We were then treated to Brian Duffy’s demonstration of how he has sonified the light from the stars by looking through telescopes at the night sky and then translating the frequencies of the light into sound frequencies. My favourite part of this was hearing him talk about the ‘pulsar’ – a rotating neutron star – discovered by Jocelyn Bell – (I am very taken by the story of her discovery which was recently featured on a BBC documentary). Anyway – if the rotation speed of the pulsar is fast enough, it can generate a pitch – so Brian asked a scientist to find pulsars with various pitches to work in a piece of music…
– Kathy Hinde reports on TEDx AldeburghMini-MTO at Sound Kitchen
News reaches us that there’s a (rare?) chance to see an extended Casio Duo set from the Modified Toy Orchestra on the 6th of October at Kings Heath’s fashionable Hare and Hounds where they’ll be supporting Coppe’, “the legendary godmother of Japanese Electronica”.
The whole gig should be unmissable. More info on the Sound Kitchen blog and tickets are a mere £4.00.
If you’re wondering what the Casio Duo set is, here’s an example from last year.
A 6 day course for £40 in the week before the big gig. Exciting!
About me
A fan-blog for Brian Duffy, his Modified Toy Orchestra, and related endeavours.
BDHABB is also on The Twitter
This blog has no connection with Brian Duffy, Warm Circuit or anything like that. It's a homage, a monument of love. We love you Brian.
"Brian Duffy, award winning sound artist and creator of the Modified Toy Orchestra, has been at the forefront of a world wide underground movement called circuit bending which involves rescuing childrens electronic toys from car boot sales, and converting them into new strange and wonderfully sophisticated musical instruments. Taking them apart, he finds new connections hidden within each toys circuits that reveal new sounds, exposing the surplus value of redundant technology. The toys are then reassembled including switches and dials with which to control this surplus value. The results of this process can be shockingly beautiful, funny and extreme and have led to Brian being labeled a genius, a madman, and a national treasure."
