Happy Birthday Bob Moog. Thanks for all the synths.

Bob Moog's spirit is what brought me to Asheville. Although I never met him, I feel a strong connection to his brilliant, humble spirit through his amazing inventions.  The invention closest to me first was the Moog Rogue I have had since 1998.

 

When I first got it, I thought it was broken. I had no idea how to summon sound out of it, let alone what all the sliders, knobs, and switches did.  Through experimentation, a little luck, and the beautifully intuitive, simple, yet deep musicality of a moog synth, this was a fun and sonically liberating experience.  From first using a sine wave to make vibrato, to the live manipulation of wild filter sweeps and oscillator sync on a massive bass patch that would project like a sonic tsunami out of a club's subwoofers, this was a true love affair.  When he passed, I felt as though I lost a close family member.  Today, on his would be 78th birthday, we celebrate his legacy to the world of electronic music.  

Through working @ Moog Music Inc. for a couple years, I built over 1600 Little Phatty synths and a lot of moogerfoogers and theremins.  I learned more about modulation, soldering, and electronics, made strong friendships through the common love for Bob, and in doing so, learned more about his life. I have recently had the honor to help with the Bob Moog Foundation by doing several performances/demonstrations with August Worley for Dr. Bob's SoundSchool about the physics of sound.  To see the kids of all ages magically connect with music, synths, and science, affirms that Bob's spirit is well nurtured through the BMF.  Thank you Bob Moog for giving us truly infinite sonic territory to explore.  Happy Birthday Bob, I'll see you in the modulating waveform of space/time.

Send a child to Dr. Bob's SoundSchool for $10

Notes from the SoundSchool

Google shares the love worldwide as the "Goog"le doodle of the day on their homepage is a playable moog virtual synth with four-track recorder that everyone seems to be getting a kick out of.  

This post on reddit is up to 2610 upvotes: Everyone On Google Today

From engadget - Google goes Moogle, celebrates Moog's birthday with interactive doodle

From Mashable - Google’s Moog Doodle: The Inside Story

This guy prefers the oldskool approach

#CelebrateBob

Bob Moog Wikipedia

April 1 - The Fool 0

Ah, April Fools Day.  The internets were unsafe from untruths, and many musical colleagues joked about quitting music altogether.  I took the opposite approach and finished a cd to sell starting last night after many, many years of procrastination.  I think a good portion of holding back was a sort of subconsciously triggered hoarding of my music.  So yesterday, on the day of "Le Mat/The Fool" I chose to reflect on the symbolic meanings of this iconic archetype from the tarot (another passion of mine and great psychological tool). 

The Fool is the spirit in search of experience.  As his number is 0, he has no beginning and no end, and therefore represents the original boundless energy, fundamental creative urge, and liberation.  I have finally overcome the fear of putting my own music out there for others to hear and this is a huge step.  At 0 you have nothing to lose, so there is no need to hold on to the past.  I choose to clear it out and make room for more adventure (Bali, here we come)!  Last night at Hotel Indigo, when I sold out of my cd's, I was flooded with intense joy and gratitude. Gratidude for the supportive fans of my music, and especially for Julie, my muse.  Her strong patient support helped me so much to make my subconscious blockages conscious and not back down when my defense mechanisms would rear their ugly head.

I will close this post with a quote from the brilliant Alejandro Jodorowsy's "Way of the Tarot", a channeling of the archetype of The Fool speaking to him from his dream state.

"Did you know that transformation of consciousness is possible at any moment, that you can suddenly change the perception you have of yourself?  People sometimes imagine that taking action means triumphing over the Other.  What a mistake!  If you wish to act in the world, you must explode that perception of the ego that has been imposed and embedded since childhood, and which refuses to change.  Expand your boundaries endlessly and without cease.  Go into a trance.  Let yourself be possessed by a more powerful mind than your own, an impersonal energy.  It is not a question of losing consciousness but of allowing the original sacred madness, already within you to speak."

Mountain X feature article

Here is a fantastic article that came out today in the Mountain X.  It's great to be in the creatively supportive town of Asheville, NC.  I'm very grateful.  The picture they chose below is from Projek Moog at moogfest 2010.

With Hotel Indigo as the venue, and “sound scientist” as the description, I had no idea what to expect from Ben Hovey’s Friday night performance. (The last time I saw any live music in a hotel, it was Kenny G- style saxophone karaoke, and it was terrible.)

Walking into the Hotel Indigo lobby, the music washed over me: A perfect addition to the nouveau-hip ambiance of the hotel. Rounding the corner, I could see Hovey seated at a table with a keyboard to his right, an open MacBook in front of him, and two midi controller boards to the left of the lap top. On the floor, another foot controlled loop machine sat next to his melodica, trumpet and flugelhorn.
      There was a catchy beat grooving in the background as he picked up his trumpet and played a melody over that. With a subtle foot movement, he looped that melody line and played a harmony on top of it. With a second loop and a third harmony line in place, he let that roll and then improvised a trumpet part over the whole thing for several minutes.

Hovey’s music is hard to describe. He’s part DJ and part sound-scapist. He paints layers of sound from jazz, electronica, Middle-Eastern, bossa nova and hip-hop beats. During his performance, the layers stacked on top of each other and intertwined until there was a big, general groove. Once that had built up to its climax, it got to a point where I could almost ignore it. It just became part of what was happening, a lovely complement to the environment. Then, like a needle scratching across a record mid-song, it stopped, and something completely different-sounding started up in its wake. This element was perfect because it prevented the listener from being complacent. I almost had to look up at Hovey as he switched gears, to see what was up next.
      During his set break, Hovey described his all-original music as live electronica and dub-style house. He creates 8-track arrangements on his laptop using Ableton Software ahead of the gig. He then uses the midi controllers to rearrange on the fly, and basically DJs himself, adding live performances on the trumpet, keys, melodica and flugelhorn. The end result reminded me of some of the cuts off Moby’s 1999 release, Play, as well as some of String Cheese Incident’s live trance jams with Kyle Hollingsworth on keys.

Hovey is clearly much more than a computer music guy or a DJ. He’s an excellent musician, as evidenced by the skill with which he played the trumpet and then matched what he was playing, note for note, with his other hand on the keyboard, splitting into harmonies, all live. His musicianship is also evidenced by the long list of bands with which he plays including The Secret B-sides, The Booty Band, Agent 23, Aaron “Woody” Wood and more.

Watch videos of what he does on his website: benhovey.com and catch his solo performances almost every weekend in town at Marketplace Restaurant on Fridays, and at the Hotel Indigo bar on Saturdays and Sundays.

original link

Ill Sublimnal Retrospective and FREE Album

Ill Subliminal Does Not Exist.  Disclaimer-This musical project from over a decade ago resulted from complete surrender to the spirit of sound.  The magnificent creative energy of Ill Subliminal radiated through Eric White, Matt Barbour (Mahat Nothing), and myself synergistically.  This was a powerful time in our lives.  Matt (Mahat) and I would channel the foundations by digging for vinyl and sampling/recording using an MPC and Pentium 2 laptop with Acid 2.0 and no soundcard (we eventually upgraded to a DIGI 001 to record the album).  Matt, a genius turntablist, was beginning to learn about Eastern mysticism.  This, combined with his dedicated work ethic, helped us to learn techniques to channel the infinite energy into the music.  This discovery/experimentation with limited tools lead to some great music.  Eric has always been an amazing drummer/percussionist, and because we were both in the Pop Rock Ensemble at Henry Clay High School, our telepathic abilities were able to develop.  It was an actual class, so we practiced for 2 hours every day(our lunch hour that followed class was made into a jam session).  We did some cheesy music in Pop Rock, but we also learned the concepts of performing live and multitrack recording.  I even got to use the schools ensoniq EPS sampler/keyboard to learn on.  

We released a cd in 2003, Child of the Universe.  I discovered it was not available anywhere online, so I decided to post it on bandcamp for free.

 

The following quote is from the liner notes:

Man exists as a unit of society.  Of himself, he is isolated, meaningless; only as he collaborates with others does he become worth while, for by sublimating himself in the group, he helps produce a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.  There should be, then, no conflict between man and society.  What we think are conflicts are misunderstandings, breakdowns in communication.  < The Organization Man / William H. Whyte >

This breakdown in communication ultimately broke up the group, but spirit is infinite.  While we may never play another show, I look back at our friendship and musical adventures fondly, with sincere gratitude.

Video from the Indigo Sessions

Here's a 2 part, 30 minutes of video from last Saturday's Indigo Sessions.  The audio is coming from the Flip so it isn't the greatest quality, but it is still a good representation of what I do.  It has a little trumpet, flugel, melodica, keys, looping, and playing of the keys and trumpet simultaneously towards the end.  You can also hear me talking to Rick, one of the superb engineers at moog music, about how I set things up.  Thanks for watching!