simonsound

As we prepare for the broadcast of the final Tone Generation episode on Resonance FM tomorrow at 19.30 GMT I am still unable to upload show 9 and it looks like I am going to have problems getting the final show available for online listeners. Odeo are still having technical problems and not offering any kind of explanation as to why. If anyone does know whats going on please feel free to let me know.

The end of the series has been a bit bumpy on the scheduling side with Resonance broadcasting the wrong show and then celebrating their birthday and changing their Friday evening line up. This means that there has been a 2 week gap in new shows being available and the Odeo technical problem is only going to increase the wait for online listeners.

Please hang in there as the last two shows are well worth checking out. We will probably take a little break once the series is over and then come back with something in the Autumn.  In the meantime shows 1 through 8 are available here.

in the Noisy Matchbox/simonsound studio. Can’t say that much about this project but it launches next week so we’ll spill the beans then. It was a lot of fun.

The Tone Generation show 3 was broadcast on Friday evening and is now available to download.  Ian visits Germany and plays music by Stockhausen, Kraftwerk, Walter Ruttmann and Gyorgy Ligeti. We are getting good feedback on the series and enjoying making it. With a number of pioneering composers passing away recently it seems like the right time to reflect on their work and consider how it has, mostly subconsciously, inspired current production techniques and music.

Next weeks show focusses on Italy and is broadcast on Resonance FM at 19.30 GMT. Podcast and download will be available shortly after.

Last year I made ‘Expo 67 - A Radiophonic collage’ with Ian Helliwell. The programme celebrated the anniversary of the Montreal Worlds Fair, and we dedicated it to Tristram Cary who featured heavily and also helped out by supplying material. Tristram went spirit side last week so now seems a good time to make the Radiophonic collage available to download. It has already been broadcast around the world in Paris, New York and London but in case you missed it here it is.

You can find out more about Expo 67 at Ian’s web site and lots of Tristram coverage here.  Tristram was an experimental composer who worked at EMS studio co-designing the legendary VCS3 (Putney) synthesizer. He wrote music for films including Quatermass and the Pit, The Ladykillers and composed music for early Dr.Who episodes. He composed all of the music for the British Pavilion  at Expo 67 and you can hear lots of this in our montage.  He was a true pioneer creating fantastic sounds using hand built equipment left over from WWII. His music is stunning, sometimes challenging but always original and his experimentation paved the way for the current electronic music scene.

The latest Ford Focus TV commercial hit the screens in the UK this week. Featuring an orchestra playing instruments constructed from Ford Focus car parts. Interesting but not as interesting as you might imagine. It sounds so close to a traditional orchestra that you’d be hard pressed to spot the difference. Create Digital Music has a scoop interview with sound designer Bill Milbrodt who created the instruments (yes they really are made from the parts of a Ford Focus).

Would have been more appealing to me to hear more of the character of the car in the sound rather than just trying to replicate traditional instruments. It almost makes the instruments in the ad little more than props, and as Bill Milbrodt says in his CDM interview, it would have been cheaper to do it with a real orchestra.

I think overall it is the right sound for Ford. I don’t think Musique Concrete is a particularly good fit for their brand.

See the extended ad here.

The ever informative Speechification guys bought this excellent radio feature to my attention last week. Fifteen Inches Per Second tells the story of 1/4 inch tape and how it revolutionised the world of recorded sound. From its use by Hitler to broadcast multiple ‘live’ speeches, its huge impact on music through the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s and its abuse at the hands of experimental composers, this feature is a well produced bite size history. Listen here.
simonsound still use a (ex BBC) Studer 1/4 inch tape machine to add warmth to the sometimes cold digital world of computer based recording.

I went in to Edgeworld Records in Brighton (one of the record stores mentioned in the Yamaha press release) today to check out the Tenori On. As you can see from my picture they have a very nice stand and they even have a Tenori On in a box, but as the owner of Edgeworld records told me “no one from Yamaha has been in to set it up”. So for now it stays in the box. I did try some gentle persuasion to see if he would let me take a closer look but to no avail.

As soon as I get my hands on one I will let you know all the details. I’m sure there will be some news from the main launches in London and Manchester somewhere on the web over the next 24hrs.

Thanks to Curtis for the photo.

Yamaha release the much anticipated Tenori On, a musical interface based around a grid of touch sensitive buttons/LED’s which can be seen from the front and back, in the UK next week and I for one will be keen to try it out. I’ve followed Toshio Iwai’s work since his Elektroplankton sound ‘game’ for the Nintendo DS which offered every DS owner the opportunity to create some underwater inspired electronica. Whilst Elektroplankton was a lot of fun it was always hampered by the fact you couldn’t save your work. The Tenori On solves this problem and adds a lot more functionality.

Update: Official Tenori On website is now live. Some cool videos of the different modes, interviews with musicians and all the specs confirmed (no infra red). I also heard from a friend who is performing at the Manchester launch today. He’s had a Tenori On since last week and confirms that it is easy to use, immediate, spontaneous and great visually.

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Really cool ad from Honda in Brazil. It invites you to ‘Put your headphones, close your eyes and enjoy the ride’. It dispenses with any visual and relies purely on sound using what it claims is ‘3D Holophonic sound technology’. It is great to see brands embracing the evocative power of sound, although its not new for Honda, their ‘Power of Screams‘ (warning, this link will launch video automatically) ad used a choir to recreate the sounds of a Honda Civic to powerful effect.

What the Future Sounded Like is a brilliant documentary that tells the story of British synthesizer manufactures EMS. EMS was setup in the 60’s by pioneering electronic composers Peter Zinovieff and Tristram Cary (famed for his work on the Dr Who series) and engineer David Cockerell. The 60’s was a time of sweeping change, experimentation and optimism with many musicians and composers using electronic oscillators, tape manipulation and music concrete to imagine what the future might sound like. (more…)