Noodlebar 2-Year Anniversary: NoodleFest!

Last weekend,Saturday October 18th, i visited the 2-year anniversary of the Noodlebar NoodleFest in Roodkapje / Rotterdam / the Netherlands
On this special evening a selection of artists who have ever played at Noodlebar in the past 2 years, showed their modular skills in two different rooms.
The main key of Noodlebar remains that there is no computer involved...

" In 2012 Dennis Verschoor AKA Mono-Poly decided it was time for a monthly evening devoted to modular synthesizers.
Luckily he found in BAR the place who were open to the more experimental side of music where he along with Falafelbiels put down the first night.
In 2013 Noodlebar made the switch from BAR to Roodkapje where it got the space to grow to where it is today.

Falafel Biels

As the scene is so niche based, the name Noodlebar spread fairly quickly and there were plenty of artists who were only too eager to come and play.
Foreign artists who happen to
be in the neighborhood also added to the international allure."

Roodkapje is a very nice venue for these kinds of gatherings and i was surprised about how many people were attending this party, mainly men in their 40s ;-)
The party was well organised and each performer had about 20 minutes time to show off their various modular skills.
I spent a lot of time walking from room to room so i could get a short impression of most performing acts.
I sadly cannot review everything that i have seen, because there were around 15 acts(!) performing...

Falafelbiels kicked off in the small room with an exprimental set, followed by an impressive droneset by Kapi Kapnobatai...
A few other highlights in the small room (for me) were Geritz & Kafka, who brought their (heavily effected) guitar onto the stage, and Zen.Se from Belgium who only brought his EMS Synthi AKS and impressed everyone.
After KANG (the only female performer) finished in the small room with an extremely expressive noise-set at around 1AM everyone gathered in the big room to listen to the last acts in the main room until 4PM.

(Ji Youn) KANG

Acts worth mentioning from the big room were Dennis Verschoor AKA Mono-Poly on his large Serge modular, Colloid with Jan Willem from Ginko Synthese, and Sierra Romeo & Fraknoise who performed with a Theremin on stage and Osc1899.
The later it got, the more beats were heard too, allowing the audience to actually dance a little.
Das Ding, Ruistuin and Zenn did some more melodic and danceable sets, followed up by the closing performance from Rumatov.

Dennis Verschoor AKA Mono-Poly on his Serge Modular

Also 'performing' on the side throughout the whole night was the newest member of Noodlebar Harry Plotter, an 'artist' who shapes the sequences of a synthesizer and a plotter on paper.
More info on Facebook

The whole event in the big room was streamed live over the internet (powered by Grooveline) and different sets (from both rooms?) will be published in the near future via Vimeo and/or other channels.
Just keep an eye on my Twitterfeed, i will probably add some links to this blogpost at a later time...

Zenn

The Noodlebar parties at Roodkapje are organised once a month (although i did hear a rumour that
they might have to move to another location next year) and this was the first time I visited.
I can recommend this event to anyone who is interested in modular synthesis, noise and wants to meet the Dutch modular/Eurorack -scene.
The next Noodlebar party will be somewhere next month... (update will follow soon)

I will probably wear a PatchPierre nametag/badge a next time, so please take some time to talk to me whenever you see me there a next time... due to my slightly autistic limitations i am not the one who will easily start a conversation, but i'm always interested in hearing your stories and/or promoting your modular/Eurorack related stuff on my blog. (yes, that was me in my black smiley t-shirt...)

More info about Noodlebar can be found at Noodlebar.org
Noodlebar on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Noodlebar/333509576785824

There are a few more pictures on my PatchPierre Facebook page.

Night of the Modular Monsters, September 19 2014, Leiden (NL)

Last night I went out to see a few modular synth-based acts in The Generator at Vrijplaats Middelstegracht in Leiden (NL) at the 'Night of the Modular Monsters'.
(Check out the event on Facebook)
In an intimate setting; a theatre-style room with comfortable cinema-seats, a big screen with cool visuals three live-acts were performing for a group of around 50 visitors...

OR Combiner, a duo consisting of Lama Waaien & Tony Dubshot (from http://www.dubbhism.com/) opened the evening with a dubby set, but sadly I missed their act because i was a bit late and the show had to start half an hour earlier.
Luckily they recorded it, and you can find it at https://soundcloud.com/ism-studio/night-of-the-modular-monsters

Falafel Biels in action at Night of the Modular Monsters

'Freepatcher' Falafel Biels from Rotterdam did a nice 40-minute long non-stop noisy/atmospheric set.
He plays at these kind of events quite often and also designs his own line of Monster Modules.
After the show he showed me a few of his creations, including his 'Bunch-a-clox', a few interesting clock divider modules and other Falufar-branded modules.
Find more on his Facebook page.

Falafel Biels' live setup

Das Ding from Rotterdam closed the evening with an electro-set.
Danny Bosten a.k.a. Das Ding has been creating powerful dark electro since back in the early 1980s, releasing his music and friends’ music via his own cassette label called Tear Apart Tapes.

He told me that he had recently begun to build his own Eurorack-compatible mini-sequencer.

It's called the Baby 8 and if you're interested you can buy a hand built version (stand-alone or rack) directly from Danny. Just contact him via Facebook.

Check out this Juno Plus interview about the Baby 8 for more info.

Das Ding live setup, Eurorack, TR-606 and MC-202,
 and two of his Baby8 sequencers

The stage after the shows

Overall I did have a nice and relaxed evening.

I liked the venue, and it seems perfect for these kind of occasions.

This is the first time i really went out and met some of the interesting people from the Dutch Modular scene.

I did have to leave a bit early because my weekend-schedule is always very full, but i hope i can take more time next time.

I hope to write some more party-reports on PatchPierre.Net in the future, and maybe do some interviews with all these interesting people...

Main info via Dubbhism:

http://www.dubbhism.com/2014/08/night-of-modular-monsters_30.html

More pictures at https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.675944072501136.1073741845.271419252953622&type=1