Bruiloftslied radioplay on WIRE website

One of the plays we curated a few years ago can be heard on the WIRE website, it goes along with an article in the paper edition about the makers; Alisdair McGregor and Howard Jacques. McGregor and Jacques are featured in an article by Zakia Uddin in The Wire 346. IT'S HERE.

Galen & Planteidt do Hitler

Nicolai Galen (aka Nick Hobbs) and Dolf Planteidt were in the worm studio just last month. They worked on a radioplay called 'Hitler' (explanation below) which will be broadcasted by the Radia Network (the short version) and later Cafe Sonore (the long version)

 RADIO WORM RADIOPLAY;  'Hitler'

A radio play created by Nikolai Galen (voices) and Dolf Planteijdt (soundwork) at the WORM studio in Rotterdam 29.10-3.11.12 with additional work at the Koeienverhuur Mobile in Amsterdam.
Based on a play text by Nikolai Galen.
With thanks to RadioWORM.

We asked Nicolai to tell us a bit more about the play and he did.

Nicolai about the text;

While choosing and writing the different texts which make up the text as a whole, I found myself attempting to grapple with some specific - and daunting -  themes. Namely:
 - Anti-Semitism: What is it? Where does it spring from? How on Earth has it survived and festered for millennia? Why did it explode so pathologically in Hitler's thinking and Nazism in general. Presumably most of us (me included) sometimes have proto-racist feelings of discomfort in the presence of people (perhaps immigrants, perhaps those of a different class) who seem especially other to us, whose presence, whose cultural differences can irritate us, even though, at the same time, we might (I hope) be irritated with ourselves for being irritated, for carrying such sick prejudices. Yet it's an awfully, unimaginably, inconceivably long way from such feelings to genocide. Yet, there are plenty of populist politicians and their followers around, happy to play with racism in its various forms (they're taking our jobs, they're thieves and pimps, they're incompatible with our ways and beliefs, they're diluting the national spirit, they've no wish to integrate, etc...) fomented by nationalism, by myths of cultural difference and superiority, by a national claim for us versus them, and for this land being our land and all that. Bigotry is alive, well and kicking, as an uncountable and shameful number of contemporary murders and 'cleansings', especially in the world's numerous 'conflict zones', testify.
- Hitler's popularity in Germany: How on Earth could such a pathetic, mad and manically-deluded man be so popular, and for so long? I could ask the same question about, say, George W. Bush, yet Bush isn't mad, was Hitler mad? And what does it mean to say that he was evil? And given that he was evil (in a way Bush can't hold a candle to) - radically evil - then how come he was so popular, so adored...?
- How could 20th Century European culture, in the form of Nazism, be so unimaginably violent, even sadistic, even without any kind of rational justification, however feeble? Most obviously, there was no military reason for the death factories, nor the destruction of swathes of the Soviet Union after those regions had been conquered. It was as if the (German) nation (as imagined by itself) was infected with blood-lust.
- What does it mean to say (as Jung does, amongst others) that Hitler was some kind of incarnation of the German collective psyche, of the national myth (made all the more absurd by Hitler being a puny black-haired guy, not a strapping blonde athlete)? What are the myths at the heart of Nazism, from where do they derive their power...?
All of which I could only scratch the surface of. And the more I scratched, the deeper I found myself in the bowels of Western Culture. And it's not a pleasant place...

Nicolai about the radioplay;

For the radio version of Hitler we found ourselves layering and treating voices in ways which led me to thinking that we were purposely giving voice to Hitler and the other protagonists without (anyway impossible for the medium) giving them body. The voices are disembodied. They float by like phantoms. The texts we chose for the radio play are particularly obsessed with death - one could say, with the factory production of phantoms. One could also say that Hitler aimed to make his Promethean utopia (which would of course have been the dystopia to end all dystopias) out of death (something he had in common with other great dictators). Perhaps out of death he thought he would be able to resurrect a new ('better' for das Volk at least) kind of life. Instead, out of death he only produced the final vast and awful nothing of silence and phantoms. The phantoms of the dead. The phantoms of those - people and cultures - that can never be resurrected.

But our terrible times are less different from those terrible times than perhaps we would like to believe. War carries on unabated in its demented fury, and some of those wars - those in the Middle East - have some of their roots in World War Two. And as we rape and ravage the planet, we also are leaving behind us silence and phantoms, with much more, and maybe much worse, to come. On the one hand it seems an absurd question to say, 'George Bush was a little Hitler' but I'm not so sure. The veneer may be politer, and the process of gaining power more 'democratic' (but not for the victims, they had no say in it); but was, say, Bush really so much less Promethean, especially when the juggernaut power of the USA is looked at as a whole.

But I don't want to single out the USA, many other states are just as bad, only not as powerful. Anyway, it seems to me that what happened seventy-odd years ago has rather faded from the memories of many, especially those for whom only the grandparents lived through that war. Trying to bring the horror of Hitler and his accomplices back to life seems to me essential. But let them stay only as voices, as phantom voices. The attempt to give them flesh (as in cinema) just doesn't seem to carry sufficient horror to be anything other than another entertainment, just another war movie. But when we only hear the voices, they enter our heads, we can't keep them out, and therefore we have to engage with them. We have to never forget them and we have to recognise that the times have not changed very much at all.

Sun Araw in Worm Studio

I found these photo's hanging in my telephone, they are from last june (2012). It's the boys from Sun Araw doing all kinds of things with synths, mu-tron (theirs) and suitcases in the Worm studio. Hey boys from Sun Araw, made anything here worth listening to? if so, let us know...

 

(update; a reaction)

HAY GUYS

cameron from SUN ARAW here!  just saw that BLOG POST....yah mon, we are still editing the jams we did there and planning an LP release of them hopefully SPRING/SUMMER, band name "CELEBRATE MUSIC SYNTHESIZER GROUP"

here's a taste



1. software;

2. hardware;

New Record by Gonzo Almeida & Fred Lonberg-Holm

 New Record by Gonzo Almeida & Fred Lonberg-Holm recorded at the WORM Studio.
For more info, SEE HERE

Pedro Buschi track on FMA

Check here

Other stuff by Pedro;
HERE
and
HERE

Pedro was the first artist that worked in the (then) new worm studio, a year ago. He gave us this track (and we finally found it back so posted it).

Releaseparty Soundpiece with Machinefabriek, Pierre Bastien & Daisy Bell

Last tuesday we had a very nice party @ Worm; to celebrate the three records we released as a documentation/celebration of the Soundpiece Project we did last year.

the acts that we released all showed up and played a short show.
Here are some photo's that Theo Huijgens took;

 Bastien

 Machinefabriek

 Daisy Bell






 And here's the press info on the records. At the moment you can order them from the worm shop ;
WORM SHOP They will also be distrubted through 'the usual' channels , more info about that later.
Other thing;
There's only 200 copies of each record available...
and
If you order the threesome, you get a nice discount (but this only counts if you buy the records from the wormshop)

3 New Vinyl releases by WORM Records


Performer: Machinefabriek
Title record: 15/15
WORMREC 4276, 12”, yellow vinyl
Performer: Dyane Donck/Daisy Bell
Title record: Proverbs of Hell
WORMREC 4277, 12”, pink vinyl
Performer: Pierre Bastien
Title record: Entomology
WORMREC 4278, 12”, blauw vinyl

A threesome of coloured vinyl by WORM Records. These records are extraordinary not just because of their appearance (bright yellow, blue and pink vinyl), but because of their arising history as well. The a-sides of the records were recorded for Soundpiece, a soundinstallation under the floor of the Schouwburgsquare in Rotterdam.

WORM invited the composers Machinefabriek, Pierre Bastien and Dyane Donck/Daisy Bell to compose a piece for this. The results are three soundartworks/tape compositions that are made for public space, but are impressive as isolated piece of art as well. Something that stands out as well, is the different approaches of the three composers.The pieces were played at fixed times at the Soundpiece installation, for a month at the end of 2011.

On the 8th of october 2012, these records were presented in WORM with a performance of all three performers.


Dyane Donck/Daisy Bell
Daisy Bell is the new group of Donck. The live show involves a collection of electronic and acoustic instruments, harmony vocals, lots of live sampling and sound processing plus a video projection, illustrating each song with minimal, yet evocative imagery.  All songs are based on poetry by William Blake. His texts provide the vocal spine of the compositions. These range from experimental musique concrete to pop "with a twist" with a strong intensity, dark atmosphere and raw beats.


Pierre Bastien
Bastien is very French, but lives in Rotterdam for quite some time now. His work finds its place on the secant of installations / robotica / visual arts on one side and soundart / jazz / improvisation on the other. Pierre is signed to the Rephlex label (the Aphex Twin playground) but also does projects for lots of other labels and works for dance and theatre as well.


Machinefabriek
Machinefabriek is the project of Rutger Zuydervelt. Machinefabriek’s music combines elements of ambient, modern classical, minimalism, drone and field recordings. He has a big discography, containing his own releases as well as releases on renowned lables.


Soundpiece
Soundpiece is a soundinstallation in the public space of the Schouwburgsquare in Rotterdam and covers an area of 30 by 30 meter through 32 speakers. It can be heard across the entire Schouwburgsquare at limited volume.

Machinefabriek @ Worm

Machinefabriek did his time too @ worm studio

SEE THIS

And we posted an edit on FMA.


If you want to hear the whole thing; it's called 'Doepfer Worm'   released on cd on Entr'acte

(discription; Synthesizer based collages, partly recorded on vintage synths at WORM, Rotterdam. Not your average Machinefabriek release ).

(makes you wonder what a regular machinefabriek release is...)

looks like this;

Marco Cher-Gibard @ Worm Studio

Sorry for the long interval of posting! Finally we found some time to continue this blog and we have a lot of stuff in stock. Let's start with Marco Cher-Gibard who visited us in july...
We have posted two of his tracks tracks on Free Music Archive. See link below.

This is what Marco has to say about his time at Worm Studios, July 2012

During my residency at the Worm Studio, i used the time to experiment and record using the studio's vintage modular synth collection, and also to develop working methods in the studio.  A favourite setup emerged using the Arp2500 series with a clocked sequencer i found in an aluminium suitcase. As a side project, I also took an interest in the local environment of the Artist in Residence accommodation on Hoornbrekersstraat where i did a number of field recordings.

Some of the work from the Worm studio has already appeared in a sound installation for the Link IV alumni exhibition at RMIT School of Art Gallery, which  I installed on returning to Melbourne.  I also plan to make use of the recordings in the future for live performance and recorded formats. Since returning home, I've becoming quite interested in an intersection between analog sound sources and digital processing techniques via max/msp.  I used max to spacialise sounds for the installation, and am interested to investigate the area more.

Of the field recordings, i haven't used them publicly and am treating it more as a preliminary study.  The site when i visited had a number of features such as a fire station just opposite and a bunch young neighbours who liked to barbecue, drink and sing when the weather was nice.  The street clangs during the day to the sounds of mechanic shops, renovations and occasional sirens, while at night it the noise floor drops and the neighbours come home.  As a stranger in the land i found all this quite interesting, especially the singing.  I think i was surprised at first, to hear singing, because I feel we don't sing in public much in Australia, and rarely even in private. Maybe thats me?

The pictures didn't come out great, and i'm sure that there are lots of the Arp photos already (so please ignore those if you like) but they tell a story i guess.

The tracks come from the exhibition and are bounced down versions of the 4.1 mix. I have added some reverb to keep true to the spirit of the room they were produced for. Making them, both were initially played to accompany vocal tracks which i had processed using my own "sampling" instruments. However, in the end i stripped the vocal off hailin to focus on the synths.  Rehab takes its name from its original version, which might not be hard to guess.

here's some synth porn pics by marco

and check out the tracks that Marco made @ worm;

Hailin
Rehab

LEMURIFORMES IN WORM

We invited the Lemuriformes to do a residency and presentation at worm. Allthough their starting point did not sound very rock n roll to our ears (Improvisation through oscillation) it turned into a very interesting project with a great live event at the end. It was about noise & electronics, improv strategies & interdisciplinary interactions. 


Some background; 
Lemuriformes is an improvisation project of Julie Dassaud (FR), Eliad Wagner (IL), Roel van Doorn (NL) and Laurens van der Wee (NL). It is a 'mixed media' project in which audio-visual live coding, painting and electronic Eclectica are used. The week of June 18 to June 23 they were guests in WORM and worked on a new piece that was presented live last sunday (june 24h).

Their starting point;
Musical movement has its origins in feedback. We are talking about 'feedback' between systems (human systems, disciplines, digital, analog systems, etc.), tools, video, contact microphone on Julie's pens.

At all levels oscillations (oscillations / vibrations) cause new actions that resonate in the connections between the parts and people who compose the system. The result is an aesthetic and challenging mix of disciplines and techniques.

Here's the interview Lukas did with Eliat before the concert, about the way Lemuriformes worked;

Here's one of the pieces; (musicians invisible, Julie doing live drawings)

Here are some photo's from the project.

Supporting act; Idan Karucci with his project; Brain Waves.
 

Yuri Landman

On the 9th of june@WORM, Yuri Landman gave one of his first workshops about his instrument called 'The Caterpillar'.  A bit of info about that;

The Caterpillar is an instrument which can be used as a noise drum guitar in the tradition of Glenn Branca’s ‘Mallet Guitars’ as well as a convenient bowed instrument or a more traditional slide guitar commonly used in country music.

With two drum sticks you can easily develop a percussive sliding technique with one stick functioning as a slide to select a pitch and with the other stick you hit the sliding stick. The instrument also functions well with drum techniques such as double strokes and bouncing.

The instrument features two pickups. It can be used as a stereo instrument and creates a beautiful audio spectrum at recording sessions when two amps are being used. A switch can change the stereo signal in a mono set up which is easier for live situations.
Three musical scales are drawn on the instrument that all together clarify the played tones and the harmonic positions. The color dotted series are equal to the system used on the Home Swinger. Two small movable bridges allow the player to select four fundamental tones.

Here are some photo's of the workshop;

(photo's by Joost & Thies)

A Question;
Can anybody that joined the workshop comment on their experiences? We would appriciate that...

The Sound We See

The Worm Studio crew aka X-Static Tics aka Henk Bakker & Lukas Simonis with help from Nina Hitz made the music and sound to a film project initiated by WORM, done by Paolo Davanzo and Lisa Marr from Los Angeles. They cooperated with  a lot of Rotterdam locals and made the 'analog' film 'The Sound We See', shot on 8mm. All filmmakers took a minute out of the 24 hours of a day. The idea being that the film was a bit like a 'City Symphony'.  For the original idea see HERE.
So we recorded a soundtrack but also did a live performance at the presentation of the film, which turned into a great party with BBQ & a very big audience @ the Scottish Church very near the worm building (never been there before, the inhabitants didn't look very scottish to me). The film will also be out on DVD with the two soundtracks; the live one, played and recorded on this evening, and the one we made in the studio.
Here are some photo's of the event. (it happened on the 25th of may)

(before the event, soundchecking)

(the audience and nina, waiting for the lights to go out)

(the screening)

WORM CREW AT POETRY INT, ROTTERDAM

The last few weeks we worked with dutch poet Saskia De Jong & Ensemble Gending on a 'retranslation' of Marinetti's Futurist Manifest. Last friday (june 15th) we performed the piece at the Poetry International festival in Rotterdam at the Schouwburg. Here's the proof, henk & lukas at the Schouwburg stage before the concert, trying to look casual.

Tobacconists

Totally forgot to post this; the Tobacconists CD on Brevity called 'Smoking Is Green'. Recorded and made partly at the worm studios last year by Frans De Waard & Scott Foust, curated by WORM Radio for VPro's cafe Sonore and also performed live at the Radio Radio Event @WORM a few months ago.

Edmund Cook in Studio

Edmund Cook was in our studio to make a track for his end presentation at the Piet Zwart Institute. He used some of our synths and collaborated with Lars Brekke on bass and Serena Lee on fingers.The bands name is IIIIIIIIIIIIII.
(Will we get the track after the presentation, Edmund?)

(Lars on the right, Edmund left)

'The tactile noise instrument' by Andre Castro

Last week we organised the 'Built your own tactile noise instrument' under surveillance of Andre Castro.

It was a great workshop!  Aimed at people that are beginners in the field of circuit bending/the building of noise machines.

Here is our man Merijn making noise with a paper.

For sure we want to do this workshop again, maybe after the summer...

A Message from Joe

hi henk,


thought i'd send you the link for the music i was making during my last visit to the WORM studio (in march of this year) for the blog -


http://badbraincall.bandcamp.com/album/bad-brain-call


thanks!

joe


--

Truus de Groot was in our studio. 

We invited her to make a radioplay for our Hörspìl-series. It will be broadcasted by VPRO Radio 6 , Cafe Sonore and will be our next contribution to the Radia network-series. (end of june/beginning of july).

Here's allready the stuff she wrote about what she did & credits & etc.

name of the radioplay/ radiophonic/ Autobiographic opera/ musical;  

Truus Makes Waves

By Truus de Groot

With:

Johnny Dowd    - presenter

Solex (aka  Elisabeth Esselink) - Instrumentation  on "NY NY"

Kathy Ziegler - Bontempi Organ on "Toilet Dame"

Written by Truus de Groot (aka Geertruda De Groot Hrnjak) 2012


An autobiographical opera  by Truus de Groot about her earliest years in the US.  Dealing with the isolation and loneliness through  her ongoing often humorous audio observations that she has collected over the years.


The piece starts out with Truus reading form her Diary in 1980, shortly before her departure to the US.  Just minor observations of a 20 year old, nothing special yet a moment in time.  Not really a clue she would be going to the US mere months later, never to call the Netherlands her home again.  

It was an adventure looking back  for her, but at that time these were just impulsive decisions.  Never thinking twice, why am I doing this?  Is there future here??  What will I do?   Her first stop was a connection she made on a whim in Eindhoven, David Linton, who lived in Tribeca, NY.   His roommate was Lee Renaldo, who was at that time painting.     From there her US journey began.


In her isolation she could see the absurd humor of a culture that was so new to her.     The many hours spent just looking at people, their silly habits, crazy public fights, moody encounters, make this opera a time capsule of sorts.   It also conveys her frustrations of being harassed endlessly by the prying eyes of males that feasted their eyes on a beautiful yet naive young immigrant. 


However bothersome that might have been, Truus always translated it into humorous  musical reflections.    It is not dark yet perhaps a bit cynical, but full of irony.   

Benjolin Workshop

On sunday may 13th, Joker Nies and Rob Hordijk gave their 'How To Built A Benjolin' workshop at WORM. Here are a few photo's i took with my shitty phone-camera.  Joker promised to send me some better ones he took with his 'real' camera. Bottomline; great workshop again, 10 people attending, 10 people happy.

Last few photo's by Joker Nies

ABLETON LIVE PURE DATA and more

WORMshop Ableton Live

(NL) In de afgelopen maand (april) heeft in WORM voor de eerste keer de Ableton Live Workshop plaats gevonden. Op 4 zaterdagen hebben 5 deelnemers bij Radboud Mens een cursus gevolgd waarin ze alle basis principes hebben geleerd zodat ze nu autonoom met het programma kunnen werken. Daarnaast werd de leerstof toegespitst op waar de cursisten Ableton in de toekomst voor willen gaan gebruiken.

En verder nog goed nieuws! We hebben gesproken met Ableton die ons benaderde naar aanleiding van de eerste ronde; we krijgen een aantal licenties zodat voor de volgende rondes deelnemers niet meer zelf Ableton Live hoeven aan te schaffen om mee te kunnen doen aan deze workshops maar bij WORM gewoon achter een computer kunnen gaan zitten. En wat nog meer zij: WORM wordt in de nabije toekomst een gecertificeerd Ableton Live instituut!

Worm Shop Ableton Live

(English) In the last month (April), WORM the Ableton Live Workshop took place for the first time. On  4 consecutive Saturdays 5 participants did a course with Radboud Mens and learned all the basics so they can now work independently with the program. In addition, the curriculum focused on the subjects/directions the students wanted to use Abelteon Live for in the future .

And more good news! We talked with Ableton who approached us following the first round, and we will get a number of licenses so that for the next rounds participants no longer have to buy Ableton Live to be able to participate in these workshop. And so forth: WORM will be a certified Ableton Live institute in the near future.

(Radboud Mens)


Besides this we will also continue to support freeware like Pure Data. Every first saturday of the month we will have an informal PD meeting at the WORM cafe,  and every now and then we are organising workshops with katja Vetter.
More about the PD Meeting (called 'LOADBANG'):

LoadbangRotterdam meetings are set up to share experiences, info, tips and tricks of dsp programming. We do Pure Data, MaxMsp, SuperCollider. Hosted in the inspiring ambience of WORM, Institute for Avantgardistic Recreation. Bring your laptop. We provide: electricity, sound, beam, wifi, tables&chairs, coffee&tea.

A recurring topic in LoadbangRotterdam is user interface: how do we get our hands on the bytes and waves, particularly in live performance? All sorts of touch (screen, pad, skin) solutions have shown up. Most impressive was Menno's Silent Drum, modeled to Jaime Oliver's invention (http://www.jaimeoliver.pe/instrumentos/silent-drum). Have something special to show or share? LoadbangRotterdam is your platform.

http://www.worm.org/home/view/event/1142

INSTRUMENT BUILDING WORKSHOPS IN MAY

In may we do two instrument-building workshops; on the 13 of may we have an encore for the BENJOLIN Ws by Rob Hordijk and Joker Nies. SEE HERE

On the 26th of may we are going to built 'The tactile noise instrument' under surveillance of Andre Castro. SEE HERE

Reservations; the worm website  (or send an email to lukasATworm.org)

Kim Fowley & Worm All-Stars Band

On the 19th of april The WORM ALL-STARS BAND backed up Kim Fowley. In this incarnation the band was; Peter Graute, Wim Ver A, Lukas Simonis on guitars, Florian Veenhuis on bass and Hajo Doorn on drums. We practised an hour or so in the afternoon with Kim and his Cane (and his dominatrix Snow Mercy) and played quite a long set, only disturbed by the fire-alarm going off (at the end of the song 'My pussy’s on fire!').

Peter Bruyn did a nice interview on that occasion and there's also some stuff about the music. SEE HERE . (it's in dutch).

Roel Meelkop en Mecha Orga in studio

Mecha Orga aka. Yiorgis Sakellariou and our friend and neighbour Roel Meelkop did a residency in the worm studio last week (april 23th - 28th). They constructed a piece made out of field recordings, and the synths from the studio and performed it on the 27th on our Implausible music show (see other blog entry).

 Roel in the field. Recording.