Modular Music

Amabie (アマビエ) is a legendary Japanese mermaid or merman with 3 legs, who allegedly emerges from the sea and prophesies either an abundant harvest or an epidemic. We leverage this theme of 3 limbs for our electronic art event – The Artist, the Musician and the Audience. The Hipster Modular recordings (aka “Fragments”) documented here were captured during the 5/7/2020 “am ab ie” event with the cover art painted in realtime via aggie.io.

“die Atem Sets” is a capture of a live, online performance by Hipster Modular on 4/10/2020. The performance was shared in 4 areas – via Youtube, with Remixed projected video, back onto Youtube Live and via Radio Axiom. The intent was to communicate essential information through repurposed media. The audio was archived and re-shared in 4 parts.

die Atem Sets, ein Klangleistung von Hipster Modular:

Breathing (or ventilation) is the process of moving air into and out of the lungs to facilitate gas exchange with the internal environment, mostly by bringing in oxygen and flushing out carbon dioxide.

A ventilator is a machine that provides mechanical ventilation by moving breathable air into and out of the lungs, to deliver breaths to a patient who is physically unable to breathe, or breathing insufficiently. Modern ventilators are computerized microprocessor-controlled machines, but patients can also be ventilated with a simple, hand-operated bag valve mask. Ventilators are chiefly used in intensive-care medicine, home care, and emergency medicine (as standalone units) and in anesthesiology (as a component of an anesthesia machine). During the pandemic of 2020, the U.S. president turned ventilators into a form of patronage while the California state positioned itself as a “Nation State” to procure and redistribute the medical equipment. As such, the term “ventilate” is now associated with political posturing.

The Hipster is “A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.” The Atem (German for breath) is a living process that is essential to life itself. The tools such as ventilators come and go with infection statistics – they are the embodiment of trend – a fashion that follows viruses, culture, political lies, political posturing, and random environmental factors – the chaos surrounding the Atem character establishes it as a passive hipster.

The Visual presentation of the “Atem Sets” is live performance video chromakeyed onto a collection of 4 media backdrops – (1) a static image, (2) video from a side camera, (3) video from a rear camera, and (4) video of makeshift, emergency, ventilator research labs. The produced video is broadcast via Zoom and recast to Youtube Live for public consumption. The same video is captured by Radio Axiom, reprocessed, projected, recaptured and rebroadcast. The total media, from 4 sources, is repurposed 4 times.

The Sonic presentation of the “Atem Sets” leverages live/looped breaths and flügelhorn combined with essential instructions for those suffering from Covid-19. Synthesis techniques from the ’60s, ’80s and 21st century are used to produce a final soundscape which is then cut into 4 pieces.

#DigitechObscura #DoepferModular (A-146×2,A-143-9×2,A-138) #EventideH9Max #EventideH910 #KMIK-mix #LaunchpadProMk3 #NobletFlugel #RolandSH-01A #RolandSPD-SX #RolandTR-09 #ShureBeta56 #TCHelicon #AbletonLive #LiveLooping #88BPM

#COVID19 #coronavirus #444 #FearFearFear

#BienNacidoVineyard

#HipsterModular

Sample credit:
UK Dr. Sarfaraz Munshi of Queens Hospital demonstrates breathing techniques for COVID-19 patients who are struggling to breathe or having a cough fit.

Performance video at:

Remix video at:

Schlachtensee is a lake in the south west of Berlin, in the Steglitz-Zehlendorf borough, on the edge of the Grunewald forest. The lake lends its name to the surrounding area and which has been part of Berlin since 1920. While, it is the city’s most easily accessible lake (next door to both S- and U-Bahn stations), it is surprisingly free from hipster culture. Some have proposed that this state is intentional, claiming that the recent summer ban on dogs (the controversial “Hundeverbot”) is an underhanded attempt to curtail hipster-like activites.

The literal definition of a hipster is: “A person who follows the latest trends and fashions, especially those regarded as being outside the cultural mainstream.” Many consider Berlin to be one of the most hipster-friendly cities in the world, 2nd only to Brooklyn, New York. Schlactensee is sufficiently outside of the city, a 15 km hike from Kreutzberg (the hipest area of Berlin), and, so, is considered one of the rare “outside-of-outside” spaces (geographically, aesthetically and culturally).

Sonically, Schlachtensee hosts the expected lake-area sounds – water, rain, birds, bees and ducks, but also human contributions ranging from hikers using walking sticks and mal-maintained bicycles to the helicopters and trains just out of view.

This collection brings together a modularization of field recordings from the area with compositional form based on local, environmental photos, along with signal processing and synthesis techniques from the ’60s, ’80s and 21st century.

These are the Hipster Modular Schlachtensee Sets.

Für JAD, JN, und RW

Jacumba Hot Springs is a census-designated place in the Mountain Empire area of southeastern San Diego County, California with an elevation of 862 meters. The Kumeyaay peoples occupied the Jacumba area prior to European settlement. Then, Ranchers occupied the area in the 19th century and were often in conflict with the Indians. At the turn of the 20th century, the health and relaxation benefits of natural hot springs were commercialized. By 1925 the town had a world class hotel and by the 1930s, Jacumba developed into a top destination. After the new Interstate 8 bypassed Jacumba by two miles, most of the roadside service businesses folded and the community went into economic decline. The Jacumba Hotel closed and was destroyed in an arson fire in 1983 and the ruins stood until 1991. The great public baths closed, the swimming pool was filled in, and the well was capped. The area continues to attract foreign visitors, motorcycle tourists, ravers and hipsters. The 21st century hipster is part of a subculture that values independent thinking, counter-culture, progressive politics, an appreciation of art and indie-rock, creativity, intelligence, witty banter and modular or computer-generated modular-like synthesis. Although “hipsterism” is really a state of mind, it is also often intertwined with distinct fashion, polyrhythms and non-just intonations. Despite misconceptions based on their aesthetic tastes, hipsters tend to be well educated and often have liberal arts degrees, or degrees in maths and sciences, which also require certain creative analytical thinking abilities. Consequently many hipsters tend to hold jobs in the music, art, and fashion industries. It is a myth that most hipsters are unemployed and live off of their parent’s trust funds.

These are the Hipster Modular Jacumba Sets.