1. Worm I
2. Doepfer
3. Worm II
cd on Entr'acte
February 2013
Order the album at
Bandcamp (also in digital format)
Entr'acte
or
Very excited to have this out on Entr'acte. This cd documents my first ever encounters with synthesizers. After these recordings, I must say most of these instruments are still a mystery to me, but it was great fun messing about with the various vintage synths at the WORM studio in Rotterdam, and experimenting at home, with a Doepfer Dark Energy.
This release marks a new packaging direction for Entr'acte, replacing the vacuum sealed sleeve with an A5 pvc envelop with heavy paper, screenprinted insert.
Reviews
Vital Weekly
Two releases from Rutger Zuydervelt, also known as the highly prolific Machinefabriek. With his vast output you could easily think that because of the high demand for his music, it's always the same. That is, luckily, not the case. Zuydervelt operates within the realms of atmospheric music, but always knows to change his tune a bit, by working with new instruments or sounds. These two recent releases proof that. On the first Zuydervelt works with modular synthesizers. In the two pieces that are called 'Worm', the synthesizers are part of the CEM Studios, these housed in that lovely multi-purpose place called Worm, in Rotterdam. Ancient synth stuff there. The third piece is made with a Doepfer Dark Energy synthesizer. It's not easy to hear where one piece ends and the next starts. All three pieces are presented as collages, in that Zuydervelt is twiddling the dials and knobs on these machines and the resulting recordings are spliced together into the final compositions. These sometimes remind the listener of what we know from Machinefabriek when he hits upon drone like sounds, but sometimes he uses shorter sounds and small blocks, and arrives at that very minimal 'one tick' sound - repeated of course and then forming a small rhythmic particles that may (or may not) remind you on Pan Sonic. Quite a fine album, I'd say. It has that atmospheric side of the best of Machinefabriek, but also opens new doors to new areas. It's not as dry academic as some of the more serious (60s) electronic music, but it certainly owes to that world. A great addition to that immense body of work, not just for the die-hards but also for those who demand something new.
Felix
Sound artist Rutger Zuydervelt aka Machinefabriek has released 4 albums this year. Ranging from very relaxed ambient to field recording, he’s covered a huge spectrum. His finest release is this album, the autodidactic artist’s first foray into modular synths in Rotterdam’s Worm studio, with the second track ‘Doepfer’ played on a Doepfer Dark Energy synth. The result could stand up next to mod masters like Keith Fullerton Whitman. It is atmospheric and mechanical, at times unrecognisable as man made, feedback and glitches giving an impression of the ghost in the machine, but he approaches grooves more readily also, creating a varied, fresh and fascinating album.
