So, I recently became aware of these when @percussa started following me on Twitter:
They’re called AudioCubes. And I want one. Actually, I want four.
The concept I’ve been toying with for my next album was already going to be sort of an abstract sound collage-type thing, trying to represent and tell a story about UVB-76, a secret Russian short wave radio frequency that’s been broadcasting buzzes and beeps since the Cold War, which I learned about a couple months ago in Wired. Then these things come into my field of view, and it’s just a perfect way to create the types of sounds that I have in my head when I’m trying to think about ways to represent an enigmatic, encoded audio message.
That led to a somewhat careless thought, maybe I’ll start a Kickstarter project for it. Except, that wasn’t actually a half bad idea — other artists, like Juliana Hatfield and Kristin Hersh, are using PledgeMusic to fund their album-making, why not let people help contribute to the making of this album and give them the results and a chance to participate in the process? It couldn’t hurt to try, right?
So, that leads to this, my Kickstarter project.
Kickstarter does not allow partially-funded projects to be green-lit, so we need to make the full $900 before the project ends on January 9. I picked that date to give me enough time for funds to transfer and for the cubes to be shipped to the US. I don’t have high expectations, but I certainly have a desire to make this happen and, one way or another, the album will be made. But it would be a whole lot more awesome to make it with the cubes. And this leads into another idea that I’ve been toying with for a while, which is live performance.
Up to (and including) now, the music I make isn’t particularly live-worthy. It’s more, program some stuff, play, listen to in the dark on headphones music. But the cubes are, by definition, a performance instrument, and that would open up the possibility of, you know, performing with them. Which could be really interesting and now that the kids are a little older, it’s something that’s been simmering in the back of my mind since I had the random thought hey, I should see if I can perform at the Utah Arts Festival.
That’s what I’m thinking and that is the impetus behind this project. I hope you help contribute to make it happen. Even a couple bucks can go a long way, but even better if you can spread the word and spam your friends and family. I will be posting project updates over there, so if you want to hear more about what I’m doing with regards to AudioCubes or The Signal, watch the Kickstarter project.
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