An Imagined Glimpse Into A Reunion of Ben Vida or Greg Davis’s Extended Family
The banquet hall overflows: uncles clink beers together a little too loudly, the elderly come together in the corner for some conversation at the right pace, kids hide under tables and spring out to attack cousins with forks and spoons fully loaded. An aunt approaches our hero. “What is it that you do these days? They tried to explain it to me but it went a little over my head.” Our hero hesitates. One half of him wants to lay it all out on the table: “Well Aunt Sarah, I’ve been focusing on uniting systems of modular synthesis and Max/MSP-based sound manipulation to record dynamic sessions of spontaneous composition. I’ve been collaborating closely with another musician to create dense sound environments that cycle through passages of abstracted rhythms, melodies, pulses, and sequences. Our goal is to challenge and provoke our listeners while still engaging them with each moment of our output.” But he takes the less complicated way out: “I’m a legendary warlock. I make electricity do my bidding. People love me and fear me in equal measure.” Aunt Sarah lifts her eyes from her cell phone. “Oooh, that’s nice, dear.”
If you’re still unfamiliar with the work of Greg Davis and/or Ben Vida at this point, you’ve got a lot of extremely rewarding catching up to do. Lucky for you, the two of them made an LP together called Working Models, which, to put it lightly, is a solid place to start. Check out the entire A Side right here:
Order one of only 250 vinyl copies of Working Models from Los Discos Enfantasmes, and feast your eyes on the goddamn beautiful die-cut sleeve and clear wax that’ll end up in your hands in you act fast. Inspired by the work of these two champions, take up modular synthesis and Max/MSP yourself. Never look back. When your relatives ask you what you’ve been doing with your life, just say “magic.”
• Greg Davis: http://www.autumnrecords.net
• Ben Vida: http://benvida.blogspot.com
• Los Discos Enfantasmes: http://losdiscosenfantasmes.com
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