A quick gig announcement, because I'll have my A-100P and modules with me. Many of
you know Joker Nies as the writer for Keyboards in Germany. He's also a fantastic free
improviser with electronics, and I'm happy he's visiting the Bay Area this month. We played
together in Köln after Messe this year, and it was a blast. And if you haven't seen Rob
Hordijk's bent instruments, you have to check them out... If you're in LA, both guys will be
at the Bent Festival, too.
****
Friday April 25, 8:00 PM

Joker Nies (Germany), circuit-bending performance and discussion, with Gino
Robair, percussion/electronics
Special guests Rob Hordijk, instrument designer, and Amy X Neuberg, vocalist
extraordinaire

CNMAT (Center for New Music & Audio Technology) at UC Berkeley
1750 Arch St.
http://cnmat.berkeley.edu
Cost $10, no one turned away for lack of funds

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Joker Nies (Cologne, Germany) has presented workshops and performed his
energetic improvisations on re-built electronic toys all over Europe and the
U.S. He will be joined by well-known local percussionist Gino Robair, with
guest appearances by vocalist Amy X Neuburg and instrument designer Rob
Hordijk (Netherlands).

Joker will also give an explanation of circuit-bending and talk about his
work, and Rob Hordijk will discuss his hand-made synthesizer the Blippobox
-- one of Joker's featured instruments.

************
Biographies:

Joker Nies lives and works in Cologne, Germany, as a musician,
sound-designer/engineer, and technical editor for the German Sound&Recording
magazine. He has a long history of working with modular synthesizers,
individually designed electronic devices, DSP-based systems and
software-based sound sources. In the early '90s, modifying the Omnichord
became his initiation to circuit-bending. Since then he has converted a
steadily growing number of simple toys into alien sound devices. Nies
regularly performs live, solo and in various collaborations, and holds
workshops and tutorials about circuit-bending and MAX/MSP. He has performed
and lectured throughout Europe and in the USA and Mexico. More information
at http://www.klangbureau.de/Joker_E/klangbureau-Biografie.html.

Gino Robair is a mainstay of the Bay Area creative music scene. His primary
musical interests include percussion, analog electronics, Styrofoam, and
prepared piano. He has composed music for dance, theater, gamelan, radio,
and television. Robair's concert works have been performed in North America,
Europe, and Japan, and as percussionist he has performed internationally or
recorded with such luminaries as Tom Waits, Terry Riley, Anthony Braxton,
Lou Harrison, John Zorn, Nina Hagen, and Kronos Quartet.

Trained originally as a sculptor and jewelry maker, Rob Hordijk has been
building audio and synthesizer electronics for over thirty years, combining
his interests towards the "sculpture" of sound. He has consulted on the
design of commercial synthesizers (Clavia G2) and designed many specialty
analog modules, including the 36dB Twinpeak resonator and the Tilt filter,
several types of chaos generators, and the Bessel waveshaper. Hordijk's
current work is on "coffee table" synthesizers -- small, entirely hand-built
boxes designed on the principles of circuit-bending to take on a "life of
their own." He regularly gives lectures and workshops on sound design and
synthesis.