Synth East 2024 has expanded into Friday evening, giving us more room for amazing artists and fascinating performances.
Friday
The Friday evening begins with the Waveshaper Media documentary on Morton Subotnick.
Following the film, we have writer, broadcaster, comedian and musician Adam Buxton chatting with Synth East alumni Steve Davis about music, life and modular synths.
Finishing off the evening, we have an ambient set from modular musician Luke Sanger as we relax into some beers in preparation for what’s to come for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday
Headling our Saturday night gig is British electronic band Blancmange. The 80s synth legends have kindly agreed to fit us in before their extensive Everything is Connected: The Best Of Blancmange tour of the UK. This is their first ever ‘Best Of’ Tour, celebrating 45 years since they first formed in 1979.
Blancmange fuses together a delicate mix of synthesisers and surrealism, which over the years has created groundbreaking singles such as Feel Me, Living on the Ceiling, Blind Vision and Don’t Tell Me.
In their post-punk early days, Blancmange made tape loops and experimental sounds with kitchen utensils before developing into one of the definitive chart-topping British electronic pop acts. Since reforming in 2011, Neil Arthur has harnessed a duality of experimentation and seamless pop melodies to release a staggering 10 albums in the last decade.
Supporting Blancmange, we have eclectic electronic music duo Ultramarine featuring Ian Cooper and Paul Hammond.
Warming up the crowd is our very own Robin “Molten Modular” Vincent and special guest with half an hour of modular goodness. Here’s the set from Synth East 2023 collaborating with Steve Davis.
Saturday Expo
During the daytime Expo, we will be having performances from local artists Tristan Burfield and Hardwired.
And then, throughout the day, we will have haphazard improvisations from the now legendary All-Star Patch-Off. This year, joining Robin Vincent, Gaz Williams, and Steve Davis will be Nina Richards from Transistor Sound Labs, modular techno groove agent Mylar Melodies, and YouTube synth geezer Jason Jervis.
The idea is that two names will be drawn from a hat, and those two will have to perform a 15-minute improvisation for the pleasure of the Expo attendees. It was a lot of fun last time!
Sunday
There are no scheduled performances for Sunday, as it’s all about workshops. But I’ll be there, and I’ll probably bring something to fiddle with.