Digital gadget and instrumental maestro Love Hultén is again with one other WTF-wondrous creation delivering equal elements delight and perplexing operate. Titled Desert Songs, the big retro-styled console appears like a bit of imaginary bio-laboratory tools that’s pulled straight from the set of a Sixties Japanese Kaiju movie or from the post-apocalyptic setting of beloved online game, Fallout. Did we point out it additionally performs music “composed” by crops?
Nicely, not likely composed, however maybe “aurally influenced” by a photosynthetic set, The audio output is produced through a small gadget engineered to transform biodata sourced from any related natural materials right into a MIDI interface. “It’s not magic and the crops are not composing,” explains the prolific Swedish audiovisual artist and woodworker. “It’s merely biofeedback creating true natural ‘randomness’ within the type of tiny modifications in electrical present with the crops appearing as variable resistors.”
Contained in the system’s containment unit/terrarium to conduct performances is a group of cacti. Chosen particularly for the plant’s “very sparse and sporadic exercise,” the mini backyard features a few totally different specimens hooked as much as particular person probes with mutable patch factors upfront. The MIDI alerts themselves are despatched to a related Korg NTS-1 permitting for “easy waveshaping” earlier than being “drenched in environment” utilizing the Microcosm from Hologram Electronics. The sounds are splendidly atmospheric, if not a bit disconcerting.
Lastly, to finish the retro lab tools aesthetic, a customized round mounted MIDI visualizer simulates the looks of plant chloroplasts below remark. We suggest twiddling with the Desert Songs system accompanied with this track for full mad scientist impact.
