Thomas Ankersmit (born 1979,
Leiden,
Netherlands) is a musician and installation artist based in
Berlin and
Amsterdam.
His main instrument, both live and in the studio, is the
Serge analogue modular synthesizer.
Physical and
psychoacoustic phenomena such as sound reflections,
infrasonic vibration,
otoacoustic emissions, and
highly directional projections of sound have been an important part of his work since the early 2000s.
His
electronic music is also characterized by a deliberate misuse of the equipment, using
feedback
Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...
and disruptions in the signal to create many of the sounds.
Ankersmit frequently collaborates with New York-based
minimalist composer
Phill Niblock,
electroacoustic improviser
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
Valerio Tricoli and
noise artist
Kevin Drumm
Kevin Drumm (born 1970) is an experimental musician based in Chicago, United States.
Biography
Emerging from the city's improvised music scene, in the 1990s he became one of the world's pre-eminent prepared guitar players. Since then his work ...
.
During the first ten years of his activities, Ankersmit focussed almost exclusively on live performance and installation work.
Since 2010, his music has been released on the PAN,
Touch and
Ash International
Touch (sometimes mistakenly written 'Touch Records' and sometimes written Touch Music, which is technically the publishing side of the company) is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. Touch was founded in 1982 by Jon ...
labels.
Selected discography
* Thomas Ankersmit & Valerio Tricoli: Forma II, CD, PAN, Berlin, 2011
* Thomas Ankersmit: Hangar Performance, Tallinn, May 29, 2010, download,
Touch, London, 2010
* Thomas Ankersmit: Live in Utrecht, CD,
Ash International
Touch (sometimes mistakenly written 'Touch Records' and sometimes written Touch Music, which is technically the publishing side of the company) is a British audio-visual organisation, operating the Touch label. Touch was founded in 1982 by Jon ...
, London, 2010
* Thomas Ankersmit/
Jim O'Rourke: Weerzin/Oscillators and Guitars, LP, Tochnit Aleph, Berlin, 2005
* Thomas Ankersmit: Alto Saxophone, 3" CD-R, no label, 2001
External links
*
*
Free improvisation
Living people
1979 births
Dutch experimental musicians
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