photodotes music

Reuben Son's performance during Photodotes III opening event, Photo credits: Steven Hien

Reuben Son's performance during Photodotes III opening event, Photo credits: Steven Hien

Reuben Son is known as a multi-instrumentalist whose live performances and studio work often include utilization of guitars, tape machines, and modular synthesizer. His 'breaking guitar' pieces have focused on the fragmentation of linearity in performance-time with exploration of  opportunities for manual intervention within the context of electroacoustic music. His new in-progress work moves away from the very hands-on guitar pieces, and focuses on a relatively hands-off system, involving generative digital structures articulated by traditional analogue synthesis methods. Inspired by Photodotes III interplay with organic materials, plants, light, and space, Reuben Son, created and experimental soundtrack that was premiered during the opening reception of the exhibition at Industry Lab (Cambridge, MA) on May 31, 2013:
 

https://soundcloud.com/reubenson/music-for-photodotes-iii
According to Reuben Son: 

"...a pair of algorithmic patches written for and executed on an Arduino microcontroller interfaced with a mostly analogue modular synthesizer...All sounds were synthesized processed in real-time using traditional analogue synthesis methods, with the notable exception of the use of a brief sample from David Behrman's "Leapday Night - Scene 2", which kicks off and anchors the second half of this recording..."

The algorithmic generation of musical parameters and control structures (articulated by a compact analogue synthesis system allow for a minimum or with some gradient of human interaction. The piece's life-cycle is inter-determinate and gives the opportunity to Reuben Son to make "relatively infrequent and subtle changes to the music's progression in an improvised fashion." 

Reuben Son's performance was his first Boston set in exactly nine months. It was instigated by Yurij Roman Lojko, Senior UI Developer at Genuine Interactive,  Webmaster at Green City Growers, and also Radio Host & Sub Director at WMBR, Cambridge.