Joker Nies/Gino Robair/Rob Hordijk: Circuit bend at CNMAT
2008-04-08 by ginorobair
A quick gig announcement, because I'll have my A-100P and modules with me. Many of you know Joker Nies as the writer for Keyboards in Germany. He's also a fantastic free improviser with electronics, and I'm happy he's visiting the Bay Area this month. We played together in Köln after Messe this year, and it was a blast. And if you haven't seen Rob Hordijk's bent instruments, you have to check them out... If you're in LA, both guys will be at the Bent Festival, too. **** Friday April 25, 8:00 PM Joker Nies (Germany), circuit-bending performance and discussion, with Gino Robair, percussion/electronics Special guests Rob Hordijk, instrument designer, and Amy X Neuberg, vocalist extraordinaire CNMAT (Center for New Music & Audio Technology) at UC Berkeley 1750 Arch St. http://cnmat.berkeley.edu Cost $10, no one turned away for lack of funds ************ Joker Nies (Cologne, Germany) has presented workshops and performed his energetic improvisations on re-built electronic toys all over Europe and the U.S. He will be joined by well-known local percussionist Gino Robair, with guest appearances by vocalist Amy X Neuburg and instrument designer Rob Hordijk (Netherlands). Joker will also give an explanation of circuit-bending and talk about his work, and Rob Hordijk will discuss his hand-made synthesizer the Blippobox -- one of Joker's featured instruments. ************ Biographies: Joker Nies lives and works in Cologne, Germany, as a musician, sound-designer/engineer, and technical editor for the German Sound&Recording magazine. He has a long history of working with modular synthesizers, individually designed electronic devices, DSP-based systems and software-based sound sources. In the early '90s, modifying the Omnichord became his initiation to circuit-bending. Since then he has converted a steadily growing number of simple toys into alien sound devices. Nies regularly performs live, solo and in various collaborations, and holds workshops and tutorials about circuit-bending and MAX/MSP. He has performed and lectured throughout Europe and in the USA and Mexico. More information at http://www.klangbureau.de/Joker_E/klangbureau-Biografie.html. Gino Robair is a mainstay of the Bay Area creative music scene. His primary musical interests include percussion, analog electronics, Styrofoam, and prepared piano. He has composed music for dance, theater, gamelan, radio, and television. Robair's concert works have been performed in North America, Europe, and Japan, and as percussionist he has performed internationally or recorded with such luminaries as Tom Waits, Terry Riley, Anthony Braxton, Lou Harrison, John Zorn, Nina Hagen, and Kronos Quartet. Trained originally as a sculptor and jewelry maker, Rob Hordijk has been building audio and synthesizer electronics for over thirty years, combining his interests towards the "sculpture" of sound. He has consulted on the design of commercial synthesizers (Clavia G2) and designed many specialty analog modules, including the 36dB Twinpeak resonator and the Tilt filter, several types of chaos generators, and the Bessel waveshaper. Hordijk's current work is on "coffee table" synthesizers -- small, entirely hand-built boxes designed on the principles of circuit-bending to take on a "life of their own." He regularly gives lectures and workshops on sound design and synthesis.