Jay writes to tell me about Dewanatron, an art/music duo who build very cool-looking synths, but claim they are "a family of instruments which hazard unpredictable behaviors and self playing tendencies. They make all previous and future instruments obsolete.." As Jay says: "I don't quite see where the unpredictability and such come from, except that the controls are all unlabeled". Dewanatron's pretensions continue on the 'About' page: "The operators begin a process which develops into a shape beyond the operator's authorship; the operators become gardeners, watering and pruning, mulching and composting sound. The music becomes a contrapuntal morass." You can hear that contrapuntal morass here. Mainly bleeps, some bloops.
4/22/2005
Dewanatron: World's most pretentious synth?
Jay writes to tell me about Dewanatron, an art/music duo who build very cool-looking synths, but claim they are "a family of instruments which hazard unpredictable behaviors and self playing tendencies. They make all previous and future instruments obsolete.." As Jay says: "I don't quite see where the unpredictability and such come from, except that the controls are all unlabeled". Dewanatron's pretensions continue on the 'About' page: "The operators begin a process which develops into a shape beyond the operator's authorship; the operators become gardeners, watering and pruning, mulching and composting sound. The music becomes a contrapuntal morass." You can hear that contrapuntal morass here. Mainly bleeps, some bloops.
ha ha ha ha ha. lol.
ReplyDeleteOh but that's nothing compared to the pretentious descriptions of Arius Blaze's ISM contraptions! http://www.audible-ism.com/
ReplyDeleteI like said morass.
ReplyDeleteIs this true????
ReplyDelete"In the mid 1970s Texas Instruments designed an analog/digital hybrid integrated circuit chip known as the SN76477, which was created for their popular educational toy known as the Speak N Spell."
I've seen these guys live before, and actually seeing the stuff in action is worlds away from looking at the pictures or hearing the recordings. Seeing one of them grunt into a microphone and then start twisting some knobs, and then the other guy doing it, is quite a sight.
ReplyDeleteYeah, Brian Dewan is cool, and a nice guy. After a show he played in Rhode Island, opening for TMBG, he was happy to talk about his electric zither (which, run through distortion, sounds like God's own electric guitar, except more so).
ReplyDeleteHe also built the thing on the cover of _Lincoln_.
But the music on their site is still shite
ReplyDeleteSo can you buy these things, or what?
ReplyDeleteCool looking instruments! Not sure if it's pretentious so much as ironic/silly but still, interesting stuff + bleeps + bloops, cool! :)
ReplyDeleteisn't this "unpredictable behaviour" internal feedback? If so, then aleatoric behaviour is entirely possible - just like on other complex analogues
ReplyDeleteSounded a bit like alien orgasms...
ReplyDeleteThe Dewan cousins are freaks. the dewanatron experience is a bit noodly but what a fine pasta it is.
ReplyDeleteThey have a dark sense of humor and to read them as pretentious is a myopic joke. Everyone should hear Brian Dewan sing, minds are there to be blown.
He also exhibits artwork with Pierogi Gallery and plays in the minute counters & emerson zenith and magnavox
it is crystal clear that jay does not get it. it is more of an art thing. i know leon. he is the most unpretentious, genuine person that you have ever met.
ReplyDeletethey have an installation at the pierogi
art reviews:
http://www.artforum.com/picks/
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/20/arts/design/20gall.html?pagewanted=2