My recent excursion to the Silent Barn last Saturday led me on an ear-opening journey into the complex and expansive world of modular synthesization. The Modular Synthesizer Equinox, curated by Nathan Cearley of Long Distance Poison (LDP) Institutes proved to be both a mind expanding and delightfully edifying experience. From the various musical performances, sound and light installations, demonstrations, and discussions on synth basics, the night fulfilled its expectations for self-proclaimed “synth-geeks” to downright novices like me. Offering the perfect introduction to the genesis of mainstream electronic and techno that can be found gracing the dance floors of clubs around the globe, this specific genre is more subtle, provocative and cerebral.
If you haven’t been to Silent Barn, the venue itself is worth exploring. Serving as both a residency and performance venue, the building’s labyrinth of hallways and rooms (so-called “stewdios”) all serve as available space at the disposal of the artists and musicians. Walking up the stairs from the street into the building you are immediately greeted by an aloof cat perched on a side table in front of a wall lined with jewel-like cassettes of every color and musical genre. Between the cat’s dubious stare and the intriguing sounds and lights emanating from above, it became instantly clear that I had fallen down the proverbial rabbit hole into a world of which I knew very little. Taking a deep breath, red pill in hand, I swallowed hard and opened my mind to allow the sound, noise, and bass reverberations role over me and fell right in.
In its literal definition, “to modulate” means to change or adapt, and “modulated” referred to something lowered, lessened, reduced, or regulated. Decisively true to its title, the essence of this type of music is to simplify sound into its most basic elements or timbres through the experimentation or invention with modified electronic equipment and machines. These subsequent reductions are then layered, mixed or modified to create their own symphonies of electronically induced sound. In no way a new genre (the modern modular synthesizers date back to the early 1960s), today’s electronic/synth music is a cross-section of different technologies and methods for sound creation and always continuing to find new ways to blow your mind and broaden the range of non-instrument based music.
