Hangover update: it’s 2012

Posted on January 16, 2012 by Oliver

Today I remembered I have a blog. So, some news:

Coma Architects
‘Grow Flowers’ COMA-04 is now sold out. Thanks to everyone who bought it, had a lot of fun putting that one together so it’s really nice to know its now out in the wild.
There are still a couple of copies of ‘Quiet, Please’ kicking about the lab, but if you don’t have a copy yet don’t jump to order just yet because…
COMA-05 is on the way!more news once the artwork is together, but for now settle safe in the knowledge that it’s a soundscape I’m particularly proud of, and I’ve once again collaborated with the amazing Sam Little on design and print duties. Needless to say this will be something special!

I was ill; played in London
Had the honour of playing the Hibernate x Home Normal Christmas village bonanza thing back in December. I was sick as a dog but eminent philosopher and sometimes housemate, James Lavender pulled me through and we had a LOT of fun playing to a room full of hip southerners (including *some* females, which for a drone festival is a bit disorientating). Big thanks to those who endured us while they waited for Machinefabriek to play.
Props to Gianmarco Del Re for filming everyone and doing unnerving close ups on James and I:

Ithaca Trio from Gianmarco Del Re on Vimeo.

Live at the Dalston Vic – excerpt – 18 December 2011 -presented by Home Normal / Hibernate

Doing some new things:
Not really at the stage where it’s worth talking about any of them yet, but keep yer lids peeled here and on the Coma Architects site for more news soon. Some new projects, collaborations, projects, etc.

Also, if you’re Leeds based I keep getting roped into playing Jazz records at Nation of Shopkeepers on Cookridge street on a Sunday. It’s a great atmosphere, I essentially just drink and play records until I start playing afro-beat and fall over. If you’re in town come join!

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Grow Flowers (COMA-04)

Posted on December 7, 2011 by Oliver

presenting COMA-04:

GROW FLOWERS

a 3″ CDr by Ithaca Trio

GROW FLOWERS is a two-track EP, recorded live on November 29th, 2011. Featuring soundscape recordings; Derek Bailey inspired guitars; frequency-domain processing; AM Radio; and microtonal sine-waves.

Strictly limited to an edition of 45 (one per customer), each copy comes in a handmade yellow card fold. The blood-flowers artwork is wax-dripped and drawn by hand, ensuring each EP is unique and personal.

Tracklisting

 

1. Flowers (08:03)

2. Grow (11:37)

 

PRICES & PRE-ORDERS

£4.50 [UK +£1; EU +£1.50; WRLD +£2]

COMA-04 is available to pre-order now from the shop or by emailing me (ollie[dot]thurley[at]gmail[dot]com), with copies shipping out early next week (I’m in Amsterdam until 12/12/11). For those coming to the Hibernate/Home Normal show in Dalston (18/12/11), save yourself on postage – I will hold back some copies for the show so you can buy them there.

If you would like a download link, send me a message after you order and I’ll send one your way.

 

 

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Live in London! Hibernate/Home Normal show, Dalston Vic. (18/12/2011)

Posted on November 17, 2011 by Oliver

I will be performing its first London show as part of the Hibernate/Home Normal Christmas extravaganza at the Dalston Vic on December 18th. Tickets available here.

 

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End of October: Update: JUMBO; COMA; MMus; I3; CODE

Posted on October 29, 2011 by Oliver

Very often, I forget I have this site. I do something which I should really post about, but I don’t and then nobody knows about it, then I forget about it.

JUMBO :: COMA-03

Last week was Jumbo Records‘ 40th birthday. Jumbo are without a doubt the greatest records store I’ve ever set foot in, so I felt privileged to get asked to help them celebrate. Props to Adam & Matt!
To mark the occasion, Coma Architects made a soundscape recording of the shop on it’s 39th year, 364th day… pressed it to CDr, recruited the amazing designer Sam Little (aka Slitt) to screen print us a bunch of ‘worn record stacks’ covers, and delivered them to the shop on the big day. Really proud of the art/prints on this one. Sam’s done an amazing job of wearing everything to look like gnarled minimalist records. The paint-flecks on everything are some real legit DIY shit!


There’s 10 copies left, they’re £4 (+ whatever P&P is). If you’d like one, drop us a line. First come, first served.

MASTERS :: RESULTS

Got the initial marks from my masters back yesterday, absolutely blown away. Passed with distinction, so needless to say – I’m currently being a gloating bastard.

CREATIVE_PACT_2011 :: FAIL

Well, the creative pact kind of dropped off didn’t it? Turns out working minimum wage jobs for marathon length shifts kinda saps the creativity out of you… who knew. Still stamina building, I’m going to get back on the coding this week – currently battling for efficient ways of controlling multiple Servo motors via serial communication between Arduino & Processing. #DelimitingFail

FUTURE COMA :: SURPRISE, SURPRISE – MORE ITHACA TRIO

Got a few more Ithaca releases lined up on Coma Architects over the next few months with more art by Slitt. Also hoping to get a release out by a good friend of mine that’s gonna blow socks off.

Also got some Ithaca plans for Tokyo Droning & Hibernate records at some point. And a gig before 2012…

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#CreativePact16 :: Serial Communication pt.ii [Arduino; Max]

Posted on September 16, 2011 by Oliver

Revisited yesterday’s code after some help from @Big_Pause and fixed up the problems I was having. Turns out the issue with delimiting values in Max was a confusion with the [select] and ASCII commands.  All sorted now, allowing me some nice simple control. The below patch create a simple Boom-Blap drum machine. Two buttons trigger samples; two potentiometers adjust the samples’ pitch; and a piezo transducer controls the feedback level of a delay effect:

Arduino code:

int potPin1 = 0;
int potPin2 = 1;
int buttonPin1 = 2;
int buttonPin2 = 3;
int piezoPin = 4;

int potVal1 = 0;
int potVal2 = 0;
int button1 = 0;
int button2 = 0;
int piezo = 0;

int THRESHOLD = 100;

void setup() {
 pinMode(potPin1, INPUT);
 pinMode(potPin2, INPUT);

 pinMode(buttonPin1, INPUT);
 pinMode(buttonPin2, INPUT);

 pinMode(piezoPin, INPUT);
 Serial.begin(9600);
}

void loop() {
  potVal1 = analogRead(potPin1);
  potVal2 = analogRead(potPin2);

  button1 = digitalRead(buttonPin1);
  button2 = digitalRead(buttonPin2);

  piezo = analogRead(tempPin);

  Serial.print(potVal1/4, BYTE);
  Serial.print(" ");
  Serial.print(potVal2/4, BYTE);

  Serial.print(" ");
  Serial.print(button1, BYTE);
  Serial.print(" ");
  Serial.print(button2, BYTE);

  Serial.print(" ");
  Serial.print(piezo/4, BYTE);
  Serial.println();

  delay(100);
}

All lots o’ fun.

Should take this point to also thank Joshua Noble, the author of this incredible book I’ve been using to learn all this stuff… Joshua is a brilliant dude and went out of his way to help me on a couple of little issues I stumbled across (being too thick to solve them myself). If you’re interested in any of the things I’m looking at in this #CreativePact – the chances are it’s in his book – so go buy it!

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#CreativePact_15 :: And we’re back… [arduino, Max]

Posted on September 15, 2011 by Oliver

After some break from the coding side of #CreativePact2011 to get this Coma release out, I’m back to the coding now. Today I’ve been looking at the Serial communication from Arduino into Max.

Its a bit trickier than Serial communication with Processing for some reason, though it really shouldn’t be – seem to be having more issues with Max’s dealing with data and noise interferance than anything else. Still having issues delimitating multiple sensor values, but I’ll iron that out tomorrow. Not sure how to go about it seeing as the [serial] only outputs integer values, so how to delimitate with a “,”… more ASCII?! For now, heres a little patch to use a 10k potentiometer to control a simple ‘early electronic’ synth in Max:

Arduino code:

int piezoPin = 0;
int piezoVal = 0;
int THRESHOLD = 100;

void setup() {
 pinMode(piezoPin, OUTPUT);
 Serial.begin(9600);
}
void loop() {
  piezoVal = analogRead(piezoPin/4);
    Serial.print(piezoVal);
    Serial.println();
  delay(100);
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COMA-02 :: Quiet, Please on sale now…

Posted on September 9, 2011 by Oliver

Coma Architects & Ithaca Trio are proud to announce the release of COMA-02:

Quiet, Please - music from a silent place of study (19:25)

‘Quiet, Please’ is an 80mm CDr release, documenting the degeneration of society’s sonic landscape through location recordings, tape-loops and double bass.

Head over to the Coma Architects page to read more and order…

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#CreativePact_8 :: blobs

Posted on September 8, 2011 by Oliver

Okay, this is a bit of a cheat – I did this a few months ago VERY shoddily. Want to fill this out over next few days as a sort of semi-generative OSC controller device for Max using this idea of “breathing”. Anyway, here is the old code – just wanted to make sure I posted something today as I didn’t do anything today OR yesturday :-/


Circle[] blob = new Circle[2];
//Adding more Circle objects just overlays copies. Can't seem to
//separate them out and move individual blobs.

//Eventually, this will be an Android app, allowing user
//to move blobs around a space. x,y coordinates are then
//sent out via OSC to Max/MSP instrument to asct as a basic
//controller... thats the idea anyway!

PFont courier;

void setup(){
size(300,600);
fill(200,0,40);
ellipseMode(RADIUS);
smooth();
noStroke();
courier = loadFont("Courier-8.vlw");
textAlign(CENTER);
for(int i=0;i blob[i] = new Circle(i);
}
}

void draw(){
background(255);
for(int i=0;i blob[i].pulse();
blob[i].flubb();
blob[i].display();
blob[i].data();
}
}

class Circle{
float offset;
float x,y;
float mass;
float pulse;
float a = 0.0;
float speed = 0.025;
float targetX, targetY;
float easing = 0.6;

Circle(float tempOffset){
offset = tempOffset;
}
// PROBLEM - is this only setting posi for each blob, or for ALL?
void flubb(){ // Sets the position of 'blob'
float d = dist(mouseX,mouseY,x,y); // If mouse is within bounds of blob (with a *2 leeway),
if ((d targetX = mouseX; // user can move that blob.
float dx = targetX - x;
if(abs(dx) > 1) {
x += dx * easing;
}
targetY = mouseY;
float dy = targetY - y;
if(abs(dy) > 1) {
y += dy * easing; // little bit of easing - smooth out later.
}
}
}
void pulse(){ // make the blobs pulse!
pulse = cos(a)*5;
a += speed;
mass = pulse+30;
}
void data() { // prints 'Mass' above blob; and x,y coordinates at bottom.
for(int i=0;i int iX = int(x);
int iY = int(y);
int iMass = int(mass);
text(iMass*2+" Ø",x,y-(mass+10));
text("Blob "+i+" || x:"+iX+" y:"+iY,width/2,height-20-(10*i));
}
}

void display(){ // Show us the blob!
ellipse(x,y,mass,mass);
}
}

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Coma Architects :: Quiet, Please [COMA-02 - Assembly]

Posted on September 6, 2011 by Oliver

Today, I strayed from the ‘coding’ element of my #CreativePact and began to put together the packaging for COMA-02: ‘Quiet, Please’. I’ll write about the release itself at some point this week, but for now here are a few photos of the assembly line, and my gradual decline into paper-cut wreck:

It took me all afternoon, several paper-cuts, an identity crisis, and I lost the ability to write legibly, but we got there. To be release in an edition of 75. Pre-orders by the end of the week.

Now Listening: Die Like a Dog ~ Die Like a Dog Quartet (Brötzmann/Kondo/Parker/Drake)
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#CreativePact Day 5 :: oF Y U NO COMPILE???!!

Posted on September 5, 2011 by Oliver

GAH! Still can’t get these tutorials from ‘Programming Interactivity’ to compile properly from openFrameworks, so this whole thing of learning about using Sound in oF still isn’t happening for me. I can’t determine if its a user input error, or if this is a bigger issue from trying to mix and match a whole bunch of varying out-of-date software versions.
Afraid this means there’s no pact work today. Will keep trying to debug tonight and tomorrow, but if not I guess I’ll just have to move onto something else not using the FMOD library…

I’m starting to have my doubts that openFrameworks actually works, I think its all an elaborate hoax to make me hate xCode4, OSX Lion, and oF007 in equal measures.

Still, my yoghurt cheese turned out okay:

…even if it does resemble a “pickled foetus”.

Now Listening: ‘Straight to tha room 9′ ~ Swishahouse (Michael 5k Watts)
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