Ektopia

I’m not sure of the real-world application of Physical Loops but I have to admit that the stretching of a physical sound medium sure is an elegant one. [via]

Check Atsuhiro Ito rocking out with the Optron. Not sure how long I could listen for but I could watch it all for ages.

Jean Shin’s Sound Wave…get it?! [via]

Matthew Plummer Fernandez’s Sound Chair “begins as a sound that is precisely crafted to form the shape of a chair when visualized as a 3-dimensional object using a volume, time, frequency plot. The chair is an exact replica of the soundwave graph. The result is a product with dual existence as both a sound and chair, and a new approach to designing products”. [via]

Zoe Keating plays live looped cello compositions. There are a few samples on offer on her website. Sounds pretty amazing to me. There are longer clips on her MySpace page and more to watch on YouTube too…oh, and not forgetting the best vid here. It’s also refreshing to read on her shop page that “if you can’t afford to buy my music and have to obtain it in some other fashion, I won’t hold it against you. I see it as the same as when I was in college and made mixtapes because I couldn’t afford CDs. However, if you get it somewhere, do me a favor and don’t mass share it, since that does hurt”. I guess it also wouldn’t be Ektopia without me mentioning that “The cello is amplified with an AKG C411 contact condenser mic. I run it through a few looping/sampling devices: two Electrix Repeaters, Ableton Live and a plugin called SooperLooper”. Geek Mode: OFF! [via]

If you’re going to go to the trouble of making a DJ car you may as well make something that resembles a Tokyoplastic animation.

Twink. Six albums in (counting a special edition of Supercute) and there seems to be no sign of Mr Twink slowing, slacking or stopping. This time it’s with the release of A Very Fine Adventure and a very fine adventure it is too. For those that don’t already know, Twink is is a one-man toy piano nut who also just happens to be an amazing tune writer and recording artist. I’ve always been a fan. In fact, Twink was one of my original Ektopia posts back in…let me check…2002! So, six years and six albums later and here we are; another collection of tunes. There’s a little more synth compared with earlier Twink releases but still enough Twinkness to know exactly who you’re listening to; still definitely a toy piano band. Drum programming is the best to date too IMHO with such subtle brilliance. As for stand out tunes - Flytrap is a killer tune with all the discordant madness that you could wish for! Toadstall Tea sounds like it would sit perfectly alongside an animated version of Amelie. Come to think of it, all of Twink’s music would work well with animation I think. Anyways, it’s 12 tracker and as usual it’s packaged brilliantly. This time it has a fold out sleeve that you can refold several ways to create your chosen cover for your own fine adventure and, again, it’s all been created by Mr Twink. Can you ever have too much of this kind of thing? While Twink are running the show the answer has to still be “no”. Another awesome CD.

Younnat creates some great music using some very interesting gear including the Genius Speed Wheel 3MT, Logitech Joystick Attack 3, Logitech Gamepad Dual Action, Genius KB-06X, Socket sampler and the Bulb kit! His debut EP if free to download [via]

Popped up to London to see the mighty Cornelius a short while back. Amazing. I too a few bad photos and lousy videos too! Anyways, a little Cornelius search later and I’ve found a couple of little golden nuggets of Cornelius goodness; Cornelius Rocks Out On Yo Gabba Gabba (kids TV prog) and Petra Haden playing a stunning version of his tune, Music. If you get a chance to see him play at some point in the future then you should give up any other plans you had and do it. He, and the whole band, are just about the best thing that ever happened to music in my opinion.

Bwack created a mega sampler, which Family Force 5 used on tour. It’s as impressive as it is ridiculous. [via]