The material point of departure for the accompanying track [1] is a new implementation of pulsar synthesis seamlessly integrated with the Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emission (DPOAE) and sieve algorithm [2]. The context of this implementation is my ongoing research project focused on historical techniques of pulsar synthesis – first introduced by Curtis Roads in his book Microsound – its conceptual and programming extensions and using it for composition. The nature and aims of the project are twofold. The first one is technical – an analysis of the original Pulsar Generator program, its source code, underlying programming paradigm and user interface ...

It’s an energy, it’s the light, it’s a fever. It could be a sound that’s heard in our ears. Now that the boundary of sound has expanded beyond what it was in my childhood, the distinction between good and bad sounds is no longer important. It just exists on its own and is valued by someone to be meaningful. Wherever you are, whatever you do, you can hear the sound, and you can record the moment when you’re listening. It’s an element of sound that I define. Of course, that’s not important or it might be important depending. I don’t know ...

A knife is cutting through air, relentlessly. However, it cuts very slowly, by degrees and in circles; it’s a wooden knife, not very sharp, like a butter knife but with teeth. The structure upon which this knife is attached has a light bulb resting on it, a light bulb with a rather complex metallic grid inside, vibrating softly with every degree of the knife’s turns. Then there is a strip of paper or a piece of thin cardboard, suspended; three toothpicks are leaning on and pushing this cardboard but they are not strong enough, the cardboard barely undulates. Sometimes a toothpick ...

Friends of the Pod: Sonia de Jager and Martina Raponi join us to talk about miasmatic-fractal-Trump as a dark corona that is eating into us and the lack of new forms of oppression. Sonic contributions by Martina and Kostis Kylimis, music selection by Sonia and grinded by us during the pod.

Ms. Mrs. BC. AC. and Millennials babies. The darker color of the rice, the richer the nutrients. Fermenting is how it’s been soaked in the water. Submerge me. Dissolve me. Identity will be dissolved in the jar. Don’t label me yet, until the amount of alcohol is fatal. The liquidity of rice is ready to flow over the continents. Where have you been, mom? You may have had a rough upbringing, but you made it this far. Mama, I tried on dresses you gave me for parties, but it didn’t suit me well…

Mattin and Miguel Prado talk to noise scholars Cecile Malaspina and Inigo Wilkins about the collective need of counter-bunker techniques, noise in view of Carnap’s theory of probability and ‘whack’ swans. Special guest Dali De Saint Paul provides vocals and readings for our house beats and noise.

Nikita Gale and Alexander Provan are joined by Tashi Wada, a Los Angeles-based composer and performer. Wada presents Table of Visions, a composition for a “high-resolution player piano” commissioned by Triple Canopy, and asks how we discern between human expression and technical perfection, how we listen to virtuosos and machines. With Gale and Provan, Wada discusses the pandemic-era vogue for liveness at home, technologies that claim to capture the souls of performers, and music that prompts listeners to discern between the sounds of machines and humans. They listen to Conlon Nancarrow, Glenn Gould, Perry Como, advertisements for hi-fi systems, the ...

I published the essay under these various titles: “Was ist Los”, “Decor Holes”, “Akademische Graffiti”, “Depletion”, “Unique Source/All Natural Suicide Gang.” The text was written between 2003 and 2005 but updated and retitled for different contexts.

When Spotify was founded in 2006, it aimed to solve the problem of online music distribution, remunerating artists for plays. 13 years on, it is a massive data node that is having a profound effect on how artists and audiences connect. In this cast, New Models speaks with music journalist Liz Pelly, who has written extensively on Spotify, particularly its impact on independent music. She talks to us, here, about Spotify’s structure, how it nudges artists to optimize their acts through metrics, and what it understands “music” (let alone “independent”) culture to be. Liz also gives an update on community ...

This week in Russia, Alexei Navalny was sentenced to over two years in prison, partly for violating parole while in a coma from a state-sponsored murder attempt. Following a week of large-scale demonstrations across Russia protesting his arrest, the skilled lawyer and anti-corruption activist stood in court before his sentencing and stated, “I hope very much that people won’t look at this trial as a signal that they should be more afraid. This isn’t a demonstration of strength—it’s a show of weakness. You can’t lock up millions and hundreds of thousands of people. I hope very much that people will ...

The Hole, halfway between action and sound installation, is a recording which documents a collective listening session of a hole. The session was held in May 2020 and it tries to explore states of contingency where the self is continually negotiated with the other, experiencing how listening can be determined by expectations, longings, fears and everything that comes from the participants’ (and listeners) reading code. The hole is presented here as the favorable scenario in which one could put into practice a term I’ve dubbed contingent objects, which also gathers some of my latest work where I try to investigate the ...

This week Miguel Prado and Mattin talk with Mat Dryhurst: interdependent polymath from the Solarpunk intelligentsia. We discuss the pandemic effects of music streaming platforms, the difficult balance between pragmatic and normative approaches, and the Russian doll-hell that is twitter.