While we’re on the subject of making music with Kinect, the 3D computer vision camera with depth-sensing, here are some other experiments into how music might work. As with the classic Theremin, those musical gestures tend to be mapped against two-dimensional axes in space.

And from there, things become wide open. Johannes Kreidler, a musician and artist known for irreverent and inventive experiments in music, shares his studies for the Kinect, which he terms “conceptual music.” A solo “for violin” can involve literally waving a violin around. “House music” can mean making music whilst ironing a shirt. Any gesture in space becomes musical. Without tangible feedback, that can be challenging, and since these are just gestures in air, precision and nuance may not be a strong suit. But it’s a fascinating look into what’s possible, a set of thought experiments in music with a camera.

Composer Johannes Kreidler’s other works have included provocative ideas like making a performance of a short piece with 70,200 quotations of other “sampled” works, tunes from wildly-gyrating stock market quotes, entire bodies of work (like the Beatles) compressed into seconds, and pieces from avant-garde happenings to more conventional electro-acoustic scores. See his site for more.

And he’s got a killer book on using Pd, too.

In a city that's all about hot young talent, Paris' BeatauCue are truly on fire. They kicked off their career in late 2009 with remixes for the likes of Turbo, Lektroluv and Man Recordings, signed to Kitsune for a steady stream of EPs, and have gone on to bring their unique style of fidgety electro to reworks for Armand Van Helden & Steve Aoki, Don Rimini, and Kylie Minogue. They recently dropped their "Falcon Punch" EP for Kitsune, taking their sound larger than ever before. We spoke to BeatauCue about their raptor-pummeling sound; read on for the interview and their hand-picked Weekend Weapons selections.

Read more on Beatportal

Kieran Hebden talks to Defected about "creating a very specific soundtrack to Fabric's London location" with his new mix for the club.

In a whimsical proof of concept, artist and inventor Dan Wilcox harnesses the depth-sensing powers of the Kinect camera to turn a room full of drifting balloons into music. It occurs to me that the basic spatial model can be seen as descended directly from the Theremin – way to go, Leon, still relevant today. The sounds are simple, but it seems something you could continue to develop musically – to say nothing of what it could do for the ball pit at Chuck E. Cheese’s. (Slogan: Where a Kid Can Be a Kid Who Gets Obsessed With Skeeball Prizes / Get Scared Out of a Kid’s Mind By the Other Kids in the Ball Pit. Sorry, it’s an American suburban thing of a certain age, for the more than half of you who have no idea what I’m talking about.)

Full description from Dan:

Experiments in balloon motion and sound using an MS Kinect depth sensing camera.

Created for the Carnegie Mellon 1st & 2nd year MFA Graduate show entitled “Fresh Baked Goods” at Bakery Square, April 2011.

A machine stands in a room surrounded by balloons. Circulating fans blow the balloons over the machine which creates sound based on their movements.

Mode 1: Tones

Balloon height and x/y position control the pitch and panning of a treble and bass voice. The tones can be quantized into a certain key or a glisssando can be employed for a theremin-style effect.

Mode 2: 99 Luftballons

The playback speed of Nena’s 99 Luftballons is controlled by balloon height. The balloons must be kept in the air for the song to play. Feed the machine.

Built using Open Frameworks, ofxKinect, and Open CV for balloon tracking and Pure Data for sound generation/playback.

See danomatika.com/​blog/​balloon-project for more info.

Dan has a master plan with a robotic music-playing suit and other ideas, so I can’t wait to see where this goes.

Catz 'n Dogz have always represented the deeper end of the dirtybird roster, and with their label Pets Recordings they've continued to take things full fathom. Pets' latest release, from newcomer Chmara Winter, is the label's deepest release yet—particularly a remix from MyMy's Lee Jones, who gives Buzzin' Fly a run for its money with its misty-eyed approach to the dance floor. The original version is also a thing of frankly jaw-dropping beauty, the kind of swooning deep house with vocals that turns hearts to mush with a single strum of the harp. Gorgeous.

Watch this video on Beatportal

In late September, CDM travels to Amsterdam and the legendary STEIM, a hub for research and experimentation in electro-acoustic music. The Patterns + Pleasure Festival will explore live electronic music practice and more, from controllerist laptop musicians like Edison and Moldover to the likes of sculpture-trained artist Nina Boes working with drawing and video instruments. The afternoon of September 28, we’ll have an open celebration of DIY electronic music culture with a special installment of Handmade Music.

If you’re in the Netherlands or nearby, we hope you’ll stop by. And if you have something you’d like to share, for show-and-tell, performance, and mingling with artists participating in and attending the festival, we have an open call for works.

You can see our video from last time. The video doesn’t really convey what a blast we had. Don’t be afraid by the crackles and whistles, either; I love that there’s a range of sound in electronic inventions, from the crackly experimental to instruments that work in more conventional contexts, too.

This installment already promises to be far bigger. I can’t wait. And if you’re far from the lovely winding canals of Amsterdam seen below, we’re working on extensive coverage so you can feel like you’re there from anywhere on the planet.

Here’s the call for works; feel free to spread it around:

Open Call:
Handmade Music at STEIM

As part of the Patterns + Pleasure Festival
28 September 2011
14:30 – 17:30
Frascati Theater, Amsterdam
Deadline: Tuesday 9 September 2011

Hosted by createdigitalmusic.com and STEIM; curated by Peter KIRN with Takuro Mizuta Lippit

Attention, makers of things that make music! Be part of an open laboratory, a science fair-style show and tell of work. We want to see your creations, including but not limited to:

Custom circuitry
New custom synthesizers
Creative controllers
Open source hardware and software
Audiovisual software
Original acoustic and electroacoustic instruments
Sound art/sculpture
Circuit-bent designs
Instruments and composition and performance tools made with game technology, mobile technology, Kinect cameras, and the like

The essential element is that you’ve built something yourself, in hardware, software, or both.

Please be prepared to show a self-contained presentation of your work. Some display/projection and amplification will be available, but we encourage you to bring your own displays and speakers if you can.

We will setup works for show-and-tell style exploration, as well as brief (5-minute demos) and short (5-10-minute), variety style performances and jams. We’ll also lead a discussion with artists and engineers, and encourage you to meet other makers and exchange ideas and techniques.

We are unfortunately unable to provide expenses for travel, so you will need to provide your own transportation to and lodging in Amsterdam. All projects will be covered on createdigitalmusic.com.

Please submit:

1. Your name, as you’d like it to be listed
2. Your project name
3. If applicable, a link to a project site
4. Photos of your project (a link to Flickr, Picasa, blogs, etc. is fine)
5. (Mandatory) Video and or audio documentation of your project in action (Vimeo, YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.)
6. Space requirements
7. Technical requirements (power / audio / safety concerns if applicable)
8. A brief description (two sentences is fine) of your project.
9. If you wish to propose a performance, please describe in short how you perform with your tool.
10. Your contact information, so we may respond

Submission form:
http://cdm.fm/pt99dq

We prefer to capture information on the submission form, but if you have difficulty with it, please email peter (at) createdigitalmedia [dot] net directly with the subject ‘STEIM HANDMADE MUSIC’

patternsandpleasure.com

Just what you needed, now you can create your own Spotify app ...

The 2011 Polar Music Prize has been awarded to both Patti Smith and the Kronos Quartet, an award that recognizes "exceptional achievements in the creation and advancement of music."

Soonnight speak to Glasgow's Soma records about techno, the two fires that have set the imprint back and hearing Daft Punk for the first time.

A new theory has emerged that the Sony / PIAS warehouse fire was actually part of a bigger heist, one that involved a large criminal gang who wanted to take advantage of the chaos of the London riots to stage a robbery.

Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon last night, playing the songs “Senator” and "Surreal Teenagers."

The Night Slugs producer discusses five inspirational tracks with Dubspot, highlighting tunes from Bernard Szajner, Ruff Sqwad and more.

The Democratic Republic of Congo is one of the poorest countries in the world, beset by widespread malnutrition, displacement and lack of access to education. Now, Warp Records and OXFAM have collaborated on a benefit album, spearheaded by Damon Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz), to support development efforts in the country. This past July, Albarn gathered together a collective of producers -- Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Dan the Automator, Jneiro Jarel, Richard Russell, Actress, Marc Antoine, Alwest, Remi Kabaka, Rodaidh McDonald, and Kwes -- who traveled to the Democratic Republic of Congo for five days, working with more than 50 local musicians including Jupiter and the Okwess International, Bokatola System, and Nelly Liyemge. Dubbed DRC Music, the group set out to create an album in five days, and that's just what they did. The results are far more than the sum of their parts, mixing local performers into a rich stew of Afro-futurist beats and bass. Learn more about the project on its official website, and keep reading to listen to SoundCloud streams of selected tracks; Beatport will have the album available on October 4.

Watch this video on Beatportal