Sound and Music

Last Wednesday STEIM (STudio for Electro Instrumental Music) in Amsterdam held an open get-together with a lot of local instrument builders / hackers.

I've just finished reading John Maeda's "The Laws of Simplicity" which although not as life changing as the blogosphere claims is still inspirational in its clarity and, well, simpleness.

http://twicezonked.blogspot.com/
 
Great blog with a lot of album downloads.
Also provides quite good background info.

Roddy Hawkins, a doctoral student at the University of Leeds doing a PhD on contemporary music in Britain, is looking for people with opinions on the post-war scene.

Something I'm trying out as a pilot scheme is a series of professional development workshops. The sort of things I'm looking at covering are practical skills and techniques- like using software, hardware etc, more general professional advice such as promotion, fundraising and management of finance and also looking at the work of specific artists.

I've just stumbled across the blog of Danny Barnes, a US based banjo player who has quite a lot of interestnig and useful information for musicians in his blog.  He seems to see a lot of positive points about where teh music industry is at the moment, which is really refereshing considering the amount of complaining which is about.

You may or may not be the most tech-savvy musician / composer, but there's definitely software out there that'll fit your needs.

The 2010 Sound and Music summer school is confirmed! It's going to be 15 - 21 August at the Purcell School. Publicity and application forms will be available from February. Do contact me if you want me to send you the info.

I've just come across this article in Sound on Sound about starting your own record label. It's pretty comprehensive but nearly two years old, so there is probably a bit more to add onto the 'digital' section. Have a look though if you've thought about starting your own thing.

Radio Web MACBA (RWB) is a nonprofit online radio project for popular education, that explores the possibilities of the internet and radio as spaces of synthesis and exhibition.Programmes follow various strands including 'Curatorial' and 'Research sections. I'm about to get stuck into some episodes.