news – funharm

New song on Bandcamp and YouTube – “downotocot”

Last month I finished working on something I started at Mono Lake in mid-January.

Back then, it was 10 degrees, with the wind chill often dropping below zero. Three feet of snow on the ground, and the long driveway half-plowed, with a stalled backhoe blocking the last 300 feet. The property’s solar panel arrays had 3 inches of iced snow stuck to them. To get power to the house, the ice had to be chipped — gently — off the panels. It was my first extended experience wearing snowshoes. Parts of it were painful, but, mostly, I enjoyed working to be independent off-grid.

Last month, when I returned to the space, it was the hottest weekend thus far this year in Mono County. The temperature on the veranda was 95F, and I heard the fans start up on my MacBookPro for the first time since I bought it.

After a few hours of sweat, and too many bug bites, I figured the track was ready.

This Friday, August 4, “downotocot” will be made available on Bandcamp. It’s available to be streamed now.

The accompanying video was recorded in January, during my approach to the Mono property from the east, since 395 was closed due to snow between Bridgeport and Conway Summit. You may notice there was only one other car on the road, most likely because it wasn’t that smart to be driving on roads that were, sometimes, less-than-half plowed.

As always, thanks for listening. And watching.

March 13, 2022April 26, 2022 paul ARP|hardware|news|synthesizers

I bought an refurbed ARP Solus on Reverb

My brother, John, purchased a used ARP Solus in the early 80s. I borrowed it, and played in on the first two Funharm cassettes. I have over two dozen additional unedited tapes of me abusing the thing.

When I moved from LA to Sacramento in 1984, I relinquished the Solus, and I’ve missed it since.

Last month I saw a fully refurbished Solus on Reverb for $1200 plus shipping. I looked at the listing, longed after the lost Solus, and went about my day.

A week later the price was dropped to $1000.

I thought about it for about 10 seconds, then bought it.

It’s in great shape. The top octave on the keyboard is a bit wonky, but the more I play it, the more it loosens up.

It’s good to have a Solus in the house again.

More soon.

October 21, 2021October 21, 2021 paul audio|mixcloud|news

Mixcloud blend

I uploaded a mix of Funharm tracks to Mixcloud.

New Track: “Wilder So”

Today is Bandcamp Friday. This morning I recorded a new track, “Wilder So.” This afternoon and evening I worked on a video to accompany it. This is the result.

The track can be streamed and downloaded/purchased on Bandcamp.

Thanks for your support, and thank you for listening.

Special thanks to Kate Burkart and Ruth and Glenn Garland. And this track would not have been possible without the assistance of Dan Phillips.

April 5, 2021 paul k. leimer|news|palace of lights|video|youtube

Video for K. Leimer’s “Murmuration”

K. Leimer’s Found Objects is being released on his Palace of Lights label next week. He asked me to provide video to accompany the track “Murmuration.” This is the result.

Video for Marc Barreca’s “City of Red Sand”

I’ve admired the Palace of Lights label since I first heard Kerry Leimer’s “Closed System Potentials” in 1980.

Last month I was flattered to be asked by the label to provide video content for two new releases.

This is the first.

Marc Barreca The Empty Bridge on Palace of Lights

Another Mono Retreat

View from the patio of my temporary Mono Lake abode (from December 2019).

In early December, I spent a week at my favorite place, Mono Lake.

The weather, for 7700 feet high-desert elevation at the eastern foot of the Sierra, in early December, was disturbingly mild. I was hoping for cloudy days and some snow, but there was none of the latter and little of the former. I did a lot of reading, writing, taking photos and videos, offroading in my truck, some volunteer work, and relaxing (somewhat).

I also spent some time working with the Korg wavestate, tweaking programs, recording, and tracking and processing some existing stuff.

Scrolling, cursoring, taking notes

A couple months back I traded in the defective Modal Electronics Argon8 for a Korg wavestate. The latter isn’t especially easy to learn, with a lot of menu-diving involved.

The stock “performances” that were oh-so-cinematic in the YouTube wavestate demos turned out to be, with few exceptions, not so alluring after a few listens; I spent last evening scrolling through program presets and making a list of favorites.

I’ve also been working on learning the ins and outs (and sends and inserts and returns and busses) on a new Mackie 1642VLZ4 mixer. Initial forays include incorporating blends from three different Buddha Machines, as well as continuing to digitize long-neglected Funharm cassettes dating back to the early-to-mid-eighties.

Funharm track on Bedroom Cassette Masters 1980-89 Volume X

Today Bedroom Cassette Masters released a free (well, pay-what-you-like) compilation on Bandcamp entitled 1980-89 Volume X that has some very snazzy PDF liner notes.

It also has a contribution from Funharm — track 13, “Ideal Planes”, from 1985. A portion of said PDF snazziness is screengrabbed above.

Thank you to Bedroom Cassette Masters for including my song, tracking down highlights from 80s (and 80s-influenced) home-recorded electronics, and putting together an impressive package.