Desert

Desert I

These pieces were performed live-in-studio on a Eurorack modular synth (affectionately called Landscape).

Both pieces heavily rely on Make Noise’s Erbe-Verbe for the ambient “planet” noises, Audio Damage’s Errorbox for bitcrushing, Doepfer’s A-150-4 for filtering and resonance, Mutables Intrument’s Marbles for randomness, XAOC Devices’ Zadar for shaping, and the little but lovely RA-30 microspot radio for human-made noises.

As with any piece made with a modular synth, I started by trying out different connections between modules, beginning with white noise experimentation to ping filters and generate tones that would then be messed up with a fair amount of bitcrushing (from noise and back). Building from that initial block, some sounds developed, and I then added more layers, a radio, the erbe-verbe… 

After reflecting on the sounds that were slowly emerging and then crossing them with some readings from readdesert.org that left quite an impact on me, I came up with the idea of making a short piece with a calm background noise evocative of space and some astral bodies’ sonification that would be disturbed by the end of the piece with harsher noises, including ones generated by the radio. Space noise’s stillness being disturbed by the harsh noise of human civilization. This was Desert I, named for the anarchist essay questioning civilization and wilderness.

Desert II

Having now a fully fleshed patch connected for this first piece, I made a few minor tweaks (mainly adding a kick with Noise Engineering’s BIA to give the sounds a bit more ground) and went on improvising with the sounds that were at my disposal from these connections, exploring the different sonic possibilities offered by this patch as if it were a landscape. I followed the sounds as they went with no predetermined structure, turning knobs on the synth to try out new directions that were probably not yet fully explored by the first piece. This was Desert II.

LOVTRE is a Paris-based musician and audio artist who uses their modular synth to produce live pieces of music and sounds that explore inner spaces and their relationship to the world and the sounds that make it. They use a modular synth as a centerpiece and use radio, cassettes, and various sources of sound and noise found in flea markets and old forgotten basements to feed it. Follow them on Bandcamp and Instagram.

Visuals: Garreth Chan