Just discovered this ancient animation in my vaults – an ident for the Trampoline digital art festival, created from screenshots of corrupt arcade load screens (thanks MAME) and the old arcade ‘classic’ Stun Runner. Created way back in 2003.

Music is by V.L.A.D.

Trampoline Intro Ident from The Curious Machine on Vimeo.

Here’s a wee remix I did for Halloween, taking Ennio Morriconne’s analogue minimalism from The Thing and mulching it through an electro filter.

Bit o’ seasonal fun that allowed me to learn more about sequencing in Abelton Live (i’m normally a Logic man).

Download enabled so grab it and enjoy at your own leisure.

The Things by The Curious Machine

Here’s the latest dronework from me, based round the principle of a repeating sequence, entirely crafted from a piano pulled through Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Or simply put ‘Beneath the river fugue’, a composition for piano.

Beneath the river Fugue by The Curious Machine

Diving back into the heady world of semi random sequencing, here’s a ‘brief’ 10 minute experiment in Glitch Sequencer.

I’m still getting my head round the workings and possibilities of Glitch with Ableton Live so there’s a long way to go before I take this show on the road.

Apologies for the awful humm during the quiet parts – Warrior needs external soundcard interface…

Glitch test 12.08.10 by The Curious Machine

Considering my recent ambient/drone output, I thought i’d upload this ancient piece of music I did for my degree show (in 1999!), collaborating with Graham Blackwell, who kindly played guitar while I mashed it with an assortment of effects units and pedals.

This is 9 minutes of pleasant drone morphing into a wall of noise and back out again – play it loud. Unless you’re sat on a bus.

Moonbase (Alphaville) by The Curious Machine

Here’s another new track, started on Saturday afternoon. Another ambient treat, continuing in the flavour of Gost, written under a new moniker.

This is by The last man on Mars.

To the downs we burrow by The last man on Mars

Gost is a rough cut, cooked up over a late night/early morning session of music making, diverging wildly from the usual sequenced electronics I indulge in. There’s not an 8-bit sound in sight for starters. This is a new direction for me musically, which I may continue with. We shall see…

Gost by The Curious Machine

After a 5 month absence, Glitch Sequencer is finally up and running on my Mac. As of yesterday i’m back controlling Ableton Live with it – this is a recording of me getting the hang of it all again.

Random drum samples used, in conjunction with a broken up Philip Glass track I originally remixed with Glitch Seq and Plogue Bidule a year ago.

Glitch Seq/Live test by The Curious Machine

This is my first toe dip into the world of coding, created in a Lovebytes workshop by hacking an Open Frameworks example, which uses audio to affect the visuals on screen. The end goal is to create a visual accompaniment to my live gigs, using MIDI, audio and possibly even a webcam, to generate and affect the visuals.

Small word of warning – I used feedback from laptop’s microphone as a sound source so turn your speakers down before hitting play.

Thursday 25th March saw me performing live & improvised electronica sets on a Nintendo DS at GameCityNights, using the homebrew Glitch DS software.

I played twice over the night, first with new and original material, testing out ideas and styles during a 16 minute noodle. This was followed by a remix of Philip Glass’ ‘Brazil’, taken from Chime (a musical puzzle game being talked about on the night).

Recordings of the gig lie below.

Curious City by The Curious Machine

Glass City by The Curious Machine