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JEFF CAREY Recent Work 2021

Recent works: Prototype for Movement with Feedback, Precursor to Hypercube, EXT, Live performance on IMAGINARY NETWORK TOPOLOGIES

IMAGINARY NETWORK TOPOLOGIES trailer

During the ’20/’21 pandemic Jeff Carey created a virtual concert platform to present synthetic, mechanical and experimental noise music on twitch.tv/2xmono in the form of two weekly shows that ran from January until the end of April: Executive Summary is a show for very short (5 minute) performances on Monday mornings at 9 am and Imaginary Network Topologies Season Two for longer performances on Friday nights. From October 2020 to present there have been 44 shows with 270 performances from international artists totaling more than 90 hours of music.

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About Jeff

Anne Arundel County

Jeff Carey's picture
For over 20 years, Jeff Carey has performed synthetic noise music with a physically controlled software based instrument of his own development called ctrlKey.  He is an avid electro-instrumental improvisor and is a composer of multichannel acousmatic music. His music is abstract and sculptural, full of shapes and gesture, colored by noise bursts, percussive glitches and shifting resonance. His work often incorporates extramusical elements like strobe lights, lasers and computer animation all... more
View Jeff's Resume

Imaginary Network Topologies / Executive Summary

Imaginary Network Topologies / Executive Summary
During the ’20/’21 pandemic Jeff Carey created a virtual concert platform to present synthetic, mechanical and experimental noise music on twitch.tv/2xmono in the form of two weekly shows that ran from January until the end of April:  Executive Summary is a show for very short (5 minute) performances on Monday mornings at 9 am and Imaginary Network Topologies Season Two for longer performances on Friday nights.  From October 2020 to present there have been 44 shows with 270 performances from international artists totaling more than 90 hours of music.  details here:  http://imaginary.topologies.net

Executive Summary and High Zero
Three Executive Sumary produced shows were presented on the High Zero Foundation stream during the Redroom in Your Room streaming series and the High Zero Festival.  Each featured 20 performances of newly improvised music from performers from all over the world.
https://www.twitch.tv/highzerofoundation
http://redroom.org

END OF YEAR STATUS UPDATE
Dec 30 8pm EST Imaginary Network Topologies and Executive Summary present END OF YEAR STATUS UPDATE with performances from: Andrea Pensado, Tom Borax, M.C. Schmidt &Tom Waterworth, Jayve Montgomery, Leah P,  Bromp Treb, Triggeralert, +DOG+, Proswell, Foam/Rawlings/Staubitz, Final Machine, 

Like Weeds, Sreet Rat,  Carlos Santisteven, Flippin’ Idiots,  {AN} Eel, Juicemachine, Straight Panic, Vrg Bls, Don Haugen, Remst8, That Cloud, Scott Bazar, Federico Balducci,  YMGER, Giblet Gusset, Tony Lugo,  Blood of Chhinnamastika, Rose Burt, Wombat Trio, The Expanding Man , Lori Varga & Kit Young, Obie Feldi, Marc Spruit, Simon LeBoggit, Sam Burt, Evan Rossi, Alex Wing, and Kelly Harai.

http://twitch.tv/2xmono

Visual Music: Precursor to Hypercube, Prototype for Movement with Feedback, Live performance

Prototype for Movement with Feedback, 2021 Prototype for Movement with Feedback is a composition for motion and sound — it is a cybernetic dance piece for moving light fixtures and electro-instrumental music. The piece uses synthetic sound and algorithmically controlled movement, yet it is imbued with personality and a human quality of communication through gesture and embodiment of sound.  Premiered on The Fuse Factory’s Frequency Friday concert series in May 2021. Precursor to Hypercube, 2017 Precursor to Hypercube is an immersive music installation that hovers between a thrill ride and a fever dream.  Inspired by the mathematical concept of a 4-dimensional square, known as a hypercube, the composition explores the notion of multi-dimensional sound by articulating musical phrases physically and visually. Seat-belted into sound activated chairs, holding a panic button, wearing headphones in a darkened room, visitors hear, see and feel a composition that is articulated by synthesized sound, strobe and laser lighting.  Heightened by the effect of  active seating, sound transmits through visitors bodies, and the experience becomes totally visceral.  Strobes flash and beams of laser light fill the field of vision. Precursor to Hypercube was made with support from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance Rubys Artist Grant program and Recombinant Media Labs.  Premiered at Recombinant Festival 2017. Live Performance
These video excerpts from 2009-2018 feature the use of electro-instrumentally controlled strobe light arrays and laser projections.

  • Precursor to Hypercube by Jeff Carey

    Precursor to Hypercube is an immersive music installation that hovers between a thrill ride and a fever dream. Inspired by the mathematical concept of a 4-dimensional square, known as a hypercube, the composition explores the notion of multi-dimensional music by articulating musical phrases physically and visually. Precursor to Hypercube was made with support from the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance Rubys Artist Grant program and Recombinant Media Labs.

  • Active seating design for Precursor to Hypercube

    Precursor to Hypercube active seating
    Active seating design for Precursor to Hypercube. Seatbelt, headphones, headphone amp for volume control, two SubPac subwoofers (bass for your body) on the seat and back of the chair, and a panic button.

  • Precursor to Hypercube

    Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective
    Still image of Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective.

  • Precursor to Hypercube

    Still image of Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective.
    Still image of Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective.

  • Precursor to Hypercube

    Still image of Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective.
    Still image of Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective.

  • Precursor to Hypercube

    Still image of Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective.
    Still image of Precursor to Hypercube from the audience perspective.

  • Prototype for Movement with Feedback

    Prototype for Movement with Feedback is a composition for motion and sound. It is a cybernetic dance piece for moving light fixtures and electro-instrumental music. The piece uses synthetic sound and algorithmically controlled movement, yet it is imbued with personality and a human quality of communication through gesture and embodiment of sound. Premiered on The Fuse Factory’s Frequency Friday concert series in May 2021.

  • Jeff Carey performance excerpts 2009-2018

    These video excerpts from 2009-2018 feature the use of electro-instrumentally controlled strobe light arrays and laser projections.

Electro-instrumental development: ctrlKey, DDrum, Now/Soon/Gone, Lemuria

ctrlKey

The electro-instrument ctrlKey is a custom designed gesturally controlled software synthesis and mapping system created by Jeff Carey and used in all of his performative work.  The instrument's physically controlled sound development capabilities are flexible enough to make rapid changes between varied sound.  It is a meta-instrument that allows the performer to, in a flexible way, direct the sound generation process and control extramusical elements like strobe lights, laser projectors and computer animation.

Soon/ Now/ Gone
Fabricate controllers, integrate hardware and code synthesizer instruments using Raspberry PI computers with Teensy controller boards and Supercollider in support of Erik Ruin and Rosie Langabeer installation at Site/Sound in Philadelphia.

Lemuria
Develop sound tranformation processing for acoustic quartet Lemur in the SuperCollider programming language.  Four Raspberry PI based control stations for each instrumentalist are fed into a central computer for audio processing.  Performers are spread out in large spaces and the sound is multichannel surround.

DDrum
Develop sound transformation processing of drum kit for Swiss percussionist Nicolas Field.  DDrum uses triggers and microphones to capter and analyze drum sounds and synthesis material in response to, and under the control of the drummer.

  • Electro-instrument ctrlKey

    Electro-instrument ctrlKey
    Hardware interface for the electro-instrument "ctrlKey". These hardware elements send gestural control data to the mapping and synthesis software. Generally, the gamer key pad is used to start synthesis and algorithmic processes that make sound, the joystick is used to shape the sound. Buttons and faders in the center are used to select sound transformations, scenes, signal routing and to set parameters that have a global influence on the output. Both the joystick and the keypad have a hatswitch that allows both thumbs to have expressivity control.

  • A code fragment from ctrlKey

    A code fragment from ctrlKey
    A fragment selected from the thousands of lines of code that define the software component of "ctrlKey" electro-instrument. The software is written so that the gestural control is mapped to sound synthesis in a flexible way and can be changed while in performance to support needs that may only be discovered in the musical moment. This particular code snippet creates the ability for sound generators to receive data through custom mappings from control sources.

  • "Chop Chop"

    "Chop Chop" was written in 2010 for a 16 channel array of speakers in a ring. It is an electro-instrumental work for gesturally controlled computer with custom software. The control system guides synthesis procedures, algorthimically generated events and the spatialization of the sounds. The composition and development of custom software was made with support from the Bergen Kommune, Norway. Premiered at Ekko Festival October 2010. This recording is a stereo documentary recording without spatialization.

  • Matmos presents Jeff Carey live at Supersonic Festival 2014

    Excerpt of concert footage from the 2014 Supersonic Festival in Birmingham, UK.

  • Lemuria in concert, Tectonics Festival, Athens Greece, 2019

    Lemuria in concert, Tectonics Festival, Athens Greece, 2019
    Lemuria, by Lemur in concert, Tectonics Festival, Athens Greece, 2019 Develop sound tranformation processing for acoustic quartet Lemur in the SuperCollider programming language. Four Raspberry PI based control stations for each instrumentalist are fed into a central computer for audio processing. Performers are spread out in large spaces and the sound is multichannel surround.

  • Nicolas Field and DDrum

    Nicolas Field and DDrum
    Nicolas Field and DDrum developed by Jeff Carey Develop sound transformation processing of drum kit for Swiss percussionist Nicolas Field. DDrum uses triggers and microphones to capter and analyze drum sounds and synthesis material in response to, and under the control of the drummer.

  • Site/Sound: Soon/ Now/ Gone

    Soon/ Now/ Gone engages with the Rail Park site’s history as a space for movement through a series of interactive installations and performances. Our point of departure is the Victorian era, where technologies such as the railroad and photography/cinema began to be used as a way to capture, collapse, and re-deploy time.

  • Zoopraxiscope sound controller for Soon/ Now/ Gone

    Zoopraxiscope sound controller for Soon/ Now/ Gone
    Zoopraxiscope sound controller for Soon/ Now/ Gone Green buttons on the left select a scene of sounds that appear on the yellow buttons. Yellow buttons start and stop sounds while knobs modify the sounds in some way. The interface is a device that allows for surprise, exploration and development of sounds to accompany the hand made Zoopraxiscope visuals.

  • Installing the Zoopraxiscopes at Soon/ Now/ Gone with Rosie Langabeer and Jeff Carey

    Installing the Zoopraxiscopes at Soon/ Now/ Gone with Rosie Langabeer and Jeff Carey
    Two Zoopraxiscopes in the process of installation. Each station has a hand cranked Zoopraxiscope that projects a short hand drawn film by Erik Ruin and a sound controller that plays sound material composed by Rosie Langabeer. The controllers and Raspberry PI based synthesis software and sounds precessing were developed but Jeff Carey.

A Decade of High Zero / Worlds In Collusion / Redroom / Diffusion Festival and electronic music community

Since 2011, Jeff Carey has been involved in the curation, organization and promotion of performances in Baltimore at the High Zero Festival (highzero.org), Worlds in Collusion at Artscape (artscape.org) and regular concert series at the Redroom (redroom.org).  His curatorial focus is centered on the many forms of electronic music and he has organized and promoted shows for Marcus Schmickler, Muyassar Kurdi, Kassel Jaeger, Lea Bertucci and Sudden Infant to name a few.  

More info at highzero.org
and http://highzerofoundation.org

Recently, Carey co-founded the Diffusion Festival as a project of the High Zero Foundation to create a series of concerts and presentations of multi-channel electro-acoustic and acousmatic music in Baltimore.  Each of the first two years of the festival has featured five events with contemporary compositions and master works focussing on a type or school of early electronic music.  The first year focussed on musique concrète from the Group de Recherches Musicales (GRM) and the second year focussed on algorithmic composition and tape studio master works of early German acousmatic composition.

The 2017 and 2018 festivals also included conemporary  pieces from Chris Madak (Philadelphia), Max Eilbacher (Baltimore), Lea Bertucci (New York), Robert Francis (Seattle), Cameron Shafii (Seattle), Kassel Jaeger (Paris, France), Leila Bordreuil (New York), Wobbly (San Francisco), Rjyan Kidwell (Baltimore),  Vicky Bennett (United Kingdom),  Twig Harper (Baltimore), Stephanie Barber (Baltimore), Madalyn Merkey (Okland, California), Farahnaz Hatam (Berlin, Germany), Nathan Corder (Berkley, California), Olivia Block (Chicago, Illinois), Marcus Schmickler (Cologne, Germany), MIke Bullock (Boston, Massachussetts), Carrie Fucile (Baltimore), Kevin Blackistone (Baltimore), Ruben Patiño (Barcelona, Spain).

In early 2017, he curated a series called "Noise Not Equal Noise Noise" focusing on builders of custom designed, circuit-bent and otherwise idiosyncratic electronic instruments at the Redroom.

Discography

DVDs, CDs, records, cassettes, memory cards

2021
V/A, Jeff Carey / Andrea Pensado / Rubber Cement / Comfort Link, 2x7" records, Speencoffin, MD USA
Jeff Carey, INT_15, MiniCD, CWnil, MD USA
Jeff Carey, COLUMNS, MiniCD and sculpture set, CWnil, MD USA

2020
Jeff Carey, Index[off], Digital, CWnil, MD USA
Jeff Carey, Gravity Wave, Digital, CWnil, MD USA
Jeff Carey, The Involute Curve, Digital, CWnil, MD USA

2019
Jeff Carey, Low Dimensional Navigation Manual Volume 1-6, Digital, CWnil, MD USA

2018
Jeff Carey, Zero Player Game, CD, Ehse Records, Baltimore, MD
Jeff Carey / To Die split cassette, Seratus Ribu, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia
Jeff Carey, HYPERCUBE, CD on CWnil, MD, USA
Jeff Carey, Section Three, clear 7" flexidisc on CWnil, MD, USA

2017
Jeff Carey, V/A Rogue Pulse: Gravity Collapse, CD, Ratskin Records, San Francisco, CA, USA

2016
Jeff Carey, V/A audio-DH, USB memory card, on iii editions, The Hague, The Netherlands
Jeff Carey, V/A Cut Up America, Cassette, Factotumtapes, Dayton, Ohio, USA

2015
Jeff Carey plays Matmos / Matmos plays Jeff Carey, CD, on Multipletap, Japan

Jeff Carey featuring Abdu Ali, 2 track cassingle on Protagonist Music, Baltimore MD, USA 

Jeff Carey, V/A A Simple Procedure, CD on Estuary Ltd, Providence, RI, USA
Jeff Carey, Deconstructed Piano, 7" polycaronate, on Estuary Ltd, Providence, RI, USA

2013
Jeff Carey, Two Fields, Cassette, on Banned Production, Glassell Park, CA, USA
Jeff Carey, [3:30], CD, on Forwind, London, UK

2012
Jeff Carey, Interrupt-Decay, CD on CWnil, MD, USA
Jeff Carey, V/A District of Noise Vol. 5, CD on Sonic Circuits DC, Washington, DC, USA

2011

Jeff Carey, V/A Unearthed From Airwaves, CD, on I/OSound, Vancouver, Canada

2010
Jeff Carey, Impulse, CD, on CWnil, MD, USA
Jeff Carey, V/A District of Noise Vol. 3, 12” on Sonic Circuits DC, Washington, DC, USA

2009
SKIF++, V/A Optophonica, DVD, on LINE Sound Art Editions, Los Angeles, CA
, USA
SKIF++, .next, CD, on Creative Sources, Lisbon, Portugal
Jeff Carey, V/A District of Noise Vol. 2, CD on Sonic Circuits DC, Washington, DC, USA

2008

Office-R(6), Recording the Grain, CD, on +3DB, Bergen, Norway 

Jeff Carey, V/A High Zero 10th Anniversary DVD+CD, on Recorded, Baltimore, MD
, USA
Jeff Carey, V/A Noiseroom, CD, on Sonig, Berlin, Germany

Jeff Carey's MoHa!, 7” record, on Rune Gramofon, Oslo, Norway

2007
SKIF++, SK++[01,02,03,04,00], CD, on Fridgesounds, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2006

Office-R(6), Mundane Occurrences and Presentations, CD, on Lampse, London, UK

2005
Office-R(6), V/A N-Collective - Live at STEIM, CDr, on Authorised Version, UK

2004
87 Central, Office-R(6), V/A N-Collective - News From Holland, CD, on X-OR, The Netherlands
Office-R(6), V/A Document 1 Kraakgeluiden 1999-2003, CD, on Unsounds, Amsterdam
87 Central, V/A Visual Music 2, DVD, on NOTV/Universal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2003
87 Central, V/A Visual Music 1, DVD on NoTV/Universal, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

87 Central, Sax Mower, CD, on JDK Productions, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2001
87 Central, Formation, CD, on Staalplaat, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

2000
87 Central, V/A lockERS, 12” on ERS Records, Amsterdam, The Netherlands


1999
87 Central, self-titled, 12”, on ERS records, Amsterdam, The Netherlands

Selected improvised music

High Zero 2018, Jeff Carey, Allison Clendaniel, Stewart Mostofsky
High Zero 2021, Jeff Carey, Liz Meredith, Ty Page
High Zero 2007, Jeff Carey, Donn Parker, Shodekeh, Aaron Dilloway
Jeff Carey, Audrey Chen, John Deirker trio, 2012

"Mundane Occurrences and Presentations" CD by Office-R(6)

"And then there's the Amsterdam-based Office-R(6) whose energized interplay is never anything less than engrossing. Drawing upon electronic music, noise, jazz, and contemporary music traditions, the players attack their notty electro-acoustic improvisations with rabid ferocity. Purposeful, stop-start interplay is permeated by perpetual flux and invention with electronic sputter, bass clarinet growls, bowed scrapes, saxophone honks, and sliced voice samples endlessly circling around and colliding with one another. Sounds converge at some moments before splintering off into multiple directions the next. Mundane Occurrences and Presentations at times resembles the kind of challenging music Luciano Berio might be creating [...] in his composing prime."
   -- Textura.org

".next" CD by SKIF++

"Jeff Carey, Robert van Heumen and Bas van Koolwijk, laptops, the latter on visuals, presumably when seen/heard live.
I've carped a bit above about excess activity on the part of some of the musicians. Well, this trio of electronicists can be as active, scurrying and scrabbling as anyone...but it works. Freewheeling while managing to maintain some kind of control, they're perhaps comparable to Lehn/Schmickler in approach when they have pedal to the floor. But also quite capable of reining things in as on the lengthy "[thinner]", a fine, low, rumbling series of quivers and rustles. Good, solid recording." -- Just Outside, BRIAN OLEWNICK

"Vector" and selected multi-channel acousmatic and algorithmic compositions

Algorithmic compositions of computer generated sound controlled by rules that are composed.  These pieces explore the use of granular synthesis, fft, and non standard synthesis techniques like SSP (created by Gottfried Michael Koenig) and Gendyn (created by Iannis Xenakis).

"The composer is no longer preoccupied with selecting specific notes on the scale, specific rhythms, and other such details, but rather with more generalized sets of symbols, which would be used in turn for the generation and arrangement of the musical details, and they might cease to have the importance we now attach to them."  Lejaren Hiller  from "Experimental Music: Composition with an Electronic Computer", 1959

  • The Game of Life 200 speaker wave field synthesis system.

    The Game of Life 200 speaker wave field synthesis system.
    The Game of Life 200 speaker wave field synthesis system as seen while importing "Structural Unit II" into the playback system.

  • "Vector"

    "Vector" is a multi-channel algorithmic compostiion (2005, 20 minutes, fixed media, 5.1 surround) completed during a Harvestworks New Works Residency and Bergen Electronic Art Center (BEK) artistic residency. Algorithmic composition incorporating field recordings from Malaysia and Singapore. Premiered at Borealis New Music Festival 2005, Bergen, Norway.

  • "Structural Unit"

    "Structural Unit" is a multi-channel algorithmic composition completed and premiered at DNK Amsterdam in 2007.

  • "Speaker Quartet II"

    "Speaker Quartet II" is an algorithmic composition (2008, 10 minutes, fixed media) using field composition techniques and feedback as the basic material for four speakers without spatialization. Premiered at The Night of the Unexpected 2008 during the Gaudeamus International Music Week.

  • "Structural Unit II"

    "Structural Unit II" is an algorithmic composition (2008, 6 minutes, fixed media) for the Stichting Game of Life 200 speaker wavefield synthesis system in Lieden, The Netherlands. Inspired by the chemist Dr. Percy Julian's work as a research chemist and pioneer of chemical synthesis of medicinal drugs from plants; chemical reactions form new complexes of structure. Premiered at the 2008 SuperCollider Symposium in Den Haag.

  • "Redshift"

    "Redshift" is a multi-channel algorithmic composition (2004, 4 channel, 17 minutes) using field composition and SSP techniques (GM Koenig) to generate and transform sound material.

"Point Source 01" and selected electro-acoustic pieces

These compositions deal with elasticity and the idea of renewal and variation of music. Performers are given scores that attach types of sounds and structures to passages of time and they develop phrases towards the goals defined therein. Players work together to incorporate their musical activity to develop the segments of the score interactively and are constrained by rules defining musical behavior and a structured in time.

"Point Source 01" performed by Koen Nutters (bass)

"Machine Gun Ettiquette" performed by Bjørnar Habbestad (flute, electronics) and Jeff Carey (computer)

"Untitled Structure for Seven" performed by Kjetil Møster, saxophone; Per Zanussi, bass; John Hegre, electric guitar; Bjørnar Habbestad, flute; Nicolas Field, drums; Kjetil Brandsdal, electric bass; Koen Nutters, bass; Jeff Carey, 'theNew' electro-instrument

  • N-Ensemble

    N-Ensemble
    Pho Big Band / N-Ensemble in performance at NuMusic festival 2007 in Stavanger, Norway.

  • "Untitled Structure for Seven" (excerpt)

    "Untitled Structure for Seven" (2010) performed by Bjørnar Habbestad, flute; Nicolas Field, drums; Per Zanussi, bass; John Hegre, electric guitar; Kjetil Møster, saxophone; Kjetil Brandsdal, electric bass; Koen Nutters, bass; Jeff Carey, 'theNew' electro-instrument.

  • "Point Source 01"

    "Point Source 01" was written in 2006 for bass and computer (8 minutes, stereo). Acoustic bass sounds are analyzed, sampled and re-synthesized in real-time. Custom software is used both as a way to extend the sound of the bass and as a synthetic performing partner in a 'virtual duet'.

  • "Mchine Gun Etiquette"

    "Machine Gun Etiquette" recorded live at NuMusic 2007 in Stavanger, Norway. Performed by Bjørnar Habbestad (flute, electronics) and Jeff Carey (computer).

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