Vintage Machines
 |
| photo: Marc Fiaux |
Vintage Machines (2006– )
Vintage Machines is a series of compositions and workshops utilizing vintage video game systems to make music. New computer and video game systems are released at regular intervals, often before the full limits and possibilities of existing systems are reached. Communities of artists and musicians use these legacy systems to create new work. My own work with the Nintendo Game Boy began in 2006 through a collaboration with choreographer Boris Willis titled Abandoned Revolution—a dance work that incorporated video game story elements. I composed and performed a score that supported the dance and added emotional underpinnings to the story elements in his piece. My work since then has focused on the Game Boy as a performance and production tool. I have presented new work in concert halls, clubs, and on air, including an 8-channel surround sound piece that was premiered at Electronic Music Midwest and then presented at Stony Brook University and at Circuit Bridges in New York.
Often, the use of these gaming systems to make music is rooted in nostalgia. I try to explore beyond that impulse. Using a legacy system in the context of current and emerging media and practices embraces the limitations of the earlier technology in the pursuit of self-expression. Within these limitations—such as the Nintendo Game Boy's severely limited sound crafting capabilities—I find the landscape of possibilities inspiring and fertile, and capable of expressiveness.
Highlighted example:
I offer you (2018)
[Nintendo Game Boy, Merlin Music Machine, spoken word]
Ao Vivo no Casarão | Lado B | Parte 02 | I offer you
[Released November 9, 2018]
Direction and Production: Cristina Müller and Yuri Tavares
Music composed & performed by: Melissa Grey & David Morneau
Cinematography and Camera: Cristina Müller, Lydia Cornett, and Yuri Tavares
Sound recording: David Morneau, Michael Campos and Miguel Tang
Editing and color correction: Cristina Müller
Mixing: Melissa Grey, David Morneau, and Miguel Tang
Conception: Cristina Müller, Giuliano Rossi and Yuri Tavares
"Ao Vivo no Casarão is a docu-music web series that portraits independent musicians of different styles while they perform in unexpected environments."
I offer you was created in collaboration with Melissa Grey for Tansy Xiao's Multilingual Poetry event at the Brooklyn Art Library in June, 2018. We combined texts from 5 poems using a tightly constrained process. These are accompanied in performance by my Nintendo Game Boy and Grey's Merlin Music Machine.
The video below is a performance recording and interview of I offer you made by Cristina Müller and Yuri Tavares for their music-documentary series Ao Vivo No Casarão | Lado B.
music begins at 4:05
Highlighted example:
Another Dimension (2016)
[Nintendo Game Boy]
"Another Dimension is a sonification of a simple idea: take something that exists and expand it in an unexpected direction to see what happens. Another Dimension is a bustling meditation." This long-form composition reveals a set of 44 loops in a performance that is different each time. The loops are recombined in a variety of ways, relying on my own memory and concentration.
soft premiere performance at Soft Series
early version of Another Dimension
 |
 |
 |
 |
performance documentation
Complete Vintage Machines works
I offer you (2018)
[Nintendo Game Boy, Merlin Music Machine, spoken word]
collaborators: Melissa Grey, composer-performer
Trillion-Trilliant (2018)
[benjolin synthesizer, Nintendo Game Boy]
collaborators: Melissa Grey, composer-performer
Photon Ecstasy (DP Leonis b) (2016)
[Merlin Music Machine, Nintendo Game Boy, toy piano, processed voice]
collaborators: Melissa Grey, composer-performer; Elizabeth A. Baker, pianist
Photon Ecstasy (HD 7924) (2016)
[benjolin synth, Merlin Music Machine, Nintendo Game Boy, trombone, field recordings, beats, processed voice]
collaborators: Melissa Grey, composer-performer; Dan Rose, author; Robert Kirkbride, trombone mute designer; Gregory M Beson, trombone mute fabricator; Ezgi Ucar, creative technologist; Rachel Cheetham-Richard, documentation
Baby Bear Shuffle (2016)
[violin, Nintendo Game Boy]
Another Dimension (2016)
[Nintendo Game Boy]
I Am Not a Fairy Princess (2015)
[violin, piano, drum set, Nintendo Game Boy, spoken word]
Shoemongering (2015)
[Nintendo Game Boy duo, spoken word]
collaborator: David Ross Gunn, author
in8 (2014)
[Nintendo Game Boy samples for 8-channel playback]
Broken Memory (2014)
[Nintendo Game Boy]
released on Immigrant Breast Nest (IBN040)
Electric Melting Reverb (2013)
[voice, Nintendo Game Boy]
collaborator: Robert Voisey, composer-performer
Boop Boop Beep (2008)
[Nintendo Game Boy]
Abandoned Revolution (2006)
[Nintendo Game Boy, dance, video]
collaborator: Boris Willis, choreographer
Vintage Machines Workshop
In 2015 I developed a workshop for Re/Lab at The New School that introduces students to the practice of using legacy video game systems to make music and lays the groundwork for their own further explorations of the tools and sounds of chiptune. We listen to a small sampling of music from these communities, including some of my own, and then explore different creative software using emulators of Nintendo Game Boy and Commodore 64 hardware. (The advantage of working with emulators is that they offer the opportunity to test ideas and experiment in these environments without having to invest in the vintage hardware first.)
In 2017, I presented this workshop at Lewis University, where students are earning course credit by completing an original composition using Little Sound Dj.
Complete workshop presentations:
- 2019.02.19 Visiting Artist, Sound Studies, The New School, School of Public Engagement: Media Studies, NYC
- 2018.03.18 – Visiting Artist, Sound Studies, The New School, School of Public Engagement: Media Studies, NYC
- 2017.04.22 – Arts&Ideas, Lewis University, Romeoville, IL
- 2017.02.21 – Visiting Artist, Sound Studies, The New School, Schools of Public Engagement: Media Studies, NYC
- 2016.11.10 – Electroacoustic Barndance, University of Mary Washington, Fredericksburg, VA
- 2016.06.11 – TEAM Lab, Harvestworks, NYC
- 2016.04.12 – Visiting Artist, Sound Studies, The New School, Schools of Public Engagement: Media Studies, NYC
- 2015.11.06 – Re/Lab, The New School, Schools of Public Engagement: Media Studies, NYC
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
workshop documentation
|
|
| ||||||
|
|
|
