Edition 4: Circuit Control 2018

Circuit Control is a festival "for a creative use of the soldering iron" organised by Alwin Weber and Steffen Koritsch from Dresden.

The workshop was held October 1st till 5th at Zentralwerk* in Dresden. October 5th late night there was a Ambient Showcase in a basement of an occupied building near Bahnhof Neustadt and October 6th there was the  final party in the bar of the old ballroom of Zentralwerk.

Flyer 2018

In 2011 I made an excursion with students of the University of Art and Design Linz to the first Circuit Control and since that time I have returned every year to solder, play live and to see what other sound-tool-hackers and inventors have created during the year. Many participants became friends and I invited some of them (Jördis Drawe, Uwe Schüler, Alwin Weber, Steffen Koritsch, Claudio Matina and Peter Heß) to Linz to the Art University to present their research, sound tools and know-how at my workshop "Labor Sound" (Sound Lab).

Flyer 2011

Highlights 2018!

Claude Winterberg midified his "FlipSynth" and "4093 Step Synth" with an  Arduino Micro. Alwin Weber presented his distortion-FX "Screamo" and the noisy "Touch Synth Deluxe", Steffen Koritsch presented the upgraded version of "ATiny Punk Console", the "Noisio Delay" and the "Photonotron" - a lightsensitive kind of Theremin, while Matthias Schmidt aka Curetronic presented the upgraded "Fon", a fully automatable 8 step sequencer & synth. Jo FRGMNT brought two very nice tools I have to solder the next time: "SNU" (SpecialNoiseUnit) & "fm transmit". 
Schrägerunde distorted the air with "FeedbackHeaven" and Uwe Schüler was 
working on kickdrums and snares.

What did I solder during my stay at CC18?!

In recent years I have soldered two "4093 Step Synth" and also two "MS20 HP-LP Filter" from Claude Winterberg and so it was clear to me that I would midi-fi his synths with an Arduino Micro. I added also Claude's "FlipFloater Delay" (Edition 2 of this series) and I soldered his new "FlipSynth" a 4093-4070 based synth with rhythm section and two oscillators. So I needed some time to prepare my stuff for the new setup but after a while everything worked fine and I was able to send midi signals to my new setup! I have to mention that Claude built a bigger setup and performed with it live at the final party of Circuit Control. A pure acid-techno-soundsystem with the extra fun factor.

I also soldered the upgraded version of the "Atiny Punk Console" and the "Bleepbot".

my midi-fied stuff

Claude's midi-fied stuff

Liveshows at Circuit Control 2018

Friday Night
Alwin & Steffen organised the so-called Ambient Night in a basement of an occupied building near Bahnhof Neustadt. Alwin Weber aka "StÖRenFrieD"  played live a set with ATiny Punk Console, his Screamo distortion and other stuff, while Steffen Koritsch with a musical partner (name of the band?) had a huge setup from guitar to ATiny to drumbox. FRGMNT did a short set with sounds so unique that I felt like I was dreaming. I also forgot what he used to create this aural orgasm. I lost the flyer of this hidden showcase so I forgot the name of the opening act.

Saturday Night
"Krach der Roboter" from Berlin opened with his robot performance and music out of the modular system which grows every year. After Krach "Flip Floater" from Basel played with his midified-new-system (see picture above) a funky electro set. Then "Gelbart" from Berlin presented excellent videos with great music hard to describe in a range from Zappa to vaudeville and electro. Then "Stefan Tiefengraber" from Linz pushed the bass to the maximum just using his fingers in battery driven toy stuff. Best bass show ever with great videos just out of his analog audio signals. "SBZ" from Dresden played a phatt industrial electro set with extremely nice elecronic sounds. "Kasia Justka" from Berlin played a great set with self-built stuff and analogue synths and great analog visuals similar to those of Stefan. After Kasia the author, Wolfgang Dorninger aka "The Smiling Buddhas" played some techno stuff to start the dance party which was finished in a great way by "Lazenbleep" from London. A great party with visuals by 48hoch8 and StÖRenFrieD.

Bleep

Wolfgang Dorninger at the workshop (in the back left Alwin Weber and Claude Winterberg)

Links:
Circuit Control: http://www.circuit-control.de/
Circuit Control 2017 - a video documentary by Krautmovies: 
https://vimeo.com/244093004
Our mascot 2018: 
https://www.facebook.com/alwin.weber.1/videos/2079948115401693/
Lazenbleep live at CC18: https://youtu.be/grQoV72Xr2E
The Smiling Buddhas live at CC18: 
http://www.base.at/smiling-buddhas/?/blog/tsb-cc2018/