Electronic Caveman

Electric Earth Music

Over the past two Summers, I visited a number of ancient rock art sites in Europe, including the famous caves of Chauvet, Lascaux, Font de Gaume, Peche-Merle, Grotte de Cougnac, Rouffignac, Les Combarelles, and Grand Roc in France, and more in Sweden and Norway.  I’ve had the opportunity to play my didgeridoo at many of these sites, and in the caves especially, the acoustics are quite extraordinary.  Many of these ancient art galleries are located deep in the earth, hundreds of meters from the cave entrance at the end of very narrow and treacherous passages.  One of the great mysteries of these sites is:  Why did people venture so deep into these caverns with only the flickering light of primitive fat lamps to penetrate the total darkness to paint and carve these masterpieces of prehistoric art.

Many people believe, and archeologists suspect, that the reason these deep chambers became so…

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Fish Music “Flyndre” (Flounder) Sculpture by Nils Aas

Electric Earth Music

We stopped for a picnic lunch at the Muustroparken Sculpture Park in Straumen, Norway.  The park contains a number of sculptures by Nils Aas including most prominently, this one, titled “Flyndre” or “Flounder” in English.  The sculpture includes electronic components, and an electro-acoustic transducer which makes the metal “sing” with an ever-changing soundtrack, which is allegedly interactive, although I have no idea how it gathers input from the outside world.  The soundtrack changes continuously, but it cycles through a number of sounds and themes, and after about 15 minutes or so it starts to sound familiar.

I enjoyed the music quite a bit, although the sculpture does not “sing” very loudly.  Flyndre also has parts that move in the wind, and in it’s location near the waters of Sandvagen Fyord, the wind blows a lot.  I used a contact microphone held directly against the metal to record this soundtrack without…

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Article About DIY Musicians

Electric Earth Music

I just discovered this article while trying to understand the recent spike in traffic here.  Writer Tzvi Glukken contacted me a couple of months ago with some questions about my work, but I hadn’t head anything from him since.  I think it’s a pretty good piece, and includes some interesting music and artists, including me.

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/08/01/artists-who-make-their-own-instruments/

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Live at Urkult Music Festival

Electric Earth Music

We had an amazing weekend at the Urkult Music Festival at the Namforsen rock carvings in Nasaker, Sweden.  Urkult is a three-day festival in the forest, by the river, at a location that has over 1,000 stone age rock carvings, indicating that this site has been considered sacred for several thousand years.  The festival features “Eldnatten” or “Night of Fire,” a big theatrical production with a lot of fire and fire-dancing.  We heard many great performances at Urkult including Pussy Riot, Maija Kauhanen, Mari Boine, Kroke and Urna, and the Bauls of Bengal.  We had lovely weather for most of the festival, however, it rained a bit on Saturday afternoon, when I got to perform.  I was amazed at how many people came out and stood in the rain to listen.

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