Artist Statement

A journey into the depths of a unique machine, which is the legacy of the composer Max Brand; the ancestor of the Moog synthesizer, it is a monstrous instrument that took decades to develop. Played by a first-rate pianist, it bristles and rattles through the ether of subharmonic frequences. A journey to hell with no return.

The first circuit diagram by Bob Moog is dated in 1957. In more than ten years the young engineer Bob Moog together with the composer Max Brand are developing this unic machine. The interfacedesign bear traces of Max Brad, who used to play the machine and probably was one of the first studio musicians: 2 keyboards, 2 bandmanuals, 4 foot pedals! The heart are 2 master oscillator with frequency dividers generating up to 20 subfrequences, which can be regulated separately in three blocks by a matrix – and the first by Moog designed voltage controlled modules like VCA, VCO and VCF.

This machine is the result of a collaboration between a visionary composer and a genius engineer and force us to beat out ist mighty sounds and elicit subtle vibrations from it.

Elisabeth Schimana: composition for the Max Brand Synthesizer; Manon Liu Winter & Gregor Ladenhauf: operators

• Gregor Ladenhauf (AT) loves to sit inbetween the chairs and is working undogmatic but concentrated on a vision of immediatness as a musician. DJ and sounddesigner since 1999.
• Manon Liu Winter (AT): An intensive study of the music of the 20th century soon led her to collaborate with many composers. With programmes of contemporary piano music, she performs as a soloist in Austria and at international festivals. experiments with the extension of the sounds of the piano using a prepared instrument and electronics; she also performs as an improviser.
• Elisabeth Schimana (AT): Composer, performer, radio artist. Studies in electroacoustic music, musicology and cultural studies, founder of IMA Institut für Medienarchäologie

Sponsored by: Land Niederösterreich, Österreischisches Kulturforum Berlin, IMA Institut für Medienarchäologie, Bundesministerium für Unterricht, Kunst und Kultur. Provided (lend) by        Max-Brand-Archiv, Langenzersdorf (AT), Wienbibliothek im Rathaus, Musiksammlung