Web Log
May 29, 2017
Last year I joined the Venerable Showers of Beauty (VSB) Javanese Gamelan. I have played with a few different groups now, but this is the first with regular gigs.
Next month we are part of an event where we will be playing a number of pieces by and inspired by Lou Harrison, a Portland born composer who used both western and non-western instruments in his compositions.
Here are some details of the event: CeLOUbration: Concert Series Friday, June 16, 2017 - 7:30pm
Anyways, before I joined they recorded a number of Lou Harrison pieces and they just released them!
You can get a physical copy at the VSB CD Baby page.
May 29, 2017
My friends Ian and Mikey run the Alleys of your Mind radio show on Freeform radio Portland. A while ago Ian asked me to make a mix for them to broadcast as I’m busy during the time when I could do it live. I decided to make a mostly ambient mix as I had been putting together some ambient tracks for a bit. Here it is, my mix takes up about the first hour of the stream.
Feb 10, 2016
May 16, 2015
Bed of Roses posted a DJ mix I made (soundcloud) this past month.
Photo by Tara Swenson 2014
Apr 4, 2013
Some friends of mine really like Robotron 2084 and while I’m not a big gamer, it is certainly my favorite video game. Its simplistic but very difficult and has post apocalyptic robot take over back story that is appealing to nerds like me.
A couple of years 2 or 3 of them decided that they’d like to make a Church of Robotron, this was largely driven by Brian Richardson/BTR, Elijah St Clair/ES and Karl Anderson. Initially Brian intended to turn his house into the church and the first step was to create an altar like box containing a MAME machine where you could play the game and at the same time pray to the mutant savior. The altar had 2 joysticks, the two eight ways, a screen, a button that would start a game, but I don’t think it was ever fully realised. But then Toorcamp 2012 came around and a number of people, largely nerds to frequent Dorkbot PDX in Portland Oregon, joined in, and created the Mobile Church of Robotron. I was one of those nerds. I identify as XNOR [or XOR when I can only use 3 letters] for this project.
Jan 16, 2013
Popular Science just published a brief blurb about our LED wall :
Bright Ideas: DIY Stage Lights From The 1930s And Today
They juxtaposed our project with a DIY Stage Lighting project they published a design for in 1937.
Oct 24, 2012
A few months ago Charles Buckingham told me about a crowd participatory composition idea he had where every person in a large crowd would have a smart phone that made sound which they could control, to some extent, that combined would form a work of music. After we together made several iterations on the idea: reinterpretations, misinterpretations, experimentation, research, etc. the project became a composition idea for a crowd participatory experiment using home made mylar balloons making buzzing tones and clicking sounds with pizeo transducers, lit up with RGB LEDs and finally popped with model rocket igniters and gun powder.
Oct 10, 2012
Jun 28, 2011
My friend/roommate Jesse and I have been building various modular synthesizer modules for what seems like a year or more now but we have yet to house any of our projects. We’ve built some VCOs, VCAs, filters, these things called Lopass Gates, but housing has been a real pain.
Recently I got a new job and now have access to a laser cutter. It is a lot of fun to play with and is proving to be very nice for making panels for our modules. So far I’ve only created a couple of prototypes, to make sure that my measurements are all correct.
Jun 27, 2011