Brian Bridges

Title ‘Machine Time’ with blurred modular synthesiser with feedback loops in background

I’m off to Leeds with briefcase modular synth in tow for a performance of ‘Machine Time’, inspired by the spacetime-distorting cybernetic soundscapes of Roland Kayn.

Also giving a paper w/ @stephenroddy.bsky.social on some media archaeology of Kayn & Jaap Vink’s pioneering musical cybernetics.

Great to see growth in Leaving Cert music numbers: this from today’s Irish Times:
‘Music saw the largest increase … rising 21 per cent from 6,503 last year to 7,877.’

And spread the word, you can study music (BMus) & music tech (BSc Creative Audio) at Ulster Uni, Derry!

I think some of that cuts to the heart of the music visualisation problem and music video problem. Was just discussing this with @adammelvin.bsky.social the other day.

To my mind, sometimes too much focus on synchronisation and local level taking away from more structurally/affectively satisfying

You can always just do ‘enigmatic silhouette’. Long tradition in our field

Delighted to see this published; in the time between the writing & publication, it’s become more relevant & urgent (looking at you, Meta)!

‘Cybernetic Resurgences: Machine Music Beyond AI Slop’ shows how an ethically grounded cybernetics of ML can help us resist AI slop & discourse of replacement

Cybernetic Resurgences: Machine Music Beyond AI Slop This chapter explores contemporary trends in the application of machine learning technologies in music composition and performance contexts. It argues that there is a resurgence of cybernetic approach...

Our (@bridgesbb.bsky.social) piece developing a Musical Cybernetics as an antidote to gen-AI slop music goes online this week. DM for pre-print access: doi.org/10.1007/978-...

We finalised our proofs for the Cybernetics Music VS AI Slop chapter. Going to need a short breather from all the AI stuff for a few weeks now. In our defense, it wasn't so all-pervading when we started working on it @bridgesbb.bsky.social

@bridgesbb.bsky.social doing a spot of field recording from outside the Art Gallery of Alberta.

Wonderfully diverse paper topics yesterday, at @scsmi.bsky.social SCSMI 2025, and a very high standard of discussion throughout. Looking forward to continuing discussions about how the soundtrack influences our experiences of the moving image

With @adammelvin.bsky.social

Not-so-wee buns here in Canada (but everything else is ‘wee buns’ in the figurative sense)!

Yes, for scale, the diameter is your standard modern paper plate size!

With @adammelvin.bsky.social

Just a sliver of the massive University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada

Enjoying SCSMI @scsmi.bsky.social
at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, CA, with my UU buddy and collaborator @adammelvin.bsky.social. Here’s our paper on our model for the embodied-electronic soundtrack.

In Edmonton AB and after a productive afternoon record shopping with @bridgesbb.bsky.social on Whyte's Ave (what a marvellous spot) it's time for the SCSMI conference.

Nice day for a scenic shortcut through campus

I often think of this when I see that page on the passport with the pious text implying that we still have birthright citizenship. Our misrecognition extends to our passport design choices.

+1000.
Very difficult for us to see around our inflated opinion of ourselves sometimes.

Modular synth feedback patch

I’m all set up for tomorrow’s first ever Signal Flow festival at the Playhouse Theatre, Derry, courtesy of @peterodoherty.bsky.social and his Northern Lights Project.

11 am to 9 pm tomorrow, with coffee and croissants for the early risers

Full details here

www.northernlightsproject.org

*** FULL PROGRAMME ***

Signal Flow – A One Day Festival of Experimental and Electronic Music

Sunday 27th April, 11am - 9pm
Playhouse, Derry

Starts at 11am (including coffee and croissants!) with laidback listening with Vincent O'Callaghan and Gavin McCarron.

Signal Flow- one-day festival of experimental and electronic music, Playhouse Theatre, Derry, Sun 27th 2025, 11 am to 9 pm

Part of the modular synthesis system for ‘Machine Time’

This Sunday, I’ll be premiering my new piece ‘Machine Time’ at this brand new festival of electronic and experimental music in Derry.

Expect evolving microtonal interlocking feedback loops in a modular synthesiser, influenced by the machine music of Roland Kayn and Jaap Vink.

A brief slice of Manchester elegance, from a flying visit yesterday

Great seminar today from Dr Amanda Finch (Drama at Ulster), on Brigid’s Day: a 21st Century Irish Carnival?

Dublin City University All Hallows campus

Dublin City University All Hallows campus

Enjoying the DCU All Hallows campus in north Dublin today after an in-person Irish Humanities Alliance board meeting; a nice way to bow out, as my colleague Dr Lisa Fitzpatrick (Drama at Ulster) takes over

Roland Kayn boxed set - Scanning

Roland Kayn boxed set - Scanning (booklet)

A little Christmas cybernetic music listening in prospect, courtesy of Roland Kayn

Collaboration, Engagement, and Tradition in Contemporary and Electronic Music: NoiseFloor Perspectives Collaboration, Engagement, and Tradition in Contemporary and Electronic Music: NoiseFloor Perspectives illuminates practices at the forefront of modern music-making and is built on a rich collection o...

New chapter!
Hagan, K. "Electronics as a Member of the Ensemble." Collaboration, Engagement, and Tradition in Contemporary and Electronic Music: NoiseFloor Perspectives. M Estibeiro, D Payling, D Cotter, eds. New York: Routledge, 2025.
www.routledge.com/Collaboratio...

Managed to grab a few mins in the Ulster Uni Magee studio today to install our new modular synth keyboard and case (Cre8audio Niftykeyz)

A few more modules to be added (some waiting in storage in the treasure chest), but enough to make some noise

Looking forward to catching this tonight; recommended if you’re into the history of electronic and computer music and sound.

Peter Zinovieff was at the centre of a truly fascinating scene around far-sighted electronic and computer music, and a whole host of intermedia stuff, in the 1960s and 70s.

Jaap Vink cybernetic music patch, after Kees Tazelaar’s Inst of Sonology video tutorials

It’s not an echo chamber. More a feedback chamber!

Like the Jaap Vink cybernetic music patch, which myself and @stephenroddy.bsky.social discussed in our recent Cybernetic Resurgences presentation at ubimus24.

Check out Tazelaar’s video demo and tutorial.

sonology.org/aiovg_videos...

Can you afford to release your album on vinyl?

I work for a small vinyl pressing plant, our customers are mostly independent artists doing small-run pressings. My job is advising people on how it all works.

Here's a short thread outlining the very basic costs of pressing and releasing an album:

The Radical Humanities Laboratory Presents Narrative Half-Life, a talk by Jay Needham at the Hub, @ucc.bsky.social, this Wednesday at 4pm.

Roland Kayn - The Ortho-Project - Spectrum City Roland Kayn's The Ortho-Project is a new high watermark for longform electroacoustic composition, unfolding across 15 CDs in a luxurious gold-stamped boxed set. With Jim O’Rourke applying his signatur...

Roland Kayn - The Ortho-Project

Another indispensable Roland Kayn unearthing courtesy of the ever- dependable @frozenreeds.bsky.social

In stock and shipping now! 🌏

+ 15-CD limited edition boxed set
+ Audio restoration by Jim O’Rourke.
+ Artwork and design by Robert Beatty.