Tag: Live Electronic Music

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Tangerine Dream

Catch Up on Tangerine Dream

I was a HUGE fan of Tangerine Dream but I have to admit though that in the last 15 years or so I kind of lost track of what they were up to. Back in the day I played the vinyl albums for the Sorcerer soundtrack and Stratosphere until I about wore them out.

After Edgar Froese had passed in 2015 I figured the band had stopped. But I recently discovered the recent release of Quantum Gate / Quantum Key.

In 2015 German Electronica visionary and leader of the band Tangerine Dream, Edgar Froese, died, two years before the band celebrated its 50th anniversary. However, Froese had elected as his successor as leader of the band Thorsten Quaseschning who, along with Frose’s wife, Bianca Acquaye and other members Hoshiko Yamane and Ulrich Schnauss, have continued to work as the band. The result of this work is the album released as ‘Quantum Gate’ which was released in September 2017.

From <https://www.progradar.org/index.php/2018/04/30/review-tangerine-dream-quantum-gate-quantum-key-by-jez-denton/>

The band released a combined album in 2018 called Quantum Gate / Quantum Key in 2018 which is the best way to jump into all this https://open.spotify.com/album/4bM1e39z09Me0YdaoB0SWQ?si=VmZNE4m2SGOSzgQgZprcDg.

As I said, I’d lost track of the band, so I took a look at the lineup from the Wiki Page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tangerine_Dream and saw that these members were not only selected successors but active members for quite a long time. The timeline stretches back to 1967 but I just captured from 1996 on and highlighted the current lineup throughout.

Click to Enlarge

I was so happy after my first listen of Quantum Gate / Quantum Key as these songs  reminded me of Tangerine Dream from the Sorcerer and Stratosphere days but also offered an updated sound and aesthetic but still clearly Tangerine Dream.

I was also to happy to find out they continue to play live as a three piece with interesting  visuals and lights that compliment the show but the focus is on the music. I was especially happy to see Hoshiko Yamane’s stripped-down Ableton Live rig with Push 2 with live violin (which you’ll see in videos below).

To help get you up to speed on the this incarnation of the band and how they choose songs from the back catalog check out this 2017 interview which also has an excerpt from a live performance.

When you are ready to take a deeper look take some time to drink in this 2 hour and 13 minute performance from Boiler Room x Dekmantel Festival 2018. They play some of my favs in this set such as “Betrayal” from the Sorcerer soundtrack, “Love on a Real Train” from Risky Business soundtrack and even “Stratosphere”!

This is 1 hour and 15 minutes set is from the same tour. The audio isn’t quite as good be you feel more immersed in the visuals.

Closing Thoughts

Tangerine Dream’s use of cinematic and narrative arcs – especially with Sorcerer soundtrack and Stratosphere – really inspired and informed my approach to instrumental music, especially for my studio album Fear Cannot Save Us. I discuss some of this during my interview on Art + Music + Technology Podcast interview with Darwin Grosse. So it’s so great to have rediscovered Tangerine Dream’s on-going musical journey and live act. I never thought I’d get to see Kraftwerk and I’ve seem them twice now. Maybe I’ll get to see Tangerine Dream someday as well.

I kind of have Quantum Gate / Quantum Key on repeat right now, but after I listen a few more times I look forward to hearing even more recent works soon.

Anyway, if you were a Tangerine Dream fan and lost track them as I did, I hope this post will help start to get caught up as well 😀.

Mark Mosher
Electronic & Experimental Musician, Multimedia Artist, Event Producer
Boulder, CO
MarkMosherMusic.com

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Audio and Video Recordings from Mosher-Deane Live MicroFreak Session at the Renaissance Room

Below is a live recording of the Mosher-Deane duo improvising with two MicroFreak synthesizers as their primary tonal source. This live session was recorded at the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meetup on October 8th, 2019 in the Renaissance Room at La Vita Bell in Longmont, CO.

Teaser Video

First up just under a minute of some live footage from the show.

Full Audio Recording of the Set

Here is a 12 minute audio recording of the full performance.

All tonal elements are from one of the two MicroFreaks which were being performed live as well as processed and live sampled with further mlusical mainpulations. Samples were used for percussive elements.

Mark’s Rig

MicroFreak: (synth), audio out to Octatrack MKII
Octatrack MKII:

  • Track 1 – Flex machine for live sampling
  • Track 2 – Thru Machine to route input in from MicroFreak plus add FX
  • Track 3 – Pickup Machine with Filter and Delay
  • Track 4 – Pickup Machine with Filter and Reverb
  • Track 5 – Static machine for percussive samples
  • Track 6 – Static machine for percussive samples
  • Track 7 – Not used
  • Track 8 – Master FX – LoFi, Reverb

Dino’s Rig

MicroFreak: (synth), audio out to UCA202, usb to HUB
UCA202: (audio i/o) audio out – main output usb to HUB
QUNEXUS: (keyboard) usb to HUB
HUB: (usb hub) usb to iPad
IPAD5:

  • AUM – mixer
  • ch1- microfreak audio, effect – kleverb
  • ch2- samplr (live sampling microfreak
  • ch3- beathawk (percussion), effects – visual eq, blackhole, kosmonaut,
  • Ch4- master fader, effect – limiter
  • ch5- rozeta arpeggio
  • usb input from qunexus
  • usb output to beathawk

New Landing Page for Mosher-Deane

I’ve also created a new landing page with more pics and audio recordings of our work here http://MarkMosherMusic.com/MD.

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(Mark Mosher Music News) News Show Announcement

Live Album and Concert Video: “Live at Mountain Skies 2019”

In early May 2019 I flew out to attend and perform an original electronic music set at the Mountain Skies festival near Asheville, NC. It was a really fun weekend and I had a great time performing one track from 2014 album Fear Cannot Save Us, plus 4 brand new songs. Checkout a video of the entire set below plus a brand new live album from this same show.

Live Performance Video

My full performance is available on YouTube. It’s a 1080p video with live album audio mixed with live room audio so if you have a chance play it on a big screen with headphones or a home theater system :^)

You can jump to individual songs within this video using links below.

  • 00:00 – “Gonna Rise Up” (Octatrack MKII, Analog Four for leads)
  • 3:13 – “The Strange Case of the Dancing Automatons” (Intro is field recordings in Octatrack MKII, rest of the song is ALL Digitone)
  • 09:11 – “Disconnected” (Octatrack MKII, Analog Four MKI)
  • 14:20 “Techno Planet” (ALL Analog Four MKI :^) )
  • 19:29 “Mind the Gap” (Octatrack MKII)

Live Album

I’ve also released live audio recordings of the songs from this set as a “name your price” album on Bandcamp. These songs are presented as I performed them to 2-track during the show with no edits other than trimming and fading to break the continuous set up into this 5 song album with minimal gaps.

Performance Notes

The music was performed using only Elektron Analog Four MKI, Octatrack MKII, and Digitone with no external gear other than a CME Xkey Air 25 MIDI controller which I used with the Analog Four. Original field recordings made on location in Boulder; Denver; Bath & London England. I vocoded my voice in the studio using Ableton Live and Tone2 Electra2.

Visuals provided by Michael O’Bannon.

Photos from Event

Thanks!

A big thanks to Tony Gerber and Mike Metlay for organizing the event. Also a big thanks to all the volunteers at the festival, Radio Spiral, the venue White Horse at Black Mountain, and all the other artists for making it such a fantastic weekend. Also thanks to Geary Yelton and Paul A Vnuk Jr for sharing pics. Lastly thanks to Michael O’Bannon for providing my visuals.

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Pics and Video Snippets from March 2019 Beat Cypher Performances

On Thursday March 28th I performed a set at Beat Cypher at madelife in Boulder. Here is an Instagram video with some snippets of some of the performances including mine which is first. Thanks to https://www.instagram.com/eddiecii/ for footage.

I’m playing lead synth parts on “Gonna Rise” up from the album Fear Cannot Save Us (Spotify, iTunes).

It’s a custom synced oscillator preset from init on the Elektron Analog four.

Speaking of Elektron, this was a shakedown voyage for my Elektron trinity rig with Analog Four + Octatrack MKII + Digitone + Xkey Air 25 (Kentron USB Host) which I’ll be using for Mountain Skies electronic music festival in Asheville, NC in May.

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(Mark Mosher Music News) Events Live Performance News Show Announcement Video

Performing Set at Beat Cypher May 24th, 2018 on Elektron Digitakt + Video from Past Performance on Analog Four

I’ll be performing a set tonight (Thursday, May 24th) at the Beat Cypher event in Boulder. As the format is rapid-fire 10 minute sets and I’ll be improvising using only an Elektron Digitakt and using small a set of custom beat sketches as a starting point. My set is inspired by the Star Trek: The Original Series episode #21 “The Return of the Archons”  – ha!

Time: 7:30 0 10:00 PM
Location: Madelife, 2000 21st Street, Boulder, CO 80302 | Map

[Update 5/25/2018]

“Not of the Body” 5/24/2018

Here is a recording of the song I performed. I forgot to hit record during that live session – so this is a recording I made during a session in the studio earlier that day. The song was inspired by the ST:TOS episode “Return of the Archons”. It was performed live on an Elektron Digitakt and recorded straight to 2-track without edits.

 

More About Beat Cypher

madelife-beat-cypher-poster

Madelife, a creative accelerator in Boulder and frequent host venue for the Rocky Mountain Synthesizer Meetup, started hosting a very cool electronic music concert series late in 2017 called Beat Cypher. Each performer gets a 10-minute slot and signs up first come first serve. It’s Rapid-fire fun for performers and listeners!

Video from My Last Performance Using Only Elektron Analog Four

Here is a video of my performance from madelife Beat Cypher #2.Audio is from GoPro.

I challenged myself to do my set with just an Elektron Analog Four. The Analog Four has 4 analog synths, is only 4 note polyphonic in total and has chorus, delay and reverb on the master chain.

The performance is a combination of original presets, tweaked factory presets, live playing using the onboard chromatic keyboard, real-time sound design, use of some pre-defined original sequences with live arrangement and live sequencing. I’m using 4 kits” throughout (which you can switch to with no load-time or hickups). So all synthesis, no samples, no audio playback.

  • 00:00 Real-time synthesis with original preset
  • 00:34 Live arrangement with grooves, live-sound design, live play on chromatic keyboard
  • 4:00 Back to real-time synthesis using chromatic keyboard
  • 05:00 Things get pretty Logan’s Run bleepy and modular-like
  • 06:25 Freeze with the amazing on-board reverb

 

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(Mark Mosher Music News) Concert Event Events

Playing a Musique Concrète/Synthwave/Glitch Set Tonight (8/14/2017) in Denver

Freq Boutique is a monthly event…like an open mic night for synth heads. Performances will start at 8 pm. Performers should arrive anytime before then so we can set up and make any last minute changes we need to.

I’ll be performing a  Musique Concrète/Synthwave/Glitch Set Tonight (8/14/2017) in Denver/Synthwave/Glitch Set on Elektron Octatrack + Analog Four + Tenori-On.

Details here:

https://www.facebook.com/events/142180683033909/