

I try not to reveal my super-fandom very often, but Robin Rimbaud (aka Skanner) maps to a critical time in my life. Back when he was putting out the early Scanner stuff, my ears were opening to more adventurous electronic work, and his efforts slammed directly into my interests. I've been a fan ever since, and was blown away to get to talk with him. And what a great conversation - we cover everything from his background (of course) to details on working on the Vex project - a site-specific work done in conjunction with an architect. Combining that we discussions about the surveillance state, the value of literature in an artist's life, and making a career without surrounding yourself with managers, agents and publicists - we were all over the map, but in a good way. If you aren't familiar with Robin's work - well, I'm not sure what to say about that. But you should be. You can check it out, as well as his ongoing stream-of-consciousness blogging, on his website: http://scannerdot.com/. This is a great jumping

Talk about a career! Stephan Schmitt started his journey into audio development by making noisy object as a kid, then got into electrical engineering to work on large format consoles (which is where he took on software...), then co-founded Native Instruments, creating Generator/Reaktor. After years with NI (including the development of Spark, Skanner and Kontour), he set off to work on his ultimate project: a keyboard player's dream synth, called the Nonlinear Labs C15. In our chat, we talk about his history through the creation of NI, how he finds the synth voicings that are his signature development, and how the C15 fits into the world of modern music playing and production. Along the way, we also learn a lot about the things that (according to Stephan) make a synth 'expressive', and how this can benefit the live synth player. Super fascinating, and a chance to learn the history behind the earliest days of virtual synth development, and the on-going work creating a niche hardware device. Check out Nonlinear

I'm always encouraged when I hear about academics that are battle tested in industry in some way. Doug Bielmeier, a professor at Northeastern University, has that - Doctorate in Education, but also time in a DC-area hip hop studio, and time banging out track in Nashville, Doug has the background that brings weight to his music industry teaching. He also has a really interesting musical practice. He combines audio processing with a variety of sound sources, with the most significant being his use of the lap steel guitar as his primary instrument. That alone was enough to make me want to learn more! He's done two solo albums that we discuss at length: Betty and the Sensory World (http://www.ravellorecords.com/catalog/rr7972/) and Beast of Bodmin Moor (https://soundcloud.com/douglassbielmeier/sets/beast-of-bodmin-moor). In addition to these links, the content is available on Spotify, Amazon Music and other streaming locations. It's useful to listen to this work, since it is so revealing to how Doug approaches hi

How does a saxophonist become a modular synth head? How does a serial collaborator put out his first solo album? And how does anyone get roped into doing a see-all video like the amazing Surfacing (https://vimeo.com/346031783) film? We learn the answer to these questions - and many more- in this episode with the amazing Ben Carey. From his solo modular mischief to collabs with Sonya Holowell and others, Ben is in constant motion. In addition, he's also been working on visuals (most notably in collaboration with Zubin Kanga), has been exploring ancient Serge systems, and teaches composition at the University of Sydney Conservatorium of Music. Yikes! You can get into a lot of his work (and see some great videos) at his site: bencarey.net. That Surfacing video that we discuss is found here: https://vimeo.com/346031783. And the new release by Sumn Conduit - Track - is available at https://sumnconduit.bandcamp.com/releases. There's so much more, but that'll get you started... Enjoy the podcast! [ddg] Transcriptio

Whether you are talking the Broken20 label, TVO music releases, the Further_in virtual festival or installations under his own name, you would have to admit that Ruaridh Law is dedicated. He's a self-described 'finisher', but also has a head full of ideas, so he's in constant motion. With Further_in in full swing, upcoming releases for the label and a new work (44 Tarot) in play, Ruaridh has lots to talk about! What is fun in this interview is getting to hear about how media art is both an extremely personal and an extremely social thing for him. Some of his longest relationships are related to music-making, but his newest friends are all media artists. By providing a friendly face to a label and a (virtual) performance space, he is providing a great opportunity for community engagement. If you haven't yet, check out Further_in on Twitch (https://www.twitch.tv/further_in), and the label on its own site (https://site.broken20.com/) and on Bandcamp (https://store.broken20.com/). Ruaridh is super-closely attache

In a way, Jesse Stiles has a career I can really envy. Studying with Pauline Oliveros, traveling India while sitting in on music school classes, working with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company and teaching at Carnegie Mellon. Huh - sounds pretty great, eh? Combine that with an active performing and recording schedule, work on sound art installations, and you've got a full book! But it's interesting to hear about Jesse's background, and how it really wasn't clear that this was going to be the outcome. A self-described "mediocre" musician, he zeroed in on music technology and mobile recording/performing as his process, spent time working with amazing people, and things ended up falling his way. In our chat, we got a chance to dig into his background, how he approaches performance, and how he's managed everything from no-computer installation setups to LED-helmeted live rigs. A very insightful discussion, and it'll make you want to check out http://jessestil.es/ to learn more about his work. Enjoy! Transcription

There are lots of conferences that come along - and move along - without making a dent on anyone's attention. Thorsten Sideboard's Algorithmic Art Assembly is *not* one of those; it's first outing, last year, was one of the buzziest conferences I'd heard about. Now with the pandemic, conferences are a little out-of-bounds, but talking with Thorsten not only revealed a lot about the development of a conference and the community surrounding it, but also about how you can expand your personal passions into something powerful. In our chat, we learn about how Thorsten ran across the live-coding scene, how San Francisco transformed him and led him to create the Algorithmic Art Assembly, and how he came to create his own live-coding environment (called SBShell, or Sideb0ard). We also learn about the power of knowing people, and how small the world sometimes can seem. It's a fascinating tale, and it's fun to imagine being in the places that Thorsten found himself. You can check out Thorsten's work at The B0ardside we

I'm not sure where you go to learn about music industry activities, but I'll bet that CDM (Create Digital Music) - https://cdm.link/ - is one of those places. Run by Peter Kirn, CDM provides long-form narratives on music creation, tools and projects. It's well-managed, and is part of my daily reading routine - and possibly yours, too. So with its coverage of commercial MI gear, DIY hacker projects, live modular performances and crazy AI experiments, you've got to wonder about the person behind all of this. Peter is one of those guys that seems to have woven together his perfect life: focusing on music developments on a site of his design, working with James Grahame on the MeeBlip project, performing, speaking and cutting releases. In our chat we get to dig into his background - which is mighty fascinating. We also talk about the 'grind' of daily writing, how he chooses the thing that he is going to write about, and how he found himself making techno music with a background in traditional composition. Really w

As I mention at the beginning of the podcast, I feel like I've know Laura Escudé for most of the time that I've spend in the MI industry. She was there in the early days of my NAMM days as one of the demo masters in the Ableton booth. Later, I started seeing her working on live shows around the world, speaking to Laura's professional bona fides. Even more recently, I started to see notices on social media about live streaming masterclasses, her Transmute program for live show development, and her team of professionals that work under the Electronic Creatives moniker. She's also been putting together performances - some of her videos are great examples of her live show development process. So it was great to talk to Laura, get some info on her background, and learn more about how she perceives music technology, performance design, and live performance (especially in the age of COVID-19). Her insights are very timely, but also point to the complexity that performances - live or online - might entail. Check out

There are a few record labels that capture my attention and keep it. One of these is Important Records - not because I'm a get-every-release fanboy, but rather because, when I find myself in a great record store, I'll often find myself picking up Imprec releases. There's just something about the artists, the design and the clear quality that speaks to me. And, of course, it helps that they release archival material from my personal heroes! It took a while, but eventually I did get to have a chat with John Brien. We got a chance to dive into his background in music (and love of music), how he got to starting a label, and what the work looks like now. Especially interesting is his process for digging through the archives, and finding artists that speak to him. Thus, Pauline Oliveros and Harry Bertoia share the stage with ELEH and Caterina Barbieri, but it all makes perfect sense. In these times of COVID-isolation, you can browse the virtual crates by checking out the Important Records website (https://important