I just wanted to announce my latest release, Musiques Pour Cultes, written with composer Severine Baron and realized almost entirely in Csound. Musiques Pour Cultes is a collections of abstract music and soundscapes attempting to establish a connection between music and spirituality, between sound and the physical space that surrounds us.

Musiques Pour Cultes was released on Al’s Records and is available for download on iTunes.

– Jean-Luc Cohen (aka Jean-Luc Sinclair)

You can also listen to Musiques Pour Cultes at MySpace.

I have personally listened to multiple iterations of this piece over the years. Musiques Pour Cultes is full of both rich complexity and subtlety. I highly recommend you to sit in a dark room filled with candles and incense while listening to this beautiful illustration of computer music. It is an experience.

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The Csound Blog
Issue #6

“It has been too long since the last Csound Blog. This is why I’m personally excited to announce this newest edition, ‘Adding Zak to the Mix.’

Today’s topic is how to model a studio mixer in Csound using Robin Whittle’s zak opcodes.[1] I will actually be stretching this subject over an unspecified number of blog entries, as I couldn’t possibly cover every significant nuance in one write-up. What I’m presenting here today is merely an overview, while in the following issues I will break down everything into its respective modular components. Not only will I cover the design of this zak mixer, I will present new ways in which you can organize your orchestras, along with how to unlock the potential of your patches using control instruments.”

Topics covered:

• Zak
• Model of a Studio Mixer
• Macros
• Signal Routing
• Organization

More at The Csound Blog. For more information about Csound, please visit cSounds.com.

First presented at the 1958 Brussels Worlds Fair with 425 speakers placed throughout the famous Philips pavilion, the placement of the speakers and design of the building gave the spectators a feeling of being housed within a concrete, silver seashell. A giant model of the atom hung from the ceiling and the sound & imagery premiered to standing room only crowds and I can only imagine was a complete mind-blower to all who witnessed the spectacle. Varese is considered to be the “father of electronic music”, Henry Miller described him as the “stratospheric colossus of sound.” When Philips (Philips electronic company) approached Le Corbusier to design a building for the fair, Le Corbusier said, “I will not make a pavilion for you (Philips) but an Electronic Poem and a vessel containing the poem; light, color, image, rhythm and sound joined together in an organic synthesis.”

I’ve enjoyed Poême électronique for years. Yet, I never knew this film existed until my friend Jean-Luc played it for me while visiting NYC this past week.