Holy Bjork, Synth-Fans! I have been hyping the reactable electronic music instrument to anyone who would listen lately (and here I am doing it again), but I had no idea that Bjork is using one and had it at the Glastonbury Music Festival! Reactable is basically an electronic synthesizer, only it has no keys. Instead, it uses a more intuitive and visual based interface with the musician. Before I try to write 1000 words, let me show you a reactable in action:
reactable synthesizer:
It’s not just a light show - you’re seeing the actual sonic reaction and interaction between different objects. According to Wired Magazine, the modular synth utilizes “open-source reacTivision software and an under-the-hood camera to track blocks that, when added, rotated or moved, combine to produce beeps, whoops and soaring synth lines.” Excellent! That’s actually the most concise description that I’ve heard about it yet. Wired Mag describes the machine in pretty easy to digest detail, and got Damian Taylor’s opinion on it. Taylor is the Grammy-nominated producer who engineered Volta and has played a reactable instrument live on stage throughout Bjork’s current tour. He told Wired:
When I first got it, I thought, ‘Why don’t I just make a funny noise on the Moog?’
But, as soon as you start to use it, there’s really no comparison — it’s a completely different animal. They designed it so you draw your finger across the board, but I just wound up picking stuff up and banging it on the table and playing it more like rock ‘n’ roll power chords. We had to replace the bottoms of each of the blocks because I was wearing away the patterns.
Go Damian! Rock that reactable!
Here he is playing live with Bjork at the Glastonbury Fest, “Pluto”:
reactable Links
If this is the kind of thing that gets you out of bed in the morning, head over to Wired Mag and read the full article.
Official reactable website - part of the Music Technology Group within the Audiovisual Institute at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona Spain
Bjork - Volta
Click on the album cover to listen to Bjork’s Volta on Amazon.com
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