____ [______] (me-cha-ku-cha) absurd; chaotic; unreasonable; excessive;
messed up; spoiled; wreaked. Mechakucha is the guiding force
behind my work. It became my favorite word when I spent a semester
in college studying abroad in Japan. It can be shortened to Mecha
and placed before other adjectives to mean "very, very"
or "absurdly".
I find that the world has and will always be in a state of
Mechakucha. I enjoy tremendously the absurdity of it all, but
at the same time, find the ever-spiraling self-destructive nature
of our world quite appalling. I try and reflect and harness this
balance in the projects I engage in.
I was introduced to Circuit Bending in 1995 by Q.R. Ghazala's
track "Silence the tongues of prophecy" and accompanying
bending article in the experimental instrument compilation "Gravichord's,
Whirlies, & Pyrophones". While this got me looking at
toys in a different way and trying to find bends, I didn't take
a serious interest in actually hardwiring them till Andy Ben
came along in 2002 and showed me what he had found on the Yamaha
PSS-460. While the Musical Circus Stacker was my first completed
device, the 460 is the most prolific, with 3 albums worth of
material already recorded and more.
~
below: some of my 'Bentruments'

The Yamaha PSS-460 has 28 bends on switchs and momentary push
buttons in two clusters which can be bridged by the 2 body contacts.
It can be found on most of the DnAbent tracks. |

The Leapfrog Musical Circus Stacker with 1/4" out and pitch
up/down coarse and fine pot control can best be heard in the
Fuzakenna track Circus CHIKAN |

Creatoy picture panel with 1/4" out, Pitch Down, Up and
Dirty Up with selection by switch and control by pot |
 |
 |
 |
VTECH Little Smart PC Fun with 1/4" out and 5
glitch switches can be best heard on the track pcfun vs. cello
featuring Recipe |
Creatoy Piano with 1/4" out and pitch down body
contacts
|

WuvLuv Luvs U! On/Off Switch, 1/4" speaker cutting out,
Glitch Button and Pitch Down, normal and up with 3-position switch
selection and Pot Control. Pitch Up bend is upright sensitive
so that tilting WuvLuv switches from pitch up to down. There
are 2 main bends I've found thru the glitch button, the aleatoric
"breakbeats", and the aleatoric melodys |
Reed Ghazala (widely regarded as the father of
Circuit-Bending) on "What is Circuit-Bending":
"Circuit-bending is an electronic art which implements
creative audio short-circuiting. This renegade path of electrons
represents a catalytic force capable of exploding new experimental
musical forms forward at a velocity previously unknown. Anyone
at all can do it; no prior knowledge of electronics is needed.
The technique is, without a doubt, the easiest electronic audio
design process in existence.
"The circuit-bent instrument, often a re-wired audio
toy or game, is an alien instrument: alien in electronic design,
alien in voice, alien in musician interface. Through this procedure,
all around our planet, a new musical vocabulary is being discovered.
A new instrumentarium is being born.
"Countless audio gadgets are experimental musical
instruments waiting to happen. Circuit-bending's anti-theory
approach to electronic design makes accessible to all audio explorers
an endles s frontier of
original sound-forms to discover, and fantastic instruments to
create.
"Within these adapted devices, along with the unusual
voices of circuit-bending, are often found aleatoric music generators;
that is, chance-music composers that stream unpredictable audio
events: elements shifting and re-combining in fascinating ways.
"Body-contacts are also found through circuit-bending.
These allow electricity to flow through the player's body, flesh
and blood now becoming an active part of the electronic sound
circuit. This interface extends players and instruments into
each other, creating, in essence, new life forms. An emerging
tribe of bio-electronic Audio Sapiens."
~
below: some images

Fractal Nightmare

IceNine

Universe Converge

CANYONSPIKABALL
|
Derek Sajbel received a B.A.
in cinema-television with a minor in Japanese studies from the
University of Southern California in 2002. He has been producing
albums, videos, art and absurdity since 1994. He currently resides
in Echo Park in Los Angeles. Derek has been performing at infinitecomplexity.org
events both VJing and doing live circuit bending for over one
year. He curated the Video Art program and Electronic music evening
at the multimedia art event Humanitarian Superpower (www.humanitariansuperpower.com).
Mr. Sajbel was a regular VJ at the [eraser] (www.erasereraser.com)
experimental music monthly. His music and videos have been released
on the recent Phthalo Records Infinite Complexity Business CD
compilation and Phthalo Records Infinite Complexity 4 mini video/audio
compilation. He performed in the 2004 Center for Experiments
in Art, Information, and Technology festival, and had a video
installation in the 2003 CEAIT (ceait.calarts.edu). He has also
been a featured video artist at the Hanger 1018 (www.hanger1018.com)
art/concerts. His current project is a documentary on Circuit
Bending (www.anti-theory.com/soundart/circuitbend/). A large
portion of his body of video, audio and other works are available
on his website http://absurdity.biz/.
MuZaQ Anthology
a sample of projects featuring Dr. Rek
- DnA bent Vol.11 preview tracks, ARDCORE04, hodown, and the
order.
- Vol. 1 Destroy is a confabulation using samples off nearly
all the tracks of DnA bent Vol. 1 by EMIS. Described by noted
authoritarians as "Rad", "Wicked", "Hot",
"Crazy" and "Awesome".
- i still think this place is haunted featuring germs on turntables,
dj money, dr. rek on bends, delay and tables and jEf on more
bends and stuff, super secret haunted vocal cameos.
- DnA bent Vol. 2 is the second all circuit bending album featuring
the guest talents of Peter Jacobson(recipe), Yoko, Chris Martinez,
Marianne Williams, Dave Lehr, and Scott Barber.
- I think this place is Haunted is the recent experimental
piece featuring Germs on the Twosies and Dr. Rek on the 460 with
delay and radio interferenc
- EXAXES:Silicone Faceplant work in progress mod trackz, bending,
cello, trumpet and more
- SAMANTHA BOBBLE track 7 samantha versus bubble bobble
- Derek & Andy Bent Vol. 1, the all circuit bending saga
has begun, open call for rmxs on this material please please
please!
- Fuzakenna : everything we do is gold is the follow up EP
to Fuzakenna's Japanese Man's Dead Face, Hardcore impro 4-track
jams recorded in ashland, oregon
- Fuzakenna : Japanese Man's Dead Face the original 4 track
jams recorded in the mellow dolphin jazz club storage closet
with Dustin Wasserman while studying abroad at Tokyo International
University in the fall of 2001
- Language Problem : anguage roblem LP impro electribe fueled
jams featuring dave aguilar, scott barber, drew and mike from
spring 2000
- The Tough Man Show is a radio broadcast that my friends Chris
(Baboon Torture Division, Nirvana 2), BJ Winslow and I did back
in the summer of 1999 on KRCB 91 Fm public classical radio in
rohnert park, California. It features recordings that have anything
and everything to do with Tough Men, as well as many circuit
bent instruments. This is a 35 minute selection of excerpts recently
discovered on a forgotten audio cassette.
- Nirvana 2 : Electric Boogaloo is the old school (95-97) rock-parody
album featuring Derek (DnAbent) and Chris (Baboon Torture Division),
our #1 classic Christopher Walken is a Badass
~
Derek Sajbel
AIM Voodoopapa
1880 Preston Ave
LA, CA 90026
USA
e-mail: shybell@icomplex.org
wwweb: http://absurdity.biz
|