Théo Jansen, The Hague, Netherlands, Born 1948.

"The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds."



Inspiring, innovative, mindblowing...





http://www.strandbeest.com
http://www.strandbeestmovie.com/
http://www.cove.org/ape/demo2.htm

Drive Time history

During the last years, we received many emails about the re-releasing of Drive Time, an early root of Firstcask. By then we replied "take it easy you'll get your hands on it for sure". Though we didn't know when that would happen to be honest. As you may know, Drive Time has been first released as a bonus cassette for the "FSK005" album back in the year 2000. Considering the great enthousiasm that raised for both the album and the cassette we wanted to press this one on vinyl and having another bonus cassette next to it. Just to continue offering free stuff with our sales to have the pleasure to give pleasure or something... How comes it didn't happen straight away? Sure we messed up a bit on the schedule. But you know the score with belgian latin boys... You don't? Good! Then when we finally were ready, Andy came up with the second cassette, but distributors told us it wasn't that wise because cassette players disappeared from the market! I heard there is still that flee market round the corner though! You sure? Not handy and expensive to ship but there is some kind of poetry in this. Ok, fair enough, I'm also slave of a banker who has my balls in his palm and squeeze it from time to time a bit like how Chuck Norris does when strengthening his hands. Tough I recall that by the time we shipped our catalogue through lorries carrying vegetables across Europe. We even reached the japanese shore with the diplomatic wallet, and other remote areas thanks to backpackers or friends traveling around with a bunch of records in their bags. They simply were meeting people, having a shared meal while listening to the music and then selling the records. That brought us much satisfaction as we acheived to bring the music straight from the musician's fingers to the ears of any unknown happy ravers. It worked quite well at the time but was more than exhausting to maintain. Especially to collect money. Can you blame one of these wayfarers spending the benefits just made on buying that boat ticket to get out of Taiwan? Or for that slideshow for kids in Senegal were there is no screen but well a white horse to project on to "for not that much". Quite poetic indeed but the financial results remained at sea level. Still it is. And water is rising! But Weme records is there to give a hand. Cheers mate! Then together we are proud to bring you the brew which stayed for 10 years in the cask. This is half an image as the metalworks stayed untouched since 2003 at the pressingplant. We called them every two years to make sure they wouldn't chuck it in the bin. That would have been a shame because it took us multiple sessions and a few lacquers to cut this piece onto acetate. Nearly tirty minutes per side from sparkling water to deep bass. How to describe Drive Time other than being a wayfarer's anthem? First Cask wayfaring arose early 2000 when we first traveled together with Andy and Joy (Andy's girlfriend of the time who appears on the cover) from Hull to the North East of England. We went up to Whitby, where Dracula's coffin ashored. Not that far away from Robin Hood's bay if you're familiar with that beautiful region. We drove for hours by bus and taxi with litterally hundreds of Ceephax unreleased tracks (earliests from 1997 I think) while staring at tortured trees, windy landscapes, ruined abbays, english seagulls and english carpets... TBC

Optophonic piano, Wladimir Baranoff Rossiné, 1916, "L'avant-garde russe"

"Imagine that every key of an organ’s keyboard immobilises in a specific position, or moves a determined element, more or less rapidly, in a group of transparent filters which a beam of white light pierces, and this will give you an idea of the instrument Baranoff-Rossiné invented.

There are various kinds of luminous filters: simply coloured ones optical elements such as prisms, lenses or mirrors; filters containing graphic elements and, finally, filters with coloured shapes and defined outlines. If on the top of this, you can modify the projector’s position, the screen frame, the symmetry or asymmetry of the compositions and their movements and intensity; then, you will be able to reconstitute this optical piano that will play an infinite number of musical compositions. The key word here is interpret, because, for the time being, the aim is not to find a unique rendering of an existing musical composition for which the author did not foresee a version expressed by light. In music, as in any other artistic interpretation, one has to take into account elements such as the talent and sensitivity of the musician in order to fully understand the author’s mind-frame. The day when a composer will compose music using notes that remain to be determined in terms of music and light, the interpreter’s liberty will be curtailed, and that day, the artistic unity we were talking about will probably be closer to perfection..."

More at the Wladimir Baranoff Rossiné's website.

Seventy Years of Broadcasting in Belgium

By Richard E. Wood
This article was originally published in the August 1984 edition of FRENDX, now The Journal of the North American Shortwave Association. It appears here without permission of NASWA.

"Un, deux, trois, quatre .... díx. Allo, allo. Poste radiotélegraphique et radioteléphonique, pres de Bruxelles. Messieurs les amateurs de télégraphie sans fil, nous allons vous faire entendre un concert dédié á Sa Majesté la Reine Elisabeth... " The first selection was the aria from "Tosca" sung by a vocalist whose name is unintelligible in the primitive recording which survives.

More here.

Raymond Scott, New York, 1908-1994

"What can you say about a man who inspired cartoon melodies and bebop, invented Frank Zappa and electronic music, and still found time to work for-Motown?"
- Andy Partridge, songwriter & leader of XTC

"Raymond Scott was like an audio version of Andy Warhol; he preceded Pop-Art sensibilities, and he played with that line between commercial art and fine art, mixing elements of both worlds together. I love and respect Raymond Scott's work, and it influenced me a lot. I'm a big fan.''
- Mark Mothersbaugh, DEVO

"Raymond Scott's music gets better as it gets older. When it first appeared, it was so bizarre it could not be categorized. Now, it is no less innovative and comic, but it begins to occupy a serious role in our total music-appreciation."
- Dick Hyman, musician

In 1946 Raymond scott founded the Manhattan research inc., one of the very first studios of electronic music in the world.

He also created The Talking Alarm Clock and fascinating musical instruments like The Orchestra Machine, The Karloff, The Bassline Generator, The Circle Machine, The Clavivox , The Videola, The Rhythm Synthesizer, The Pitch Sequencer, The Juxtaposition Matrix, The Synthesized Gong, The Melody Maker, The Rhythm Guitar Simulator or The Electronium-Scott plus a large number of patents used by the musical industry. That's a boy!

There is numerous websites referencing his work and audio simples are fairly easy to find as well. Just take a plunge!