I have created a circuit bending survey using Google Docs cool new forms feature.
The purpose of this survey is to accertain some demographics about the sort of people who circuit bend, there are some general questions about your bending activities and musical tastes and more specific ones about things you’ve bent. I hope to compile a list of bendable targets and a comprehensive list of bending links for my site. No specific personal data is required.
I will start publishing results in a few weeks (with some nice graphs) when there are a significant number of entries.
The project began a few weeks ago with a 2 day workshop with John to build a DIY electronic instrument, the Sudophone or Merztin, which would be central to the performance. The Merztin consists of a simple oscillator, fuzz and feedback circuit with an amplifier and speaker housed within a baked bean can, the performer can control pitch and feedback via several body contacts. An additional jack socket was added at Merzbow’s request.
Rehearsals took place on 16th April followed by the first performance that evening at the Hare and Hounds, Birmingham with support from Alienist (Nick Bullen, ex Napalm Death). The second performance took place at DMU’s PACE studio 1. Merzbow and John took center stage flanked by the 27 strong ensemble, Masami with 2 laptops and an arsenal of guitar pedals and John with his Kreepback instrument. The performance began with the ensemble playing unamplified, with sporadic pulsing tones and squeaks as the sound was slowly brought out of through the PA, building the with intensity into a wall of of sound at which point Merzbow kicked in with a blistering seismic sonic assault.
click here for more video from the performance and rehearsal
Flickr gallery here
