When some months ago Thomas gave me a sneak preview of Audiovoltaics and we had a long Skype chat about it, I was thrilled about, not only the concept, but that Thomas was being innovative in the way we experience music reviews on the web. If this sounds like an exaggeration it isn’t. Thomas is one of the most respected voices of the growing Creative Commons/Netlabel community and he is very well respected journalist (he is the former editor of German Beat Magazine). If that isn’t enough, Thomas knows how to write great reviews (if this sounds like a pleonasm–being a journalist and knowing how to write well–please, go to any news website and judge for yourself the writing quality of most of its contributors) and he is also a very talented musician and DJ. In a nutshell, Thomas knows and loves the industry in which he works and that passion shows in every detail of his past and present work.

Audiovoltaics Website

Audiovoltaics sets an incredibly high standard for what an online music magazine should be. It is beautifully designed, the interface could not be simpler, allowing the visitor to focus on content and, when speaking of content, the seamless integration of text, audio and video allows you to stay on the site while being able to know, in one single spot, all the useful information there is to know about a certain artist or release.

Content

Thomas knows about every aspect of music so his articles are extremely informative and detailed. In this issue of Audiovoltaics you already get a glimpse that Thomas will not stay on his comfort zone and will aim to cover all kinds of creative arts.

Highlights

The netlabel portrait section, the interview with “To Rococo Rot” and the interview with Sven Kacirek deserve a highlight but all of Audiovoltaics is filled with pleasant surprises.

The “Peepin’ Music” section is a very welcome idea applied to Creative Commons music (based on the a very well known section from Wire magazine), where a known producer listens to music tracks and describes what he/she feels about them without knowing who the artists are.

Conclusion

If you are a music lover, want to get a peek of what the future of online music magazines might be like, have access to great and well-written content, you can’t miss Audiovoltaics.

…and I am not saying this because Thomas is my friend; I am saying this because I can’t wait for the October issue to be online.

Due to the amount of data flowing today on social networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Soundcloud or YouTube, it is really hard to find something that makes you stop from clicking immediately that mental “next” button: Diego Stocco’s work is one of those that makes you to stop to watch it because his work has that “wow!” factor. See it for yourself before I continue.

Diego is someone that, in the sound design world, doesn’t need any introduction. Those of you that never heard of him probably have already heard his work on such movie trailers as “Terminator:Salvation”, “2012?, “Eagle Eye”, “The Uninvited”, “Jumper”, “Transformers”, “Resident Evil: Extinction”, “Awake”, “Skinwalker” and “Lady in the Water” and video game trailers like “Justice League Heroes”, “Soulcalibur IV”, “MK vs DC, “Call of Duty, World at War” and television shows like “The Tudors” or “Moonlight”. Apart from that he has also done sound design for such brands like Nokia, Samsung, Panasonic, BMW and General Motors.

Diego has also achieved a name for himself by using non-traditional sound design techniques and by building his own instruments that he uses to create original sounds. The Experibass, a “monster” that is made of a violin, viola and cello strings amplified through the body of a double bass, caught the attention of Hans Zimmer who used Diego’s invention and talent on Guy Ritchie’s “Sherlock Holmes”.

Interview with Diego Stocco

I recently came across Diego’s latest work “Music From a Bonsai” and this gave me the a good reason to bother Diego and have him answer some questions.

Your work as a composer and sound designer is widely perceived as innovative and you keep pushing that notion. What drives you to experiment with sound design and composition the way you do?

Diego Stocco (DS): Mostly curiosity, I can hear interesting sounds around all the time and I can’t stop thinking how they would sound organized into compositions. I think all objects and instruments contain sonic material that can be shaped into different forms, some of those can be tonal, some less, some are rhythmically defined, some very abstract.

When I first listened to some of your pieces lots of references came to my mind: Pan Sonic, Autechre, Amon Tobin even Aphex Twin but applied to natural sounds. Who are your main influencers? What role do they play when you are composing?

DS: I’ve heard about these artists before and I had a chance to listen to a couple of tracks from Amon Tobin, and probably Aphex Twin, but my musical heroes are Mike Oldfield and Peter Gabriel. These are the musicians that cracked wide open my musical sensibility and inspired me to go out and try my own things. I feel I learned from them the concept of expressing whatever music you have inside.

“Music from a Bonsai” is your latest experiment in using “living instruments” to produce a composition. What are the technical challenges to make such a production?

DS: This one was pretty challenging actually, the bonsai has this short and tiny sounds that are hard to control. Intentionally I didn’t want to start messing with synths and samplers, that would have surely helped in creating a more complex composition, but the spirit of this project was to stay true to the source.
Usually when I do these types of projects I test in advance if the techniques I want to use are actually going to work, but I like to keep the performance part open. I let my imagination suggest me a groove to start with, and when I feel it’s going and it’s solid, I start playing it with my hands too. Then I start layering the other elements and the piece becomes more defined.

Apart from your work as composer and sound designer you are also experimenting in building your own instruments. Experibass comes to mind immediately since it got you to play, as soloist, on Hans Zimmer’s “Sherlock Holmes” soundtrack. How did you come up with the idea to build the Experibass? And how was it to work with Hans Zimmer?

DS: I’ve been customizing and building instruments for a while, but the classical strings were a new territory for me. I was curious to hear what kind of resonances a violin string could have if amplified by a double bass.
So I built the instrument to find out. Then I also discovered many other interesting things happening within the instruments, for example, every note, hit and noise resonate through all the strings, creating sympathetic resonances. Once the instrument was ready I had to come up with some techniques to show even to myself how I was thinking to play it, and so I thought to make also a video.
It’s was a great surprise when Hans Zimmer contacted me. I always admired his soundtracks because besides being an incredible composer, he has such a natural instinct for great sounds.
He gave me the freedom to express the potentials of the Experibass on his music, encouraging me to come up with even more playing techniques. It was amazing to see his enthusiasm and positive reaction about what I was playing.

Do you prefer to use a large variety of tools (software) or do you stick with a few you already know? What are those? (Question submitted by Nick Maxwell)

DS: Every project is different and it depends what I’m trying to achieve, if there’s an opportunity to learn something new I definitely go for it.
There are some software and tools that have been a stable presence in my setup. I’ve been a Pro Tools user for a long time, that’s what I mostly use to record; inside Pro Tools I also do the mixing.
I’ve been using Røde mics for a variety of projects, they sound great and they have this particular model called NT6 which is so small that I can attach it to my fingers, as I did in “Music from a Tree”.
Rather than that, there might a new plugin sometimes that catches my attention, but I always thought that ideas are the most important tools, without those you could have a million dollar studio and not getting anything original out of it.

Below you can see the “Music from a Bonsai” video. If you leave any questions you might have for Diego, on the comments I am sure he will be kind enough to answer them.

:: Connect with Diego ::
Diego Stocco on Béhance
Diego’s Videos on VIMEO
http://thezargon.org/?p=1082 This post was originally written by Sr. Aye, someone I have the honor of knowing personally and the man behind the Miga Netlabel. Sr. Aye is himself an authority in music and when he told me I had to check out Error Broadcast, I did. After I listened to it I could understand why he felt the urge to write a post about it and, because I subscribe to all of his words (yeah me, the guy that doesn’t appreciate hip-hop that much) I decided to translate it.

Original Post Translation

21st Century Beat Music is how Error Broadcast’s founders  define themselves and the truth is that they are right. After listening to their very interesting catalog, I have reached the conclusion,that Error Broadcast has been able to differentiate themselves from other labels and have a spot of their own, by releasing good music.

Error Broadcast is an Italo-German project run by Sven Swift y Flip that has released 8 references and 3 mixtapes. Contemporary beats, of (still) unknown artists that bring freshness and new sounds. There are other netlabels that I follow like Budabeats or Dusted Wax Kindom that release high quality hip-hop, but much less risky in format and with a more classic cut.

Error Broadcast’s first reference was the compilation [ebc001]V.A “Bag of Nothingness” that is a declaration of intentions with tracks from Comfort Fit + Prortformat (Tokyo Dawn Records), Lambent (Project Mooncircle), Apes on tapes and instant hits like “Juno Had a Rough Day” by Great Mundane.

The following 4 releases allowed me to get to knnow AEED, Swede:art x A-rec x Fuer.steps, Shlohmo and Pixelord.

AEED is synthetic and full of good taste. Shlohmo is a man from the future, minimalist and fresh that reminds me a bit of Dilla and people like Stones Throw. Swede:art x A-rec x Fuer.steps have really authentic themes and overall the whole thing sounds fat while Pixelord distinguishes himself in the use of his 8 bit synths and his analog arsenal.

After this Error Broadcast released Pixelord remixes and some days ago two new releases from Kenlo Cranqnuques and B-ju of which they have pressed some copies in 7″ vinyl that are almost sold out. Error Broadcast is offering some of these and you still can make an  entry to  their competition by following this link.

The mixtapes are also high-grade material and there is a lot of music to get to know. The selection and the mixing itself are really well done. They call it Wonky, some other say it is post-Dilla… to me it sounds like good music that I invite everyone to listen to.

The Great Mundane – Juno Had a Rough Day by Error
Broadcast

KenLo Craqnuques – L’Automne en Amour by Error
Broadcast

Pixelord – Quartz Boy by Error
Broadcast

AEED – More Time by Error
Broadcast

This new move, supported by the music industry, is a new attempt to apply a old business model to the digital revolution and to the way artists are reaching their audiences. MusicDNA is nothing more than a mp3 file on steroids that can reach up to 32GB per file and will include anything that has an URL on it. From the artist’s blog to a twitter stream, album covers and/or promotions.

To put it in a nutshell, MusicDNA wants to be a one stop information hub for anything about any artist while offering labels a way to keep tight control on who is buying and sharing what, with whom and even where.

Why does it matter?

We have heard it all before: the fact is that the music industry (not the artists) is taking a huge blow on revenue. The usual suspects are always the pirates that download music illegally only to share it with others but this argument couldn’t be more flawed: the numbers are actually up and artists are making more money while the major labels are making less money. (Read this excellent post here to understand it all). The fact is that the industry is at loss and unable to adapt to us, the consumers, but the artists are more flexible and understand their audience and reach out to it. And I’m not referring to artists you never heard of: Like them or not, names like RadioHead and Nine Inch Nails have already embraced this model and the results were very positive. MusicDNA matters to understand how desperate the music industry is and gives, all of us, an understanding of its inability to react and downsize a business that is hugely dependent on a business model that no longer makes sense.

Why will MusicDNA fail?

Forget about the privacy concerns that such by-products of MusicDNA, like MusicGPS, may raise. MusicDNA wants to put information that is available on the public domain into a mp3 for a higher price. You will still be buying the same song, with the same quality but because of all the added value the file will bring with it there will be an additional cost. Apparently the music industry thinks that we are all lazy, unable to find information by ourselves, unable to create trusted sources of information and it also thinks that we will be willing to pay more money for something we can get for free. I, for one, am not willing to do that.

What about you? Let me know in the comments!

Picture Credits: j / f / photos under a CC License

This post is divided in two parts: The first one has to do with Twitter and how the circle of trust works for me. The other part is aimed at describing and calling attention to how some unscrupulous companies or individuals try and take advantage of young musicians.

The Twitter circle of Trust

Today in the morning I saw a tweet by my dear friend Shelly Kramer  that was a RT of a RT:

I was tempted to RT the Tweet immediately but the fact is that I don’t know who @yahaloma is, so I decided to click on the link and read it for myself before I did my RT. What I found on that post is the reason I am writing this one. If that tweet was “@ShellyKramer RT @SEOcopy RT @adamsconsulting text link ” I would not hesitate and I would have RT it immediatelly. All of them are what I call trusted sources (Shelly and Diana I’m honored to call my friends).  I’m not blaming anyone here, mind you. I’m just trying to explain how this twitter circle of trust works for me. I guess what I’m trying to say is that it is important to check the link if you don’t know who the original person is. That way you are helping to keep the level of overall tweet quality on Twitter high and clean. Also beware of people you don’t know asking you to RT something: Always check the link before you do. On the other hand I’m glad Shelly did RT that tweet because she gave me something to rant about! So thank you Shelly and here we go:

A Scam disguised of Opportunity

With every line I read of this post I got more angry. I got angry to the point of shouting out loud “What the FUCK?!?!?!” (Told you I was going to use strong language). I’ve seen lots and lots of these messages spreading across message boards and also via email and let me tell you: Be careful.

I will skip the motivational blah blah that is the first part of that post. It’s innocuous and it can be applied to everything from fridges to frogs. Let’s deconstruct what really matters:

Universal Music Group is taking submissions for their upcoming compilation cd, deadline is February 28th for the selection process.

Notice the lack of a link to the Universal Music Group? To that page at the Universal Music Group website where they announce they are taking submissions? I do! And so should you. And why is there no link? Because there is no competition, or any call for entries I suspect. Universal Music must get hundreds if not thousands of submissions every single day and to scout for new talent they have a department called “A&R” (Artists and Repertoire and not Artists and Repitore as it is written on their website)

The master, finished product, must be submitted no later than June 2010 for all selected artists, which will be for the summer and Holiday releases.

As anyone in the music industry can tell you, music works pretty much in the same way as Fashion does: Any “finished” product submitted by June 2010 would probably be able to make it to the shops by June 2011. But not only that: Universal, like all majors, likes to keep a tight control on what their bands sound like: All the mastering is done by their trusted studio engineers and adds to the bill that artists have to usually pay. The way it works is that a band gets signed by a major, its taken to a studio, records their material with trusted producers and engineers and then it’s sent on a tour if it sells enough records. If not the band is ditched. End of story.

They request no fewer than 3 songs, from each artist, be submitted for the selection process in which one or two songs will be chosen. One song selected is $250 and if two songs are selected $400. If two songs are selected, they will choose which song is to be on which release.

Ok let me get this straight: You have to submit more than 3 songs, you have to master them (this costs real money) and on top of that you will have to pay $250 if one song is chosen and $400 if two songs are chosen. Anyone wants to bet with me that the lucky winners are going to have two songs selected? Am I the only one smelling something strange around here?

Artist WILL RECOUP this expense: they will receive their royalties from sales and music will be submitted to SoundScan and various publishing companies, which will be paid through your publishing company. They will build a tour from artists with highest number of downloads, and a video shoot of artist in concert, developed into a video for airplay, which the artist is to receive royalties from as well.

This part is what I call the funny, hilarious part of the post. Really! Hilarious! I could laugh till the walls around me would turn into rumble. But I’m not laughing. Actually I am pretty pissed off! Why? I will tell you why!

Do you have any idea how many records an artist has to sell or stream on services like Spotify to get $250 of royalties? I will give you a number to make you think: Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face” streamed more than one million times on Spotify and got payed €133 (Around $191) [read the whole story here] Just do the math please. And what publishing company? You mean the same publishing company that is now calling for tracks to be submitted? Universal Music group? Who? Or do the artists have to setup a publishing company to get the royalties? And just one more thing: Nothing is submitted to SoundScan, as far as I know it. SoundScan is a Nielsen service that companies, like Universal, can buy.

I am not going to post here the e-mail that is given for sending submissions but I would alert you that a company that has a gmail account as their contact should not be trusted. If you check the website you will see how active it is and how full their tour dates are. Furthermore, and interestingly, there is no mention of this call for submissions anywhere to be found.

To give an opportunity to comment on these issues I will send a tweet to @yahaloma asking her to read this post. I do hope that she takes the time to read it since I’m still thinking that she is an innocent victim in all of this.

* Pictures  from Mikey da Photographer and Photos8 via Flickr and edited by me under a Creative Commons License 3.0 by-nc-sa

As you might know, I recently started to write for Bit Rebels and one of the things I have started to make is the “Rebel Music” series that comes out every Monday. It is a way of celebrating #MusicMonday on Twitter and also a way to bring music from several netlabels to a wider audience.

I thought this was going to be something that would take me, maximum, 3h a week to complete. I counted on Thomas Raukamp‘s tweets during the week to set my targets,  on Moritz Sauer‘s Netblabels.org to discover new things for myself and I also on a tweetgrid search to track #ccmusic, #music, #creativecommons and #netlabels tweets.

What I never thought was that, most of the netlabels, make it really difficult for those who want to promote their music. What I didn’t count on was that it is taking me 8h to complete every Bit Rebels’ compilation because of the total incompetence of people that I have no idea why they are running a netlabel.

In my attempt to make a 10 track compilation I have run into obstacles that usually led to frustration and that usually led to giving up including a artist on the compilation. So I have decided to voice the frustration that is inside of me and how revolted I am about what I have experienced in the last 3 weeks.

1. If you don’t know how to edit a wiki learn how to: Moritz gives all of us a space to promote our content at netlabels.org. The least you can do is to properly insert the information. Is not that difficult. Just copy the entry before yours and change the content but not the code.

2. Be professional about what you do even if you are not making any money out of it: To describe a release with two words (“Heavy shit”) tells me absolutely nothing and feels like you really don’t care about what you’re doing. How I am supposed to differentiate between your downtempo heavy shit and your techno heavy shit? See what the common word is? That is what it looks like to me: shit!

3. GET A PLAYER ON YOUR WEBSITE: If you are expecting me to go to your website, where you only have a small image of the release and a link to a zip file at the archive.org,  and expect that I go the artist’s last.fm or myspace page to listen to the songs for that release only to go back to your website (ufffff…. deep breathing) to download your 70MB zip file just to be able to use a track… FOR-GET-IT!!! Come on! Are you kidding me? Do you really think that I am going to download a zip file without listening to the material? And do you really think I am going to download a zip file of a whole release just for one track? If you do you do not understand how this works you shouldn’t have a netlabel.

4. Be consistent in the way you name your releases. Get a catalog reference (PublicSpaces Lab uses [PSXXX] for example) and stick with it. Again this is about being professional. If you name one release XX009 and another XX666 just because you think is “cool” you will have people looking for the missing 567.

5. Most of the netlabels are uploading their releases to the Internet Archive. So WHY do you keep releasing stuff at 192 Kbps? Don’t your artists deserve better? It’s not like you’re paying for the download traffic. Come on, get your act straight!

6. If you don’t know what MP3 ID tags  are,  close down your netlabel. Implement a naming convention for your files, tag all files properly. Yes it takes time! But if you don’t have the time to do this I also don’t have the time to do your work.

7. Answer your mails: I know this might sound totally ridiculous but its not. From my 3 weeks experience only 4 of the 28 mails I sent to netlabels were answered. Is this how you are helping your artists?

8. Get your head out of your ass! If you think you are really important and cool because you have a netlabel you are doing it ALL WRONG. Your focus must be on your artists, on promoting them, on giving them the best of you. This is about music and not about you upgrading your cool status with the girls. If you are on this for the girls get in a fucking boys band.

9. Engage with your artists, support them, get to know them, challenge them: This is the only way you can promote your artists.

10. Don’t be a music spitting machine: Focus on quality not on quantity. Take care of the way you present each release, understand what the artists want to express, take your time to communicate it effectively. Be professional!

| Image Credits: Bill Campbell via Flickr |

Remember the “give the fishing rod, instead of the fish”? Here is your fishing rod to find a song you only know some of the lyrics!

The answer of course is at Google but with so much data how do we find the right information? My tip is a simple one: If you don’t know the name of the song, don’t try and guess it. A few days ago, one of my tweeps was asking “That song “Never fall in love” is sang by whom?”. The song of course is “The Wicked Game” by Chris Isaak and the he only sings “Wicked Game” once during the whole song. So, don’t try and guess it. You will probably know at least one line of the lyrics of the song you are looking for. Do a search with “the line you know lyrics” and will will probably get it on the 3rd or 4th result.

Sometimes, like with the the song I was looking for, it’s not really straight forward. The song I was looking for was a cover version of the original song by swedish band The Knife. What to do then? Just do another search with the now known name of the song and artist name and adding the words “acoustic” or “cover version” to your search.

Do you know I love lists? Here is one for all of you.

What I did to find that song for Richard:

1. Went to google and searched for “One night to be confused“
2. Got to a website with the lyrics for the song “Hearbeats” by The Knife
3. Went to Youtube, searched for it and got this
4. Clearly it was not the same song. Back to Google with a search for “Heartbeats The Knife acoustic version”
5. Got it!

Of course that if you are into electronic music, hard techno for example, a search for “Boom Boom Boom Ritititititi Boom Boom Boom” won’t do you much good. For that we will have to wait a few more years

Did you find this post useful? Were you having trouble finding THAT song? Let me know on the comments!
Picture Credits: EngGul under a CC License

Expanding09 Highlights

Edu Commeles: Walking Compositions

This is an amazing site specific project.The project aims to generate a sound based experience between the listener and the environment where the walk is done. Moreover this project aims to explore the concept of soundscape composition and its posibilities of distribution and displaying. I strongly advise everyone to read the full MSc dissertation about this project that you can download here [PDF Link]. Also a visit to the website to explore the whole project is a  must. This is one of those projects that tell us that the future is already here.

Daniel Rojas and Carles Gutiérrez: “Sociograma interactivo” (Interactive Sociogram)

Daniel and Carlos came to Expanding09 with this project of social tracking to ask for ideas: “We have developed this, how would YOU use it?“  After explaining the project, the questions and possible applications were discussed with the audience and I would expect some of the ideas discussed to be taken further. I have proposed that this system could be used as a loop triggering control, where the “DJ” would connect people (literally) to launch sound clips. Users could choose what element of a certain composition they wanted to be (bass, drum, synth, etc.). The potential for it to be a game also crossed my mind.

Salvador ‘Sr. Aye” and Adolfo “Decolora”: MIGA Create and Learn

Miga started as a netlabel and is now a cultural association that is very active. They are also a role model of commitment and the living example of what a netlabel can become. Adolfo “Declora” explained in detail how their organization works, what are they plans and how they see the scene, as a whole, in Spain. The following discussion that ensued (specially about how to monetize a netlabel that seems to be a recurrent discussion these days) made me decide, on the spot, that PublicSpaces Lab should try and do something with Miga: we only have to learn from them and the following discussion I had with Salvador and Adolfo only confirmed what I thought: There are synergies that we can put to work and, guess what, we already did. More about this on the PublicSpaces Lab website really soon.

Conclusions

There is much to be done: Like someone said during, the discussion period,  the scene in Spain is made of small scenes that don’t talk to each other. Bridges are hard to build, and it has to start by those responsible but,  the potential exists. One of the ideas that was praised was to to setup a wiki for the scene where netlabel’s could post projects that needed a certain resource to see if anyone could help. This is, in my opinion, something easy to setup and should be done a.s.a.p so that the momentum is not lost. Also more work on the promotion of the event would have helped to bring more  audience to it. I am not going to make a rant about this since it happens in lots of events but, please: if you are attending something where the whole purpose is to network please bring your business cards.

Overall this edition of  Expanding09 brought important issues to the discussion table, issues that are very important to the evolution of the netlabel scene in Spain. The projects that were presented show the creative and technological maturity of those present and to loose the opportunity to develop and help those projects reach the next stage would be, in my opinion, a waste.

Finally I would like to thank the whole Netaudio.es team, specially David Domingo for putting this together and for inviting me to participate.

My expectations for the festival were really high and in a way they were met. On the other hand, not really.

I  have been thinking a lot about how to structure this post and I have finally decided to write about it in a chronological order. So here we go:

Day 0 – Where everything starts
Arrived in Berlin and went to the Maria Club to see if any help was needed. Everything was being setup and got to meet the people behind the organization that did a really amazing work getting all the festival setup.

A first talk regarding my live act with the Jon, from the technical crew, got me  informed that the requested Xone-92 was not available. Sincerely that got me a bit crossed and I started to think immediately that I would have to make some changes in the live act to reflect the lack of the mixing desk that I had requested on my technical rider.

That night I had dinner with David Domingo, from Netaudio Spain, where we talked about netlabelism, open source and the upcoming “Expanding’09” festival in Barcelona and how we could join forces. David is one of those guys that perspires netlabelism and his insights about the scene (national and international) are something that got me thinking. One of the things that we addressed at our talk was the gray area that the netlabel world is now going through with netlabels selling music, labels releasing free music and so-called netlabels that are charging artists to release them under strange contracts.

Day 1 – Pheek Live

After spending the morning re-arranging the live act, I spent the afternoon at Maria doing my best to help out with whatever was needed. Had a short conversation with JP (aka Pheek) when he arrived. Don, from the organization gave me a tour around the venue and we had a great talk. Later was great to catch up with Thomas Raukamp, chief-editor of German Beat magazine and, to head out to dinner with David Domingo and a friend from Barcelona that is living in Berlin. On that dinner we discussed cultural politics, night life in Berlin vs. Barcelona, compared cost of living and the overwhelming presence of people from Spain in Berlin.

When we got back the first live act that I went to see was  6.R.M.E. : Those that know me are aware that Hip-Hop is not really my thing but I was really surprised, in a positive way, by the live act performed by this French artist. Right before I had the great pleasure to meet Simon from Canada that had traveled all the way for the netaudio festival. It was one, of the many people, that I met for real after exchanging lots of messages with them on Twitter.

Next on my list was, of course, Pheek. Some technical troubles at the beginning gave way to an amazing live act that got the crowd dancing to the sound of this Canadian born producer. Technically perfect (to my ears), full of groove and some bass lines to die for this was the absolute highlight of the opening gala of the Festival. Some sense took over me [had to be back on the venue for setup and sound check at 12am] and I left the building with the sensation that this was going to be a great festival.

Day 2 – Live Act, Muffins and MachtDose

Sun was shinning in Berlin on Friday: Amazing weather that somehow was in contrast with my live act. Arrived at Maria and started to setup my material and took some time to check and double check if everything was working. When I was happy with it I asked my twitter followers if i should have some Gin Tonic before the live act and the answer was positive. Two double gin tonics followed, some concentration time outside on the sun and back inside to listen to the amazing [really amazing] performance from Marco Donnarumma a.k.a The !S.A.D!, using a bass and a pure data based software called C::ntrl. The performance called |C::ntrl| Nature was one the best things that I saw at this netaudio festival and it was only a question of time till we connected. [more on that later]

Next was my live act, 45m turned into 10m more because the following artist was missing in action. I fail to understand how someone that is already at a venue fails to realize that he/she must act like a professional and setup the equipment BEFORE the performance starts and not at the time that performance is supposed to start. Things like these are not permitted at a professional level and surely should not be permitted period. But they happen, unfortunately. For a moment me and Marco were going to start a jam session but we decided to leave it at that. But the idea was great.

My main mission was finished and the feedback was great. Right after I gave an interview, that turned out to be a great talk with Simon, regaridng the live act, PublicSpaces Lab, the scene in general and comments about the odd boat that was passing on the river that afternoon.

Outside Maria the people were gathering and I sat on a table to have a talk with Sim Sullen from 12 rec netlabel about life, the universe and everything. Sven Swift, also joined us bringing us muffins that went great with the tea. Talk about bacteria that stinks, social skills, Twitter and bacteria followed. Some minutes later Moritz Sauer (phlow) and Roland (MachtDose) also sat at the table and we were discussing lots of things specially the scene in Russia, where a netaudio festival is happening next week. It was an intense discussion that could have lasted for a long time. I kind of scheduled a talk with Moritz to happen during the festival and had a few exchanges with Roland that happens to work in a company that develops software and hardware for us musicians. I really had some things to discuss with him and took the opportunity to do so.

I still listened to the opening act of the night, Tracing Arcs. Nothing original here, music wise [think Portishead on a smaller scale],  but that a group of such experienced musicians is releasing under Creative Commons is, like David Domingo so cleverly noted, the living proof that not only kids are a part of this movement. Dinner followed with Marco and Joanna at a Thai restaurant around Kreuzberg. We walked there, got lost on the way, met a Japanese couple that looked at us awkwardly when we asked for restaurants in the area [they actually told us that everything was already closed] and then ran into two german girls that finally gave us the directions to the herzt von lebens [the heart of life]. When heading back to the festival, after a great talk about all sorts of things, we found out that there was a really straight way to the venue. But it was great to walk for a bit and get out of Maria just for a few hours.

Back at Maria I ran again into Roland and what followed was almost a 4h talk marathon. One of the things that we agreed on, of the many, was about the lack of a really experimental side to the netaudio festival. This was something that I had already spoke with David Domingo, Marco and Joanna. On a time where open source, DYU projects are storming the netaudio scene my opinion remains that, apart from a few exceptions, the line up was of great quality but, how to put this, conservative.

This night netaudio’s performances for me were just background music as the conversation with Roland evolved into matters that were far more important at that time for both of us and that was a great thing. It was inspiring to say the least. On a personal level a big highlight of my trip to Berlin.

Day 3 – The Final Countdown

Saturday was the day that everyone was waiting for. Until now the attendance to the festival had been not that high and this was the day to see how the nightlife Berlin would answer to the call: they did! With two new clubs opening in the city, with the rain pouring [reminding me of any of summer day in Swansea] the people of Berlin came to the Maria Club showing interest for the musical offer but also showing that the amazing work that the organization did in promoting the festival did pay off: the audience turn up was really a much deserved reward to all the behind-the-curtains work that was being done daily by Antina, Don, Sarah and the rest of the Berlin crew.

My afternoon started watching the Netaudio Ping Pong match, a netaudio london project that involves two controllers, a ping pong table, CC samples and inspired players. And tapas, right Matt? [Private joke here] The installation is really a great way of getting non-musicians playing with samples and at the same time discovering about the CC concept.

Afterward I was asked to fill in for M. Cavallera (broque.de) on the last discussion panel of the festival “East meets West Netlabels: Networks as Pioneers“. The theme for the discussion was not the best: after all East and West netlabels were already meeting in Berlin. But some of the points raised at the discussion were interesting enough specially regarding funding, cultural policies and the differences that we have and that actually make the scene so special.It was interesting to me that my points of view were shared by Raganova, the label head from sologroove [netlabel from Slovakia that I highly recommend].

At the backstage lots of talks were being held, too many to follow, but all of them interesting. Networking was a big thing at this netaudio festival for sure. I have to thank Sim Sullen for introducing me to so many [interesting]  people [great networker]. I finally got the chance to have some chair time with Moritz Sauer and the result of that talk will be subject to a interview on Phlow Magazine pretty soon. It was Moritz that pointed me to the the second biggest surprise of this netaudio festival: Comfort Fit. This guy knows how to put a live act together. Not only that, his production is something that, independently  if you are into his style of music or not, is something that everyone should listen to. FAT doesn’t even start to describe it. I had the opportunity to have a long talk with him Boris [Comfort Fit's real name] and he is a real talent, someone that knows his sound and that is willing to explore. Our conversation ended with a promise to meet very soon in Barcelona, for a business related talk that, I am hoping, will be one that will satisfy him enough to say yes to the proposal that we have for him.

Marko Fürstenberg was next on my list: Great live act, really sweet dub-techno and a shame that not many were there to listen. Someone said that it was a “choreography problem” to have put Marko on that room. I agree. Marko belonged on the main stage. Coming and going from room to room got me the chance to appreciate SCSI-9 [brilliant as always].

Day light was outside already  [eyes hurting], my voice was almost gone [see this weeks solipsistic nation podcast for recorded evidence of that] and I was having some chair time with the team from Visual Berlin, one of the VJ collectives that were present at the netaudio festival. Conceptually they did a high class work and produced amazing material. Talk about a after hours was going around but I was to wasted to go anywhere but to a bed and catch some sleep.

Highlights from the whole festival [people and acts]

Marco Donnarumma + Joanna [!!!!!!!], Antina Michels + husband [Vai Galera!!!] , Don Ludwig, Sarah Ladkani, Max Lisewki, Chris Box, Matt Spendlove [Tapas, really?] , Andi Studer, Jon Dickens, Sim Sullen [!!!!], Sven Swift [Muffins] , Roland [!!!!!], Moritz Sauer, Boris a.k.a. Comfort Fit [!!!!!!], 6.R.M.E., Marco Fürstenberg, SCSI-9, JP a.k.a. Pheek [Hope you are feeling better man], Thomas Raukamp [Starbucks Office Rules], David Domingo [!!!!!!!!!!!! + !!!!!], J. Ragan, Juan, the Oxford guy winner of the Netaudio Ping Pong, the girl that I forgot the name that was doing the inquiries for Chris [get in touch], Little Rock Crew, iD.Eology crew [without the Rap please and YES WE KERN]. I am sure I am forgetting lots of people, please don’t take me wrong, I need to do some upgrading to my brain.

Awkward Moments [by popular demand]

Thursday Night: A very drunk M. Kluge sits next to me at the Smoker’s Lounge, looks at me and tells me: “You are going to smoke a joint with me!!!”. Then he just starts to speak about Modular Synthesis. On the next afternoon he could not remember a thing. Amazing guy, great knowledge.

Friday Afternoon: At the bar I bump into these guys. One had  just finished his live act. “How did it go?” I ask. “It was my first live act ever,” he tells me [nothing wrong with this]. “Bu the sound was strange could hardly recognise it. You see, I live with my mother and I always have to use the headphones so it was the first time I listened to my stuff on some sort of speakers…” [no comments]

Thursday, Friday and Saturday: The girl working during the afternoon at Maria at the bar. Every single time that you went to the bar to get a drink she would be studying or writing  and really made you feel bad that you were interrupting her.

See you all in London next year!