What a way to end the Karmaklubb* VSS for now: Bendik Baksaas is working on new material and invites us to an exclusive 90 minutes travel with fresh, not yet released material from 2020 with visual by the eminent Mahal (Daniel Mahal) & Meat Applicator (Martin S. Sverdrup). The three of them have collaborated for five years and developed a refined audiovisual language — doing numerous gigs on DIY raves to frequently host live concerts at venues such as Blå, Oslo. There is absolutely no need to say this is a rare opportunity to be welcomed into a production that is being developed and just waiting to be realized in future clubs, when the world allows. K* VSS8: Grand finale. Live, technological delights.
This live concert was streamed in collaboration with some of our best friends in the West, Bergen Kunsthall and Landmark↗︎ .
For fun we also paste in one of the Instagram teaser that was sent into virtual space: ‘K* VSS8 teaser ch. 1 (Synthesizer porn […] from Bendik Baksaas’ studio’), pt. 2: The synth. The synth you see here is a modular synthesizer, Eurorack format. Eurorack is manufactured by German company Doepfer Musikelektronik. (It is named after “Eurocard”, the European standard format for printed circuit boards [PCB], which is inside the synth.) The very first Eurorack module, Doepfer A-100, was born in 1996. (But analogue synths root back to the late 60s and 70s. And the history of synthesizers way longer, more than 100 years from now. And luckily these analogue beauties, although you may not see the big difference, got a revival in the 90s with rave, Techno, and so on.) The Eurorack is very popular due to its raw look, flexible use, and of course brains. As you can see: extremely hot. You can get all kinds of sounds out of this dream machine. And build your own! (Apparantly 5,000+ different modules are available, and more compatible. And these are numbers from 2018. As everything being fetishized, there is a huge blurry market between the DIYs and the rest. Producers such as Moog and Roland are among the well known. Worth mentioning: One of the nicest names of compatible synths is the Moog “Mother-32”.) Use 3.5 mm mono jacks for the patching. Easy and intuitive. Many nerds choose cables coated with PVC in bright colours. They look nice and will make the synth appear even more like an adult toy (well, after all it is for playing …) and, of course: The colours make it easier to separate the cables, put them into the preferred holes. Depeche Mode used some Eurorack modular synths, perhaps still do. (Would have guessed Kraftwerk, too, no? They probably have some in the closet … However, Dieter Doepfer — the person behind the already mentioned Doepfer Musikelektronik — did collaborate with Kraftwerk in the 90s. But modular synths of course come in many elegant [yes, all are elegant] shapes and forms, not only the Eurorack. They got plenty.) Just Google this. It will be intriguing. Delightful. Fun, too. Note: If you have additional info or corrections, please reach out. Especially regarding that closet. Karmaklubb* wants to know more. Teasers are also welcome; portraits of other beauties, friends, and relatives of Bendik's machine.’