The Generators (2010-) are a series of composition & performance solutions based on the idea of utilizing gradually opposing clock signals & rising control voltages to yield flowing canons of modal minimalism; an antidote to the fixed sequencing concepts largely associated with “Classic” synthesizer music.

The direct spiritual & aesthetic descendant of the Playthroughs software, the initial exploration & implementation of algorithmic & generative processes in hardware was a rigorous three-year pursuit; the ideas in these patches are still heavily utilized as one of the building blocks of the Live Electronic Music I continue to perform to this day.

The original "Generator" piece was performed standalone a number of times in a wide variety of situations & occasions, with the final performance given in September 2011 at Issue Project Room during a week-long celebration of the music of Eliane Radigue. Laurie Spiegel, & Pauline Oliveros; along with Terry Riley the major formal & conceptual influences on this particular piece. 

In its recorded iteration, the original “Studio” Root Strata cassette version (June 2010, issued to coincide w/ the label’s On Land festival where the piece debuted) was quickly augmented by the entirely clear double-cassette “Live Generators (1)” set on the Canadian Protracted View imprint (July 2010, covering the first four performances in SF, Somerville, Boston, & Northampton) & then another “(1.5)” volume on Jeff Witscher’s Agents of Chaos (October 2010, ditto, Somerville again & Jamaica Plain) but it wasn’t until the arrival of an Editions Mego LP (February 2012, covering late 2010 performances at High Zero Festival & Issue Project Room, and featuring incredible hand-drawn artwork by Graham Lambkin of The Shadow Ring) that these ideas fully found their audience.

After spending a few years of exploring the “Occlusions” systems shortly thereafter, there was a brief return to solo “Generators” (and “Playthroughs”) material; first during a residency at EMS in Stockholm (where the “Generated” CV signals were applied to vintage Buchla & Serge systems), and then again during a solo tour of Catalan in May 2017, resulting in the “Amposta Generators b/w Lleida Generators” release (January 2018, issued by the then Australia-based Protracted View) at which point the patch-infrastructure was folded into a larger framework & was used as a fundamental building block of various “Live Electronic Music” performances for a good decade going forward (notably, the “Acid Causality” series).

The final recorded iteration was issued as a four-part Bandcamp release (March 2019) later cast as a triple-cassette set on the “Private” Hi-Res AUDIO series during the opening gambit of the pandemic, both of which were intended to (cleanly) put the piece to rest before the system mutated again… but then in late 2022, the two “GRM Static Generators Rhythm” segments were issued as an LP by Goat’s Koshiro Hino (alongside the H-RA “GRM [Redactions]” & the Meakusma section of the “complicated lives;” release as a three-LP program) on his fledgeling Nakid label via Boomkat.

Performances:

Live Generator 1.0 - 090919 / Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco
Live Generator 1.1 - 090927 / The Armory, Somerville
Live Generator 1.2 - 091009 / Spectacle, Boston
Live Generator 1.3 - 091024 / The Elevens, Northampton

Live Generator 1.5 - 100214 / Starlab, Somerville
Live Generator 1.6 - 100228 / The Whitehaus, Jamaica Plain

Live Generator 1.8 - 100603 / Warsaw, Greenpoint

Chicago Generator - 100819 / The Viaduct Theater, Chicago
Pyramid Generator - 100922 / Pyramid Atlantic, Silver Spring
High Zero Generator - 100926 / Theatre Project, Baltimore
Issue Generator (for Eliane Radigue) - 100927 / Issue Project Room, Brooklyn

Recordings:

"Generator" (Root Strata RS62, June 2010)
"Live Generators (1)" (Protracted View)
"Generators" (Editions Mego, March 2012)

Press & Further Reading:

"Generator" Root Strata release page (June 2010)
"Live Generators (1)" on Root Blog
"Generators" Editions Mego release page (March 2012)
The Propensity of Sound (Issue Project Room, September 2011)
For Eliane (Issue Project Room, September 2011)
Pitchfork (February 2012)
Spin (March 2012)
Joseph Burnett (January 2012)
"Generator" thread