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Musical Electronics Library
The Musical Electronics Library (or MEL) is a lending library of homemade electronic musical devices in Auckland and Wellington, New Zealand, and is a worldwide leader in the Scavengetronica movement. The library contains electrolytic capacitors, rampwave oscillators, white noise generators, light theremins, sample and holds, ring modulators, preamplifiers, pitch shifters, phasers, and mixers; mostly built inside repurposed VHS cases. Highlights of the collection include the "electric bee motorcycle sound-maker box", a device which emulates the sound of meowing cats inside a Cats VHS box, and "Mad Max" which has been described as "Merzbow in a box". MEL is run by volunteers and curated by musician and device-builder Kraus. The library was inspired by the work of Nicolas Collins and Bob Widlar. Musicians using equipment from MEL include Hermione Johnson, Kraus, Pumice, Diana Tribute, Samuel Flynn Scott, the MEL Orchestra, Piece War, Ducklingmonster, the Biscuits, Powernap, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Radio New Zealand National
RNZ National ( mi, Te Reo Irirangi o Aotearoa Ā-Motu), formerly Radio New Zealand National, and known until 2007 as the National Programme or National Radio, is a publicly funded non-commercial New Zealand English-language radio network operated by Radio New Zealand. It specialises in programmes dedicated to news, the arts, music, and New Zealand culture generally, including some material in the Māori language. Historically the programme was broadcast on the (AM) "YA" stations 1YA, 2YA, 3YA and 4YA in the main centres. In 2013, RNZ National had a 10.3 per cent market share, the highest nationwide and up from 9.1 per cent in 2009. Market share peaked at 11.1 per cent in 2011, probably due to the station's coverage of the Christchurch earthquake. In 2014 493,000 people listened to RNZ National over the course of a week – the second-largest cumulative audience. A 2021 survey estimated 609,800 listeners (13.5% of the 10+ population), Morning Report being the most popular, with ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cat Communication
Cats need to communicate with each other for bonding, and relating with each other; they need to collaborate, play, and share resources. When they communicate with people, they do so to get what they need or want, such as food, affection, or play. Cats use a range of communication methods such as vocal, visual, tactile and olfactory. Cats mostly meow to communicate with people, rarely with other animals. As such, the cats' communication methods have been significantly affected by domestication. Up to 21 different cat vocalizations have been studied. It is now evident that domestic cats meow more than feral cats. Vocal communication Cat vocalizations have been categorized according to a range of characteristics. Originally suggested by Mildred Moelk, cat sounds are often divided into three main classes: # sounds produced with the mouth closed (murmurs – purring, trilling) # sounds produced when the mouth is first opened and then gradually closed (meowing, howling, yowling ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Synthesizer
A synthesizer (also spelled synthesiser) is an electronic musical instrument that generates audio signals. Synthesizers typically create sounds by generating waveforms through methods including subtractive synthesis, additive synthesis and frequency modulation synthesis. These sounds may be altered by components such as filters, which cut or boost frequencies; envelopes, which control articulation, or how notes begin and end; and low-frequency oscillators, which modulate parameters such as pitch, volume, or filter characteristics affecting timbre. Synthesizers are typically played with keyboards or controlled by sequencers, software or other instruments, and may be synchronized to other equipment via MIDI. Synthesizer-like instruments emerged in the United States in the mid-20th century with instruments such as the RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer, RCA Mark II, which was controlled with Punched card, punch cards and used hundreds of vacuum tubes. The Moog synthesizer, d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Herriot Row
Herriot Row is the musical moniker of New Zealand songwriter Simon Comber who has also recorded and performed under his own name. The moniker references the street Heriot Row in Dunedin, which in turn references Heriot Row in Dunedin's counterpart, Edinburgh in Scotland. Comber performs both solo and with an Auckland-based band as Herriot Row. The band features musicians Stuart Harwood (drums) and David Flyger (bass). Comber's music mixes alternate guitar tunings, folk rock arrangements, analogue production techniques, psychedelic melodic strains, and a narrative lyrical focus. Influences include John Fahey, Neutral Milk Hotel, Television, Townes Van Zandt, Sonic Youth, Peter Jefferies, and Joni Mitchell. He has collaborated with acclaimed artists such as John Vanderslice, Edmund McWilliams, and Graeme Downes, and performed in New Zealand, Australia and America. History Comber began performing under his own name in the late nineties in Auckland before moving to Dunedin to study ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Indira Neville
Indira Neville (born 1973) is a New Zealand comics artist, community organiser, musician and educationalist. She is notable for her work in the Hamilton-based comics collective Oats Comics, her own long running serial comic ''Nice Gravy'' and in recent times taking a prominent role in the promotion and recognition of New Zealand women's comics through her association with the ''Three Words'' anthology. Indira Neville is also notable for her work as an educationalist. She was a CORE Education eFellow, a winner of a Microsoft Innovative Teacher Award for her teaching, and a former principal of a primary school. She is also an active performer, and is currently fronting the Auckland band The Biscuits. Biography Neville began her career working in television production after graduating from Auckland University of Technology in 1993. After gaining a graduate diploma in teaching in 1997, Neville worked in the field of primary education. She became recognised for her educational work ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Futurians (band)
Futurians are a New Zealand sci-fi punk band formed in Dunedin in 2001. ''Foxy Digitalis'' magazine called them the "best punk band on the fucken planet." Style They have a distinctive retro-futuristic visual style. Their ''Power / Reactor'' single was released inside a 16-page full colour book of artworks and collages by the band, with a DVD compiling music videos from 2003 to 2013. Their music has been described as drawing influence from digital rock, funk, minimalism, no wave, new wave, Brian Wilson, krautrock, noise music, disco, lo-fi, art rock, punk rock, dirges, riot grrrl, doom rock, and drone rock. Both musically and lyrically, the band's songs contain retro-futuristic sci-fi-related themes. They have been called "torn-down semi-punk skiffle", "the sound of gay robots disco dancing and crushing everything underfoot", taser-war stomp, overamped, "moto-beat wiggy-fuzz-workout", "as raw as a skinned knee", sounding "like a banshee funeral for Brian Wilson ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Samuel Flynn Scott
Samuel Flynn Scott (born 1978) is a New Zealand musician and composer, and a founding member of The Phoenix Foundation. Early life and career Scott was born in Wellington, New Zealand in 1978. His father, Tom Scott, is a notable author and political cartoonist. Scott attended Wellington High School, where he founded The Phoenix Foundation with Luke Buda and Conrad Wedde in 1997. Solo music In 2004, Scott formed a new band named Bunnies on Ponies, in order to try out some songs that didn't fit with the Phoenix Foundation sound. After performing a few live shows around his hometown of Wellington, he released his debut solo album, ''The Hunt Brings Us Life'', in 2006. It was included in Amplifier Magazine's Top 20 Kiwi Albums of 2006. His second solo album, ''Straight Answer Machine'', was released under the name 'Samuel F. Scott & the B.O.P.' in 2008. Scott has also worked as a composer for commercials and movies. Along with his Phoenix Foundation bandmate, Luke Buda, Scott ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Widlar
Robert John Widlar (pronounced ''wide-lar''; November 30, 1937 – February 27, 1991) was an American electronics engineer and a designer of linear integrated circuits (ICs). Early years Widlar was born November 30, 1937 in Cleveland to parents of Czech, Irish and German ethnicity.Lojek, p. 250. His mother, Mary Vithous, was born in Cleveland to Czech immigrants Frank Vithous (František Vitous (or Vitouš?)) and Marie Zakova (Marie Žáková).Lojek, p. 249. His father, Walter J. Widlar, came from prominent German and Irish American families whose ancestors settled in Cleveland in the middle of the 19th century. A self-taught radio engineer, Walter Widlar worked for the radio station and designed pioneering ultra high frequency transmitters. The world of electronics surrounded him since birth: one of his brothers became the first baby monitored by wireless radio. Guided by his father, Bob developed a strong interest in electronics in early childhood. Widlar never talked ab ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nicolas Collins
Nicolas Collins (born March 26, 1954 in New York City) is a composer of mostly electronic music, a sound artist and writer. He received his BA and MA from Wesleyan University, and his PhD from the University of East Anglia. Upon graduating from Wesleyan, he was a Watson Fellow. Biography In the 1980s Collins was "a pioneer in the use of microcomputers in live performance, and has made extensive use of 'home-made' electronic circuitry, radio, found sound material, and transformed musical instruments." Trained in the experimental compositional tradition of Alvin Lucier, David Behrman, and David Tudor, all of whom he worked with closely, Collins also immersed himself in the New York Improvised Music scene of the 1980s. Using home-built instruments that combined circuitry, simple computers and traditional instruments such as trombones and slide guitars, he collaborated and performed with Tom Cora, Shelley Hirsch, Christian Marclay, Zeena Parkins, John Zorn and others. Collins's c ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Auckland University Of Technology
Auckland University of Technology (AUT) ( mi, Te Wānanga Aronui o Tāmaki Makau Rau) is a university in New Zealand, formed on 1 January 2000 when a former technical college (originally established in 1895) was granted university status. AUT is New Zealand's third largest university in terms of total student enrolment, with approximately 29,100 students enrolled across three campuses in Auckland. It has five faculties, and an additional three specialist locations: AUT Millennium, Warkworth Radio Astronomical Observatory and AUT Centre for Refugee Education. AUT enrolled more than 29,000 students in 2018, including 4,194 international students from 94 countries and 2,417 postgraduate students. AUT's student population is diverse with a range of ethnic backgrounds including New Zealand European, Asian, Māori and Pasifika. Students also represent a wide age range with 22% being aged 25–39 years and 10% being 40 or older. AUT employed 2,474 full-time equivalent (FTE) staff in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kraus (musician)
Kraus (also known as Pat Kraus, formerly known as Prince Kraus) is a New Zealand experimental musician and composer. The ''New Zealand Listener'' called him "a national treasure" and "one of the most quietly important and interesting people making music in New Zealand". His music crosses the boundaries of electronic music, post-rock, no wave, space folk, noise pop, punk rock and martian stomp. Work Kraus has stated that he makes music for freaks, outsiders, losers and weirdos. Most of his music is released under a Creative Commons license with a non-commercial clause, consistent with his communist ideology. He is influenced by medieval music, renaissance music, traditional Japanese music, psychedelic music and electronic music. Kraus's work has been compared to Raymond Scott, Norman Mclaren, Moondog, Doctor Who, Sun Ra, Amps for Christ, Joe Meek, the Shaggs, John Frusciante, Pumice, Bruce Haack, Tangerine Dream, Flower Travellin' Band, Can, Kraftwerk, Goblin, Throbbing G ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Zealand Listener
The ''New Zealand Listener'' is a weekly New Zealand magazine that covers the political, cultural and literary life of New Zealand by featuring a variety of topics, including current events, politics, social issues, health, technology, arts, food, culture and entertainment. The Bauer Media Group closed ''The Listener'' in April 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. In June 2020, Mercury Capital acquired the magazine as part of its purchase of Bauer Media's former Australia and New Zealand assets, which were rebranded as Are Media. History ''The Listener'' was first published in June 1939 as a weekly broadcasting guide for radio listeners, and the first issue was distributed free to 380,000 households. First edited by Oliver Duff then from June 1949 M. H. Holcroft, it originally had a monopoly on the publication of upcoming television and radio programmes. In the 1980s it lost that monopoly, but despite the increase in competition since that time, it was ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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