Episode #10.2: FOUND (feat. Cybraphon) - "Admission Number Two"

For our tenth session, we managed to get something a little bit special, the first performance of FOUND using their latest art installation, Cybraphon, as a backing band. Cybraphon is - by some distance - the barmiest object ever conceived by anyone, anywhere. Tommy from FOUND describes it as 'a musical cupboard with a personality that's attached to the internet'. Bear with us - this could take some time...

FOUND aren't just a band, y'see, they're an art collective, and quite a bonkers one at that. What they've spent over six months conceiving, designing, engineering and constructing is a collection of acoustic instruments, housed in an antique wardrobe, engineered to be mechanical and then electrified it so it can be controlled externally as well as programmed. It's also connected to the internet.

When we met up with them, Cybraphon was only just operational, not yet the finished article, like C3P0 in The Phantom Menace - works fine, just not decorated yet. This in no way takes away from the astonshing impact of the thing. It looks like something out of Jules Verne, chock full of Victoriana, rare and antique instruments and the equipment used in early experiments with electricity, but attached - preposterously - to an Apple laptop.

It's going to be installed over August in the Inspace Gallery in Edinburgh, where it will spend its time scanning the internet for references to itself, scanning the contents and dependent on whether discussion of it is positive or negative, will play music that reflects online discussion. If someone says it's a stupid idea, Cybraphon will be sad, and clicky little dirges will spew forth; if we all cheer madly, and applaud its genius, it will be deliriously happy and we'll get the soundtrack accordingly.

FOUND themselves have composed various pieces for Cybraphon, but today we were treated to three of their own songs, while the cupboard gleefully clicked and whirred and droned and pinged away in the background.

The treats just kept on coming during the session, with the second track of the day being a version of 'Admission Number Two', taken from the 2007 LP 'This Mess We Keep Reshaping'. Cybraphon here takes the dixie-narco stompiness out of the original and replaces a clicky sense of mischief. Cracking stuff.

FOUND will be unveiling Cybraphon from 5th August at Edinburgh's Inspace Gallery, where they'll also be doing a live performance on the 13th. Entry are free, but ticketed, and available at cybraphon.eventbrite.com.

See more at offthebeatentracks.tv

Find out more about FOUND at foundtheband.com
Find out more about Cybraphon at cybraphon.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• live
• music
• edinburgh
• scotland
• FOUND
• cybraphon