... just "wow!"

I came across these clips on youtube: They feature popular scientists like Carl Sagan, Richard Dawkins, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawking, and many more and then ... turn them into music, using Autotune.

Those tunes hit something deep inside me - they tell of the beauty and the wonder in the universe, and the fascination of trying to figure out how might work...

I'm a big "fan" of science - like music it's become an important part of who and what I am. And somehow "Symphony of Science" got together some of my absolute favourite quotes from popular scientists, exactly those who sum up what makes it so important for me that we try to find out all these things... :)

The cosmos is within us, we are made of star-stuff!

No, not Karl Bartos' old band I want to talk about, but making music not just with electronic or electric instruments but with the electricity itself.

Ladies and Gentlemen: I present to you: ArcAttack!

Those dudes built two Tesla Coils in their garage and use the distinct noise those make when unloading - which you can tune by adjusting the flux-phase-thingamajiggy - to play music at raves.

Now, it doesn't sound what you would call "nice". But it was never meant to be. Compare it to Scottish bagpipes, if you like. They weren't meant to sound nice either. They were meant to make you crap your pants in terror, because you were about to get you head cut off by some berserk Scottsmen!

ArcAttacks musical tesla coils work on a similar basis. They are meant to make you crap your pants in terror, because if you get too close to them they will fry you to a crisp. Literally.

If nothing else, then ArcAttack definitely can claim that they got the single most potentially deadly musical instrument in the world there.

Awesome!

AngryAussie is one of my favourite content providers on the youtube - as the name suggests he's from Australia and he's angry (duh). Well, to be more precise the AngryAussie is a character he came up with which he uses to talk about topics that he cares about.

Well, when I say "talk" I mean "rant". His clips for me are somewhere between a filmed editorial article and a standup comedy act (I hope I don't anger him more with that description). Not unlike George Carlin he uses explicit language to bring his point across and there's always something behind his rants that, to me, makes a lot of sense - no matter what his topic of the week turns out to be.

Recently he spent a vacation in Tasmania and now is sharing some of his not-so-angry holiday videos with the youtube community - quite the nice place, it seems! I noticed that he is using some electronic tunes in the background of those clips and contacted him, offering my music for this - and guess what, he likes it. So here's a short clip he did about Kangaroos with a fetish for motorcars and a museum for Robot Convicts with "The Final Strand" as background music. Cool. :)

Oh - and I also added two of his other videos so you can get an idea what he usually does. Check out his youtube channel, it's really worth to have a look! Aaand he's got a blog, so go and visit that as well! No worries, eh?

More after the break.  read more »

I did a youtube clip for my arrangement of Gustav Holst's "Neptune, the Mystic" from the Planet Suite. I hope you enjoy it - and if so: don't forget to rate it. :)

A casting from "Germany searches the next Kraftwerk"? :D Damn groovy!

Did a second version of the clip with some different effects for the Hubble remix.

I was toying around with video effects, trying to create a gritty, trippy feeling with some silly old cartoon. When I put "Hubble" under it, it kind of fitted. So there. :) Don't forget to rate the clip on youtube, thanks! ^^

This is ... bloody well done!

This is just one of the many wonderful tunes Yoko Kanno wrote for animee TV series - in this case "Ghost in the Shell - Stand Alone Complex" (the TV series). It's basically the ballad of a modern Pinoccio/Commander Data/Frankenstein's Creature - an artificial being made to be "like a human" that wishes it could *BE* human...

Here's the series' title tune:

And just to bring home the point that Yoko is just one amazing composer in all kinds of directions - here's the tunes "Tank!" and "Green Bird" she wrote for "Cowboy Bebop", another great animated Science Fiction series:

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