Circuit-Bent Toy Symphony at Vancouver New Music

I don't think I can be there for this evening's performance, but anyone who wants to see various sound-producing toys -- Speak and Spells, Casio keyboard toys, and skinned insectile Furbies -- miswired, mutated, and circuit-bent and being used to weave together a bizarre, intoxicating symphony of sound should check out the Oscillations website for information on Personum -- and then head down to the Scotiabank Dance Center, on Davie just off Granville (if, by chance, you're reading this Sunday morning, as I write this, you may have time to make the workshop being given at 2...!). I've spent myself for now writing about Blixa's show, below, so I can't do it justice, but composer Giorgio Magnanensi, also of Vancouver New Music, has put together quite the experience, along with Chris Rolfe (in charge of multichannel spatialization -- basically "glitch mixing" the sounds and playing them back to a room containing open mikes over a surround sound system) and others. The installation portion of this continues until Tuesday; head down between 1 and 7 and you can play with the toys yourself! I highly urge anyone who wants a delightful, thought-provoking, and very weird experience to go check this music out. Concert begins tonight at 8, and it's free!!!

Oh: thanks to Blake Smith for the phrase "glitch mixing."