Canetoad Orchestra (CA/IN/GB)

din by Jagan Sampath, is a free software musical instrument for performing Indian classical music live. It is inspired by the sound of the Sarangi, an Indian bowed string instrument and the user interface of the Theremin. Sound is produced by applying concepts found in computer graphics & animation to sound synthesis - particularly bezier curves for waveform construction and modulation.

VARISEQ, by Robert Atwood, is a free software sample-step sequencer in which irregular beats, microtonal shifts, and periodic replacement of samples with clips of the input or its own feedback are all possible. Through the use of the freely available JACK audio server on the GNU/Linux platform, the outputs may easily be directed as inputs for other instances of VARISEQ to give a polyrhythmic structure of self-generating sound loops.

These computer musician/programmers have joined forces with classically-trained violinist Geraldine McEwan to perform a fusion-improvisation, in which the output of the musical exchange between violin and din is used as the input of the polyrhythmic VARISEQ.

The performers adapt their programs or playing to one another's styles resulting in a new Indian – Noise – Beat – Free-Improv mixture, which, due to the feedback element, can become unpredictable even to the performers.

http://www.doowta.com/canetoad/canetoad.html

Jagan Sampath is a computer programmer and researcher from Chennai, India now living in London, UK. He is currently fascinated with applying concepts used in computer graphics & animation to sound synthesis. He has performed din solo and with various other artists in London, including the Openlab collective.

Robert Atwood has been fascinated with feedback effects in sound and video for years, performing on hardware feedback devices on his own and wiht Toronto's Urban Refuse Group He has extended the feedback ideas into the development of the Variseq sequencer, since available ones did not do what he wanted; this was made possible by the FLOSS tools that were available. He has performed as part of London's Openlab collective on several occasions.

Geraldine McEwan is a classically trained violinist and violin teacher who performs with string quartets and small orchestral groups in the London area.

more about VARISEQ : http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/variseq
more about din : http://code.google.com/p/din/