Following the success of last year’s festival we kept on going with a similar format and solid expectations. Sadly Adam Buxton was away on tour and so wasn’t able to join us, but Electronic Sound Magazine filled the slot brilliantly with the launch of their podcast and stories from their years working in the music press. We had some superb music from Scanner and the amazing Cabaret Voltaire and the Arts Centre was once again filled with fascinating synthesisers and extraordinary bits of modular. It was really quite thrilling and we can’t wait to do it all again.
Here are your highlights and below along with more details about what went on over the weekend.
Friday Night
From director Jamie Taylor we had a film about Sheffield-based Studio Electrophonique. A place snuggled away in surburbia where early versions of bands such as Human League, Heaven 17, Def Leppard and Pulp cut their first tracks.
Following the film we had the launch of a new podcast called “It’s All About Vinyl” from the founders of Electronic Sound Magazine. Mark Roland and Push took to the stage to share how two ex-Melody Maker journalists accidentally became magazine publishers and somehow built one of the world’s leading voices in electronic music culture.
It was a night of wild anecdotes, creative chaos, and musical nostalgia, as the Electronic Sound office is lovingly (and haphazardly) recreated on stage. Video salutations from some of the magazine’s former cover stars helped make it an evening to remember.
Stay around in the bar afterwards to hear Electronic artist Lilly Sphire deliver a beat-driven DJ set with live vocals and electronic embelishments.
Saturday Expo
The Saturday daytime brought together over 30 manufacturers and community groups to display their gear and share in the passion for synthy noises, flashing LEDs and bleeps and bloops.
Saturday Daytime Performances
During the day on Saturday we fill the Norwich Arts Centre with synthesisers for the awesome Expo. Full of manufacturers and every sort of electronic music making device it’s a marvellous time of exploration. During the day we have live performances on stage, right in the thick of it all. This year we have Ardler Saint, e.m.arson and the now legendary All-Start Patch-Off.
Ardler Saint
Growing up around Dub and reggae meant that Ardler Saint was destined for the Bass Life. A well spent youth playing punk rock and running Dub systems in NZ and Australia was followed by landing in London just in time for Jungle to happen – nothing ever looked the same again. Now Resident in Brighton and 15 years into a love affair with Modular Synthesis (and Norwich), Ardler Saint continues to search for the sweet spot between Dub, Ambient, techno and noise…
BandCamp – https://ardlersaint.bandcamp.com/album/annihilation-radio-2
e.m.arson
e.m.arson is a UK-based experimental artist and DJ crafting haunting, genre-blurring soundscapes that fuse raw emotion with ethereal grit, storytelling, and experimental textures. Using synthesisers, field recordings, guitar, prose, and even self-built instruments, they create immersive music that explores vulnerability, rebirth, and transformation.
This year alone, e.m.arson has released three self-releases: their debut album ‘The Pillbox (LP Demo)’, the EP ‘The Workhouse’, and the single ‘when icarus fell from the sky’. Alongside their solo work, they compose original scores for film, television, and fashion, blending atmospheric sound design with emotional nuance.
As a DJ, e.m.arson delivers avant-garde sets across radio and club spaces, including OMERA, The Social, EartH, and Soho Radio, weaving deep subcultural dives, seductive basslines, and immersive sonic storytelling. Their music invites listeners to confront the unknown, lean into feeling, and experience sound as a transformative force.
Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/e.m.arson/
Bandcamp – https://emarson.bandcamp.com/track/the-workhouse-ep
The Legendary All-Start Patch-Off.
The concept is simple. Get a bunch of modular musicians together, draw a pair of names out of a hat, and make them play together unrehearsed, unplanned and under prepared. The results so far have been stunning, this is modular improvisation at its most unique.
This year, joining the three regulars of Gaz Williams, Steve Davis and Robin Vincent we have Jason Lim, founder of Instruo Modular, Starsky Carr, synth youtuber and educator, and Scanner, modular artist and musician also known as Robin Rimbaud.
Saturday Night
Somehow we managed to secure the legend that is Cabaret Voltaire. Sheffield’s pioneers of industrial and electronic music, from the 1970s DIY electronica of ‘Nag, Nag, Nag’ and the’Extended Play’ EP, through to the razor sharp major label output like ‘The Crackdown’, their influence echoes through decades of synth, techno, and experimental sound.
Supporting them on the night will be the ever-innovative Scanner, bringing his signature fusion of found sound and expert electronic textures, collaborating live and unrehearsed with Molten Modular, whose live modular synth interventions will no doubt help create some unexpected sonic magic.
Sunday DIY Workshop
Erica Synths/Moritz Klein Hi-Hat design Workshop
Moritz Klein – electrical engineer, educator, and creator of a widely followed YouTube channel on analog circuit design – hosted an in-person circuit design workshop at the Electronic Sound Magazine HQ in Norwich.
Over the course of the session, we’ll design a 606-style Hi-Hat from the ground up: starting with six square-wave oscillators, shaping them using a resonant bandpass filter, making the result percussive with an envelope generator and Roland’s signature swing-type VCA – gradually assembling the full voice through small, clear iterations.
We’ll walk through the “how and why” behind each building block, test every idea live on a Labor prototyping board, and explore what happens when you tweak or modify the design. You’ll get space to ask questions, try your own variations, and understand the inner workings of classic drum synthesis.
The ticket price included an mki x es.edu DIY Hi-Hat kit for you to take home and assemble afterwards.
All Done
That’s it for another year. A huge thanks to everyone who helped make it possible, all the staff at the NAC and Electronic Sound, and our crack team of helpers on the day. Special thanks to Jason Jervis for the techical help, Divkid for hanging out with us, and Sloon for the visuals.
Plans are afoot for Synth East 2027 so please stay in touch.