AETHERPHON, global theremin family

Great, postings already! I love chatty little mailing lists. (Would  
prefer a private forum, but, like, whatever...)

I don't see a membership list on the yahoo web pages, and I'm curious  
to know who I'm talking to, so what say we have a thread where  
everyone can put a bit of a profile. If we stick to the same subject  
line it'll be easy for new members to find them in the archives.

So, as I'm a notorious early revealer, I'll set the ball rolling.  
(One or two of you may have heard this before - sorry for the  
repetition.)

First up, I'm kind of here under false pretences. David set this up  
for theremin players - I don't so much play it as play *with* it. For  
an extensive and rambling description of what I consider play, check  
out the Gordon's Progress thread on the TW forums, here ( http:// 
www.thereminworld.com/forum.asp?cmd=p&T=1420&F=557 )

The short version is - I play with my theremin for therapeutic  
reasons (I have ME aka CFS - no sympathy required, I am not a victim)  
- my primary interest is carving weird little things out of bits and  
bytes on my iBook (21st century basket weaving, if you like) and  
sharing them via the web, because I can. The theremin (I have a Kees)  
is one of my data-capture devices of choice. Another is my digital  
camera. You can see some of the results on the forums of another of  
my favourite podcasts - Industrial Radio. Here. ( http:// 
industrialradio.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=24&forum=5 )

So why the theremin? After all, I am the classic description of the  
wrong person - no musical training whatsoever, can't sing in tune or  
keep a simple rhythm, no previous experience of any instrument (well  
- apart from learning the piano as a kid - apparently I had something  
of an aptitude, but then we moved house and never followed it up.)

I went for the theremin because it's the woo-woo machine from 50's  
sci-fi. And also because I had no preconceptions of how it should be  
played or what sort of music I wanted to make with it. Is it any  
good? Don't know, don't particularly care - I do it to please myself,  
and it pleases me, so that's good enough. Maybe it is OK - I take the  
same attitude with my photography, and win competitions at my local  
camera club regularly so some of the judges must quite like them.

If you're curious as to the end results, you can find them here as  
mp3s here, ( http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm? 
bandID=475314 ) or here ( with funny little videos on Veoh, here.  
( http://www.veoh.com/seriesDetails.html?s=s2683 )

Why did I sign up for the list? I'm here to learn, pure and simple.  
This music stuff is a confusing business and the opportunity to hang  
out with proper musicians can only do me good. Mind you, I have this  
idea that a good way to learn is by teaching, so if you catch me  
offering ill-informed suggestions, it is indeed because I probably  
don't know what I am talking about, and would be very grateful for  
being set straight.

My musical tastes. My car radio is tuned to either BBC Radio 1 or BBC  
Radio 3 in equal amounts (pop charts and serious classical  
respectively.) My record/CD/mp3 collection basically dates from when  
I was 15 in 1977, and is mostly stuff that didn't get radio play and  
with an amateur/DIY/no-training-required ethos to it - so it includes  
Brian Eno, The Residents, Throbbing Gristle, Psychic TV, Pere Ubu,  
Wire, Captain Beefheart and Public Image Limited. Music podcasts -  
one whose name eludes me :-) and Industrial Radio as previously  
mentioned because I enjoy absolutely everything they play, and a  
couple of others out of respect because they used some of my music  
(and talked all over it, enthusing about theremins, which was nice in  
a humbling sort of way.)

Finally I notice a few names from my little Happy Birthday escapade.  
Hi guys!


Gordon Charlton

PS Also I occasionally write far too much!