Michael Zähl, former engineer and designer of the main custom made mixing console at the legendary Studio of Conny Plank and Mark Ernestus, long time producer known from projects like Basic Channel and Rhythm & Sound had a special encounter which led to the collaborative development of AM1 - the state-of-the-art pure analog mixing console.

I speak to these two excellent individuals about how they came to meet and the 9 years journey to make a mixing desk the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

_____

Kind sponsorship of this pod comes from a lesser known company called Ableton!

Live 12.1 is out and it’s a beauty of an update. I put autoshift through its paces in a mini nitty to kick off the show

Happy to offer a nice juicy discount to listeners 

Use coupon code “HOWA20” at checkout, and get 20% off at Ableton.com. Valid until November 15, 2024

A fascinating and frankly bonkers translation has taken place

Taylor Deupree’s original album Stil., released in 2002 was made with 100% digital techniques with a heavy dose of microsound, layering and looping.

It now exists as something wildly different and yet painstakingly based on that work.

This new iteration is a 100% acoustic version which takes it from Stil. to Sti.ll

This is a rare form of digital to analog conversion and should only be attempted by festidious and slightly insane people!

Sti.ll, released in 2024, is a complete reimagining of Stil., recorded entirely with acoustic instruments, such as clarinets, vibraphones, and cellos, played by live musicians. This new version abandons digital sound manipulation in favor of human performance, where sounds previously made with software are recreated through physical instruments and microphones. The transformations go beyond just switching mediums; the acoustic textures bring warmth and depth, making it an entirely new and distinct experience, while retaining the essence of the original.

Who would attempt such madness?

Taylor Deupree (wiki-ish) is a prolific electronic musician, sound artist, and founder of the record label 12k. Known for his contributions to the microsound and minimalist electronic music movements, Taylor’s work often blends digital and acoustic elements. His music is characterized by its delicate, detailed textures and use of repetition to create slowly evolving soundscapes.

Joe Branciforte (wiki-ish) is a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and Grammy award-winning recording engineer and producer based in New York. He is the founder of the record label Greyfade, which focuses on process-based composition, electronic and acoustic minimalism, and alternative tuning systems. Joe’s expertise spans both electronic and acoustic music, making him adept at bridging these worlds in innovative ways. His work often involves live electronic processing of acoustic instruments, and he has collaborated with renowned artists like Kenneth Kirschner and Theo Bleckmann.

His technical mastery and creative vision were key to bringing Taylor Deupree’s acoustic reimagining of Stil. to life in Sti.ll, where he played an integral role in transcribing and arranging the complex digital compositions for live instrumentation.

So good to chat with these masters about a project of such huge scope.

We discuss this album at length and also Taylor’s collaboration with the late, great Ryuichi Sakamoto

links:

https://www.taylordeupree.com

https://josephbranciforte.com

MUSIC from the show:

from the email I received:

Last year Miet Warlop and me (Micha Volders) went to Dhaka, Bangladesh to make a visceral musical performance with young students. It opened the Dhaka Art Summit and we played for a curious Bengali crowd of thousands.

This city is a whole other universe, it’s loud, it’s overcrowded, it’s vibrant. I work on a daily basis with young artists but I rarely experienced this kind of hunger, joy and motivation from these young students.

We rehearsed 3 weeks in a row on this huge ghetto sound system placed middle on the road in the city, to a point where local residents were fed up and sabotaged our (already super shabby) P;A system by cutting all the wires, 

It was challenging, it was exciting and it was touching.

So one year later we made a record out of the recordings of this venture : it’s called ICCHĀ ——> check it out here

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Hauschka a.k.a. Volker Bertelmann thanks to my friend Dana Wachs who was a pod guest on EP71. 

He’s had quite the wonderful and interesting adventure in music. It’s quite rare that you find someone who plays prepared Piano so deftly and was also once known as a rapper. Clearly, this was not going to be your average chat.

If we place ourselves in the present  (which I’m told is always a good place to be !)

Our ears might find the dancing frequencies from his newest album philanthropy which was released in the 2023. It’s a tremendous listen. Dare I say a real headphone listen as there are wonderful, textual details to catch in amongst the kind of more zoomed out satisfaction of the rather accomplished arrangements. Perhaps this ability to both evoke emotion, and to coax huge tonal intrigue placed him in good stead as a composer for film

 He is most certainly made his mark in that area with a wide ranging set of scores and notably an Academy award for his work on all quiet on the Western front in 2022. Badass!

He’s collaborated with another podcast guest Dustin O’Halloran (EP 92) on several works, including their highly acclaimed score for the film Lion. In fact, looking at the credits for his releases over the years it’s quite mind-boggling. Often he will deliver multiple film soundtracks a year alongside his own solo albums. He's like Prince! 

Happy listening :)

Kazim Rashid is an artist, manager, and creative director based in Berlin and London. 

I found out about him through my good friend David Okumu who is our magical, mutual connection.

Aside from his work as a manager, Kazim is chief creative officer at Resident Advisor, the world's largest and most influential electronic music platform. 

His work often focuses on collaborating with artists, record labels, and brands to help them achieve their goals in the music industry.

We get into the current state of things for artists navigating the changing tides of music commerce.

Strap in!

Music for this episode comes from a chap I met in Berlin thanks to Hainbach.

Mr Ayjay Nils plays Viola in the Berlin Phil and is a great improviser :)

A rare combo! He’s also super into weird and wonderful electronic music which is featured in this show. It’s all from an upcoming album

Here’s his Bandcamp to check the action!

https://ayjaynils.bandcamp.com

Im going to read from the press release this time coz its a good’n

The simpatico sophomore album by the unstoppably prolific Alex Paterson and fellow Orb original Andy Falconer is an epic sail through the sky at night. Helmed by gentle spirits with warmth in their hearts, ‘SETI’ feels cold and dark, yet also glowing and welcoming. Aboard a cosy candlelit spacecraft, the duo experience the cosmos as somewhere overwhelmingly infinite, yet reassuring and friendly. A sort of ‘ambient unplugged’, it’s full of acoustic instruments and nostalgic samples, folding space between the old world, and places where no man has gone before.

Dr Paterson speaks

“The first LP had a great reception and sold so well I couldn’t even get a copy myself. Andy is brilliant at making ambient music, and working with him is always rewarding. We understand each other’s brains – it’s easy and organic - so doing another made total sense.” He adds, “SETI stands for Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence, but it’s also something you sit on, to chill out, which is why the album contains a Three Piece Suite. This record is musical ambience, which is what we like to make, rather than drone ambience, which there’s a lot of these days.”

That last point struck me as it describes the sensations I associate with the music of the Orb which is a sort of maximal ambient rush.

It’s a sound that whizzes me right back to my dreamy youth tbh when these guys were so responsible for making the soundtrack that accompanied me through my last years at school. It was a time when I needed music to blow my mind.

When I was told I could speak to an original member of the orb I was so curious to ask Andy how it was all made back in those days. We get into that right at the end of this chat as well as a walk down memory lane and up the present. 

It was great to catch up with Andy in Portugal. He’s had quite the life!

Let’s get into it

Bones....

Wind....

Caves....

A simpler time

When we apes first tooted.. the fluuuute

Yes it’s wild how far we’ve come and Matthew Herbert and I go back a bit too .. I mean not to the flute tooting era but we go back.

He speaks during this chat of his achievements as an evolved ape and many had me gasping ! 

He tells of multiple slippers that he can slide into to tap different sonic personas.

The making of 1000 pieces of music a year!

The upkeep of his musical organ filled with pigs blood.

Yes

The stories are wild in this one so

Strap in!

Did I mention we go way back?

Yes !

I was lucky enough to collaborate with him on a few notable pieces of music.

1) He played on the second super_collider LP raw digits on a track called gravity rearranging 

2) I was a singer on his album Goodbye Swingtime and joined him and the bigband at the Hollywood Bowl opening for Bjork in 2003 alongside Bonnie Prince Billy.

Hollywood bowl bigband? I mean come on!!

3) He joined me alongside Arto Lindsay, performing the most monumental show of my career at Sonar 2003.

That show was the real unveiling of all my efforts in the lab to make an impov looping performance with max/msp. Something I’d dreamt of for years and finally made real.

It was so fitting to have him and Arto come on for the final number and make a total racket with me.

We just all clattered it to the ground. A moment I’ll never forget and it was all down to Matthew really as it was watching him show using multiple boss echos in short looping mode that got me started on that road.

A brilliant and restless musical mind that has always moved in his own lane.

It’s a treat to welcome onto the show

Matthew Herbert

____

It’s been a while but I’ve some music to play from an artist and pod listener 

This time it’s from an LP called TRIPLE TRANSIT 

The artist is Braile and he makes some really solid Modular YouTube pieces too 

His new record is out August 8th on Hotflush recordings. 

Link!

https://braillesounds.bandcamp.com/album/triple-transit

Superbooth 2024 here I come

Im in a rush but I promised a show so here it is :)

This is the second celebration of a wonderful maker in the eurorack world.

Meet Instruo. 

The company was founded by Jason Lim who is the guest on this episode and we discuss how a company like this can exist in the wild electric world.

The kind of knowledge it takes.

The team that has emerged.

The nature of the design. 

We answer the all important question 

"do you feel the music of the mushroom?"

yes!!!

check out the modules here!

https://www.instruomodular.com

Im joined by Matthew Allum (ALM/Busy Circuits) as we discuss the origins of one of the best loved and most popular eurorack modules of all time

Pam’s New Workout (and subsequent PRO form)

How does a person go from having a thought of an afternoon to running one of the worlds most beloved modular synth companies?

All shall be revealed!

For those sensitive to talk of whittling, I must warn you there is mention of carpentry but it’s short lived and most of the chips we linger on are of the silicon and not wooden variety.

This is part of a 2 episode pre super booth special and I’ll be popping a few bit up on the patreon using an ALM based system to rinse it a little 🙂

Who’s coming to the booth!?!?!

This episode is sponsored by the tremendous fabfilter

They are celebrating 20 years in the game with a HUGE SALE

yes you can get 30% off Fabfilter plugins until May 1st !!!

Act now as these are some of the very best plugins on the planet.

Here’s the link. Click on y’all

https://www.fabfilter.com/shop

were you the co-developer of ableton live?

ah no

but Mr Henke

very much was.

Think about that for a minute.

It’s easy to forget as he’ll never bring it up without being prompted.

He’s not big on the dwelling and far more interested in his current obsessions.

Special interests (SPINS) as they are called are the things driving the REAL artists of which Robert is most certainly one.

I had one “job” interviewing him at this time. We were supposed to talk about the re-release of a classic monolake (Robert’s musical moniker) LP “Hong Kong” on Field Records.

There was a hint of that here. It loomed in the fog over the hills as we, the ramblers, became fascinated by objects more close at hand.

His tremendous work with the commodore PET platform as a primitive yet potent synth and drum machine for example.

His encounters with the art world (which he is not fond of)

his dislike of the infernal machine reverb ! ha. (also not fond it seems)

His connection to the tonal land of the PPG wave and the Synclavier (yes, he’s fond)

ah yes

I loved reconnecting with him after all these years.

He was always a brilliantly bright mind and continues to probe his passions to deliver wildly unique sound and light shows that stand apart from his peers.

oh and dont forget he’s the co-developer of ableton live!

With 20 albums under his own name and his instrumental group Cosmo, the man knows how to make a record.

He is a wildly accomplished and successful songwriter. For example in 2003 Harris he received the Grammy Award for Song Of The Year for Norah Jones’ breakout hit “Don’t Know Why,” from her debut album, Come Away With Me, which has sold almost 30 million copies worldwide.

Versions of his songs have been sung by artists as diverse as

Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Cat Power, Feist, The Black Keys, M. Ward, Brad Mehldau, Bright Eyes, Smokey Robinson, George Benson, Pat Metheny, Kandace Springs, and Solomon Burke.

I mean WHAT a list that is!

Songwriting collaborations have included Maya Hawke, John Zorn, Madeleine Peyroux, Melody Gardot, Papooz, and Lana Del Rey.

If you didnt think you knew Jesse, I bet you’ve heard his writing out there in the known universe of sound and by gosh he’s a real potent force. Even after all this success, he is very mild mannered and thoughtful in this nice rambling interview. He’s generous with his knowledge and a very easy guy to get along with.

I must say I hang my pod head slightly when reflecting on how old this interview is. Like a fine wine, I hope it’s benefited from a little time in the digital cellar.

Drink in the wisdoms y’all !