Nic Collins, after 20 or so years

Yesterday evening I was at Steim, in Amsterdam, to attend a book presentation (well, actually the second edition book presentation) of [ "Handmade Electronic Music" ] by Nic Collins. I knew Collins when he was director of Steim in the 1980s. We corresponded and met a few times and I organized a concert in my hometown. Since then I went my way and he went his. So yesterday was a really fine re-encounter which was celebrated with a fair amount of humor (of which he has an abundancy), discussions about improvised music and 'handmade electronic music' and more alcohol than I am used to absorp (no accidents happened, though).

The book (which comes with a DVD) was immediately sold out (before I arrived, actually) but I got a glance at the contents. It's a really detailed manual for those who dare to open up the devices that we use in our daily lives and start tampering them. It also has many, many advices about how to construct sound producing circuits from scratch. I have always been very clumsy with soldering equipment, but it is actually quite fun to do and rewarding to build up your own 'synth'. It gets me away from my computer and vst's and such. I´m sure that I will get down to it, once I have this guide.

Collins, in the mean time, is a Professor of Sound at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. What a wonderful position: Professor of SOUND, wow!!

Read more about [ Nic Collins ]
Read more about [ STEIM ]