Modulisme, So. 13.2., 20-22h

Modulisme Session 019 und 020 mit Batchas und Ben Carey

Batchas started to play electronics and experimental, industrial music in 1983 using analog machines. The way our world vibrates always fascinated him and today he enjoys very much every ephemeral moment spent improvising on his modular systems.
Batchas is a project by Robert Massé from Marseille when was a student at the Beaux-Arts school. The music on his first releases on tape in 1985-86 on Scrotum Production label was made with limited equipment. A walkman to record the fridge, the TV set, the streets, voices, a bass guitar… An Electro-Harmonix Memoryman for effect processing. An answering machine with a few endless loop cassettes.
His main musical influences back then were ska and punk, then industrial with a fascination for Berlin, where he decided to go to live in 1987, before he moved to Zurich in 1991.
Over the years he experimented with 4-track recorders, contact mics, turntables with prepared vinyls, analog synths, drum machines, samplers, a scanner, prepared CDs, effects…
He started with modular systems in the 90s with the acquisition of a Roland 100M with 3 cabinets and a Digisound portable case. His dreams of playing with Buchla and Serge modulars came true in 2011. “I enjoy the interaction with these machines. I like the unpredictability. I like the impermanent nature of a patch. It reflects our existence and the nature of all things. It encourage me to improvise and live more in the present moment.”

Ben Carey is a Sydney-based composer, improviser and educator. He makes electronic music using the modular synthesiser, develops interactive music software and creates audio-visual works. Ben’s research and practice are concerned with musical interactivity, generativity and the delicate dance between human and machine agencies in composition and performance.
He has released four albums: “Antimatter” (2019, Hospital Hill Rec.), “derivations | human-machine improvisations” (2014, self-released), “Ben + Zamyatin” (2013, Not-Applicable Rec.), and “Wingello Sessions” (2014, self-released).
His work has been performed and exhibited at numerous festivals, conferences and events in Australia, New Zealand, the USA, Europe and South America. Ben completed a PhD in interactive musical composition at the University of Technology Sydney in 2016, and is a lecturer in Composition and Music Technology at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney.