Thanks to our good friend Matthew Taylor, we have a promo video for HeliOscillator, ready to show the world its hypnotic, alien charms. The next goal is to take it on tour. Enjoy!

As mentioned back in February, I was awaiting news on a proposed project for the University of Sheffield’s Festival of the Mind. It was successful, and i’ve been beavering away with Noel Murphy (aka VDU) on HeliOscillator¹, an audio/visual installation, that’ll run from 20th – 30th September this year.

I’ll be attempting to document the project here as we go; for now here’s the press blurb below, the Facebook page and a link to the project’s Flickr group…

HeliOscillator¹ is an audio/visual installation that runs the duration of the Festival of the Mind, built in collaboration with the University of Sheffield’s Professor Róbertus von Fáy-Siebenbürgen. The professor, with the help of PhD student Nabil Freij, has supplied us with data taken from seven separate sunspots, captured through the Dutch Open Telescope (an optical solar telescope located in the Canary Islands).

The data is converted into computer generated patterns which are projected onto a 7-piece modular light-reactive screen. As the patterns of light – symmetrical and phasing – shift across the screen, graduations in intensity give life to an abstract soundscape; fluctuations in solar magnetic activity translated into a tangible, immersive experience; each module a looping snapshot of a sunspot, poetic and incomprehensible in its short, magnificent life. 

Well, it’s finally out in the wild. And has been for a little while too – but OrigamiBiro’s Shakkei Remixed album has just landed on Boomkat, which means a lot to this humble musician. My Last Man on Mars remix of Dusk & Umber closes the album, which is an honorable slot to find myself. It’s also one of the remixes selected by Boomkat as a preview track! Go buy.

Read full review of Shakkei Remixed – ORIGAMIBIRO on Boomkat.com ©

I DJ’d at a very special nautical themed birthday party at the weekend and, rather than just play some tunes, I knocked up some remixes for the night. Time was short so they’re not perfect, but fun all the same; picking tracks with vaguely nautical names and spicing them up was the name of the game. Drum & Bass Radiohead? Here you go.

Eeeh, it’s been a while. How you doing?

2011′s a distant memory now, along with that old ‘i’ll make a new track every month for a year’ resolution. I’d got off to a good start but other projects interrupted the flow.

The Last Man on Mars is set to return soon though, as a remix done for OrigamiBiro last summer is finally set for release on a compilation next April, alongside the likes of Umin, Calika, Melodium, Upwards Arrows, The Remote Viewer, Proem, Offthesky, Set In Sand, Low In The Sky, Ghost and Tape, Plaid, Phylum Sinter, Leafcutter John, Aus, and ISAN. Good company.

The Last Man on Mars will also have a track on an upcoming Abandon Building Records compilation. Watch this space.

The Curious Machine will be shifting up some gears soon too, further developing experiments in cellular automata, with a Sheffield-based experimental electronic music club night in the works providing a platform for some self-promotion and shared tastes in electronics.

And then there’s the Festival of the Mind in September this year. Crossed fingers on a successful proposal (should find out in March!) as i’m pretty excited about that potential collaborative project with VDU.

I recently took up full-time, permanent employment at The Cafeteria, a super design studio in Sheffield.

My first project was a step from the norm for The Cafeteria (who normally specialise in exquisite print work), which involved creating a short film about Victoria Delany, a Designer Maker who was working with us on some print for the Origin Contemporary Craft Fair in London.

I shot most of the footage and edited the film, with direction from Jon Cannon and Chris Woodhams, and also soundtracked it. Check the embed below for the fruits of my work, or head to The Cafeteria’s blog for a write up of the project.

And here’s the music on its lonesome.
Apples and silver by The Curious Machine

Last Saturday saw me play a live and improvised 20 minute set at the quirky experimental music fest known as Placard – the quietest 12 hours you could ever spend at a festival.

Think cushions on the floor and the hushness of a temple; great cables dangling from the ceiling to jack into; the room awash with headphones bobbing slowly to the beat of a silent musician.

I debuted the Cellular Automata project that has been bubbling under ever since I assumed this Curious handle, which i’ve been slowly working out  in between other musical experiments over the last couple of years.

I first discovered CA on the Nintendo DS, via the homebrew software Glitch, which uses Conway’s Game of Life to generate randomised sequences of sound. It was about the same time that I read Greg Egan’s Permutation City, a sci-fi novel that uses the mythical Eden State in Conway’s Game of Life to create an infinite, self sustaining virtual universe. Thus, I was inspired.

Glitch was ported to the Mac as a MIDI sequencer a couple of years ago, which I have tethered to Ableton Live after a brief experiment with Plogue’s Bidule. Although far less stable on my old Powerbook than the simpler DS iteration, it’s potential was apparent.

With two weeks notice, I had little time to stabilise the tech on my ageing laptop and build a fresh palette of sounds. Thankfully it all came together in time for the gig, and although I would have preferred a sound bank twice the size, it was ample enough to perform with.

A work long in progress, seeing some final progress.

I’m pretty happy with the results and learned a lot in the 20 minutes I had to play with – just need to finish building the sound bank, set Ableton up to have a more diverse suite of effects and prepare TouchOSC for some MIDI controlling of Live (on a diminutive phone screen). Then, i’ll really be ready.

Placard had a live video stream of the event, which was handily captured by my friend VDU and is posted below for all to hear. I’d not bother actually watching it (just listen), unless seeing a bearded man stare at a laptop for 20 minutes is your kinda thing.

For future gigs I hope to replace the beard/laptop combo with live visuals, either generative based or triggered by the very same MIDI data that is randomly spawning the music. How? I’m not sure yet…

Many thanks to Placard for the invite!

Curious Machine live @ Placard Sheffield from Visual Display Unit on Vimeo.

Just a wee update on the whole self-imposed monthly deadline for new material – while it may seem i’ve been quiet of late (and broken that commitment), I have in fact been busy with music that required long term goals.

Firstly, I wrote a short piece of music for an animated video (that I also created) while working for The Cafeteria. Check it here – http://www.adventureworks.co.uk/aw/

I’ve also got a remix on at the moment for Origami Biro (deadline looming next week), as well as an attempt to get three new Nintendo based tracks ready for a street party (also looming).

Once they’re outa the way it’ll business as usual.