Like Bonnie and Clyde, Sid and Nancy, Bert and Ernie… turntables and electronic music are a duo intertwined for time immemorial. From its birth in New York disco clubs where Giorgio Moroder’s electro beats inspired the likes of Frankie Knuckles and Derrick May, the humble record deck has transformed cultures, lives and musical landscapes around the world – but, dextrous turntablism aside, it has rarely transcended the primitive task of playing records; records whose beats were constructed by ever-increasingly complex electronic instruments.
French media-manipulators, artists and tech-wizards Avoka have applied some very modern technology, to electronic music’s most iconic device; coming with a fascinating installation/contraption that they’ve called Dyskograf. Fusing elements from primitive music sequencers – think ’90s PC trackers – with those good old wheels of steel, Dyskograf (with the help of a fancy graphic disc reader) augments the notion of the ‘loop’, allowing users to throw down kicks, snares and bassline elements with a permanent marker. It’s a bit like a cross between filling in your lottery ticket and programming a sequence on an old TR-808.
Banging together cutting-edge technology, innovative performance and bags of good time nostalgia, Avoka will be taking Dyskograf to Paris’ Festival Visiosonic on 16th and 17th November.
