Marc Moulin is a legendary jazz musician and electronic music pioneer from Belgium. After spending the 60s in many succesful Belgian jazz bands, he formed his own band with friend and guitar specialist Phillip Catherine named Placebo. They were a blend of funk, soul, jazz and electronics. He was also the first Belgian to own a Moog.
After Placebo disbanded he tried his hand at a solo project along with some of the band members from his former project. His first album was called Sam Suffy and this I think this song was particularly stunning:
He steps away from the jazz scene and instead spends time producing pop records for such french stars as teen sensation Lio and Alain Chamfort.
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In the late 70s, Moulin would help found electro-pop pioneers Telex with the aid of programmer/sound engineer Dan Lacksman and vocalist Michel Moers. The combination is a winning one and they go on to create some timeless pop songs that still sound great to this day.
He passed away due to cancer in September of 2008 at the age of 66. May he rest in peace.
Designer: Burton Kramer
Client: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
Date: 1974
This is easily one of the most recognizable company logos in the country and has been used by the CBC since it was launched decades ago. The logo is affectionately known as the “exploding pizza” for obvious reasons and I have been able to dig up some a few examples of it in use (The motion graphic story board, a billboard from the launch and a couple of fleet applications). Innovative and fitting for its time (CBC was using colour broadcasts and was expanding from coast to coast), the logo was one of the first designed to be usable in motion and flat. it used such a beautiful metaphor, colours and image radiating from the source, like transmission waves reaching out to the country. Beautiful!
-Todd Falkowsky
This DVD reviews the career and music of Kraftwerk, from their inception in the late 1960s [as pre-Kraftwerk ensemble Organisation], through their most celebrated period in the mid 1970s, and culminating with their resurgence during the 1980s with the popularity of synth-pop and techno. The film further explores how Kraftwerk both fitted in and pulled away from the electronic wing of what is often lazily referred to as ‘Krautrock’. This programme presents a fascinating story previously untold on film.
I bought this documentary the other day at Rotate This in Toronto. I was looking for some inspiration and I figured a documentary on such a ground-breaking band would do the trick. And I was totally right!
Kraftwerks two main members were from Dusseldorf and whereas most artists would do anything to be associated with their sorted history, Kraftwerk didnt shy away from it. From their name, to their appearance, to the art direction, they were german efficiency at its best. It’s kind of scary how you can listen to a Kraftwerk song and it sounds like it was made last week.
What I didn’t realize that the Kraftwerk portion of the doc is actually only a small part of the footage. This documentary spends a good hour explaining how the 60s American/British rock influenced but gave rise to an entirely different movement in Western Germany with their own interpretation of psych rock and eventually Kraut Rock. Aside from a few Can songs, I didnt really know much about the genre. I always had a fondness for Tangerine Dream’s synthy cosmic bliss but had no idea they were German. I was unaware of how the early experimentations of Pierre Henry and Shaeffer ended up insipiring them to use instruments as vessels instead of the more traditional way. This video helps fill many gaps and also really gives you a primer on the growing german music scene of the late 60s and early 70s by the new youth. Having spent quite a bit of time in various parts of Germany, this was a real eye-opener into the cultural differences between western and eastern sections and how that affected the art.
e monome 40h is a reconfigurable grid of sixty-four backlit buttons.
buttons can be configured as toggles, radio groupings, sliders, or organized into more sophisticated systems to monitor and trigger sample playback positions, stream 1-bit video, interact with dynamic physical models, and play games. button press and visual indication are decoupled by design: the correlation is established by each application.
we share a growing collection of applications we’ve written specifically for the 40h.
we also provide examples for writing your own applications. the 40h uses usb and talks serial, midi, and open sound control. it plays well with max/msp, pd, processing, reaktor, flash, java, ruby, and many others. all 40h software and firmware is open source. we aim to facilitate a community of shared exploration.
New batch of these just went out and sold out in 4 seconds. Anyone want to hook me up?
One of my favorite things about Canada is the cornucopia of knowledge that is the NFB. In Toronto and Montreal there exists an NFB store where you can go and watch as many documentaries as you want in a super futuristic a/v station for 2$/day!!! There’s also the possibility of renting videocassettes and taking them home, which i did a few times and madesongsoutof.
