Electric City
Electronic Art Exploration
I’m thrilled to announce a collaboration with New Sound Waves and Vitalise continuing Electronic Arts meetups in 2023!
I’ve loved running Synth Sessions over the past 2.5 years or so! We’ve heard great performances and tech talks, and I’ve really enjoyed meeting all of you who have participated in these events.
In 2023 I’ve teamed up with the people behind New Sound Waves and Vitalise to continue running regular meets, but also to be able to join with other great initiatives work together on these events.
The Synth Sessions have evolved over this time, introducing elements of video and projection arts, tech talks from local manufacturers and more! With this in mind, we’ve chosen a new name “Electric City - Electronic Art Exploration“, incorporating a wider variety of electronic art forms.
As part of this collaboration, we will run Electric City alternating between Wollongong and Sydney on the same schedule as previously - once every 2 months.
Thanks for your enthusiasm in attending and supporting Synth Sessions. We are looking forward to what we can achieve together as Electric City!
Cheers, Ed
Electric City - Upcoming Dates
STAY TUNED FOR UPCOMING EVENTS
As usual, we’d love to hear from you if you have a performance, tech talk or gear demo you’d be willing to share at an upcoming Electric City Event. Please fill out the form below to get notified of upcoming performance opportunities or message me directly.
Past Events
Electric City #12 with special guests the 5th Volt, 80T & Medard fischer
Special thanks to our new hosts Society City Wollongong with food and drinks from the Barley Grass Bar
For the very first time, we were excited to be exploring a theme at Electric City #12 - The Hadopelagic Zone. Music and Projected artworks were inspired by sounds and experiences that transport us to the bottommost depths of the ocean
Electric City #11 with special guests Maydon Poliris, Hethre Contant & One Thirty R
The first event back up in 2023 and in colaboration with Vitalise and New Sound Waves under the new name Electric City.
Synth Session #10 with special guests the5thvolt and troys visual arts - NOvember 2022
Thanks to these amazing contributions from The 5th Volt and Troy’s Visual Arts for this last Synth Session for 2022!! Make sure you go and check out their other works here:
We can’t wait for what 2023 has to offer!
infinity Worm - canberra electronic music festival - september 2022
We had an awesome opportunity to attend the first Infinity Worm Electronic Music Festival in Canberra and took a stall with interactive synth chill area. We met loads of new people and enjoyed good chats and great music! Looking forward to the next one!
Project Contemporary artspace gallery Wollongong - August 2022
We teamed up with Project Contemporary Artspace Gallery in Wollongong to provide live electronic music and interactive projections for their committee show exhibition opening night.
It is so good to collaborate with Project in this way to bring a mixture of complementary creative arts together in one place. We love the vibe at these events! Stay tuned for more in future.
CAt full of ghosts video equations kit building workshop - July 2022
We love building electronics and sharing this experience with the community. Elk Elektronik kit building workshops are a great way to learn and develop your soldering skills or to just meet with other like-minded people and enjoy building electronics together.
Cat Full of Ghosts Video Equations is an awesome video synth, designed in Melbourne Australia, with a bunch of fun parameters to interact with. It give a great Lo-Fi 8-bit vibe with external CV control. Check out more from Cat Full of Ghosts.
Synth Session #9 with special guests tran.scan, maydonpoliris, lwthr
tran.scan
maydonpoliris
www.instagram.com/maydonpoliris/
LWTHR
Battery operated micro synth tech
Synth Session #8 - with special guests 80T and DJ Jon DENT
It was great to get back in person! We enjoyed a deconstructed dub techno set from 80T and a live performance from DJ JonDent featuring the KORG Wavestate.
Also special thanks to Heather for her demonstration of the KOMA Field Kits and experimental electronic music devices!
Synth Session #7 - Synth Session Online
Unfortunately, we had some disruptions to regular Synth Session due to COVID 19 so we ran our first Synth Session online with some amazing contributions from local electronics musicians. Check it out !
Synth Session #6 - with special guests Earthling Designs and Virus Installer
It was so great to welcome you back to Elk Elektronik after a long lockdown! Thanks to Lach from Earthling Designs for demonstrating his new Gliss Drive Pedal, and to Virus Install and YatSek for the techno set with live video synth projections!
Earthling Designs is an audio electronics business based in Marrickville, who specialise in the repair, restoration and modification of vintage amplifiers, pedals and other music equipment. Earthling Designs also build bespoke equipment from time to time and on request. With over 15yrs of professional tech experience, we have played, recorded with and worked on a large variety of equipment.
Virus Installer is the electronic music project of Andrew Gilholme from Wollongong, NSW. The Virus Installer project covers multiple genres which have branched from morning psytrance to melodic IDM, 70s space prog to experimental, techno & Drone & uplifting trance.
SYNTH SESSION #5 - Special guests from Metro Modular & Mini Modular
We hosted two fantastic guests at the last synth session! We heard a great presentation from Sydney-based modular synth manufacturer Metro Modular about his design philosophy. We also had an exciting product launch of the new AE Modular Synth Explorer presented by Mini Modular.
NEW PRODUCT RELEASE! Synth Explorer from tangible waves
Check out the World Premiere Product Demonstration here:
Justin from Metro Modular is going to share some insights about design philosophy for electronics in modular systems. He will also be giving us some demo of his Buchla and Eurorack compatible modules. Check out this interview with Justin at Superbooth.
About Metro Modular:
Metro Modular was started in 2014 under the flightpath of Sydney Airport, but my roots go way back beyond that to a misspent adolescence building sonic gizmos published by Electronics Australia and ETI that occasionally did something useful.
I returned to the DIY fray in 2007 with an Elby Designs Eurorack kit that quickly led to an obsession. My DIY passion led me to the Muff Wiggler forums in 2009, the scene around Mutable Instruments in 2011, and after years of being inspired by others' genius and learning from their boo-boos, a realisation that I could offer something myself.
In mid-2014 I decided to reissue the long-ignored Aries series, whose elegant schematics had long fascinated me, as a training exercise to teach myself software tools and to set up a production process with the goal of eventually realising some long-gestating original ideas.
Keep watching-you ain't seen nothing yet!
Cheers,
Justin"
For more information about Metro Modular products visit the website www.metro-modular.com
NEW PRODUCT RELEASE! Synth Explorer from tangible waves
A modular synthesizer for primary and secondary school education.
The Synth Explorer series of modular synthesizers is designed specifically for schools and other organisations that work with children and young adults. It is a very affordable system which consists of variations of a modular synthesizer that can be extended to accommodate various learning outcomes. A curriculum is currently in development that will guide teachers on how to best engage youth in synth based workshops for music and STEM education.
Carsten Eckelmann from Mini Modular will present the system to an audience for the very first time and explain in detail how the modules were selected to make this system fun and instructional for youth of all ages.
tangible waves is a synthesizer manufacturer based in Germany who has created a new, smaller and more affordable system of modular synthesizers. Currently there are almost 70 distinct modules available for this system, covering a wide array of sound generation, processing and modulation capabilities.
More information about the AE Modular system can be found at https://tangiblewaves.com.
Presented by Mini Modular, official reseller for AE Modular products in Australia and New Zealand. Please visit https://minimodular.com.au
SYNTH SESSION #4 - Exploring Video Synths - 20th MARCH 2021
Awesome to meet with other people keen to talk about video synths and share some knowledge.
Neutral Labs ELMYRA Kit Building workshop - 6th FEBRUARY 2021
Elk Elektronik workshops are a fantastic opportunity to develop your skills and meet other like minded people.
Small group workshops are great for all ability levels. More experienced electronics enthusiasts can work at their own pace, or if you are less familiar with electronics, we provide coaching to develop your skills. At the end of the workshop everyone has the reward of completing a great ELMYRA drone synth.
It was a great time to build together, talk synths and finish the day with a working instrument!
If you missed out on this workshop, contact us and we’ll let you know when we run another one!
SYNTH SESSION #3 - 23rd January 2021
One of the things I love about the Synth Sessions is the opportunity to meet other people who are enthusiastic about synthesizers, music and electronics.
At Synth Session #3 we had some great demos of:
Different effects pedals for using with synths
An amazing, recently completed, full DIY Buchla build
A fitting demo of a miniKORG700 following the announcement of the miniKORG700FS this week
Polyend Tracker
Here are a couple of quick videos trying out the miniKORG700 at the Session.
Contact Elk Elektronik if you would like to participate in future meets. We welcome people from all backgrounds and love to hear from other people who are enthusiastic about synthesizers and electronic music.
Synth Session #2: Simple synths - 21st November 2020
We had a fantastic afternoon at our second Synth Session. Thanks to all the legends who came along - your efforts make these events really engaging!
We enjoyed the sounds of a performance and demonstration from The 5th Volt on the tangible waves AE Modular systems.
Find sounds from the 5th Volt on Bandcamp:
We also had a number of short demonstrations on some other interesting synths including a beautifully made Jasper Wasp. It was a great opportunity to be able to see this together with an original EDP Wasp.
Other demos with SOMA Laboratory LYRA 8 and Joué Music Instruments
If you missed out on this Synth Session, book in early for the next Session scheduled in 2021!
Neutral Labs Kit Building Class - 10th October 2020
This was a great opportunity to construct a Neutral Labs Elmyra in a supportive small group setting.
Elmyra is an interactive drone synthesizer and is a great starting point for people who have little or no experience with soldering. We provide coaching and instruction in the workshop to help make the build a success.
We had a great time at out first DIY kit building workshop assembling Neutral Labs Elmyra. Really satisfying to go away with a working synth that you have built yourself. Well done to those who came along.
If you missed out, keep an eye out for future workshops.
Synth Session #1 - 12th September 2020
This first Synth Session was a causal opportunity to meet together. This was a great time to meet with other synth enthusiasts and share in this common interest. People brought some of their own synths and demonstrated patches to each other.
Future Sessions will have the opportunity to hear talks on different topics, live performances and DIY kit-building classes. If you would like to give a talk on a particular topic or would like to prepare a performance for future Sessions please contact Elk Elektronik with your idea.