March 16, 2007
visuals by Marge
plus a screening of "Blip Fest" (rough cut)
NULLSLEEP is Jeremiah Johnson. Nullsleep uses Game Boys and NES consoles to create conceptually unique music that blends subversive hardware hacking with powerful melodic pop. In 1999, together with friend Mike Hanlon from Detroit, he cofounded the 8bitpeoples: a collective of artists interested in the audio/video aesthetics of early computers and videogames. In the time since, Nullsleep has released a number of recordings through 8bitpeoples, his most recent work focusing on music created with the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System platforms. His constant push for new ways to force the most out of yesterday's machines and the unparalleled romantic chiptune intensity embodied in his music have gained him notice worldwide. Whether thrashing away on a keyboard hooked up to a Game Boy like an electric guitar or rocking hacked NES cartridges, Nullsleep consistently demonstrates his passion for pushing the limits of both the hardware and the heart.
BUBBLYFISH: Haeyoung Kim relocated to the US from Korea in 1992. With a background in classical piano, she explores the territory of sounds and the cultural representation. Currently, under the name Bubblyfish, she has been creating "lo-fi" 8-bit sound works and minimal electronic compositions. Based in NYC, Haeyoung has worked as composer, sound designer, and audio engineer. Haeyoung's work has been presented in various art venues, clubs, festivals, and galleries including The American Museum of the Moving Image, Eyebeam, New Museum, Lincoln Center Walter Reed Theater, and also heard on "Spinning On Air", WNYC Radio as well as Spongefork Radio on the web.
GLOMAG makes 8 Bit music using Nintendo gameboys. He has performed live in the US and Europe and has several releases available, including the recent Astralwerks CD of Kraftwerk covers, "8 Bit Operators", which features his version of "Pocket Calculator". He has been featured in articles in Wired Magazine and Art Forum and his music is a major part of the award winning internet series "This Spartan Life" which he also writes and directs.
BIT SHIFTER explores high-energy, low-bit music composed and performed on a Nintendo Game Boy. The result is an unapologetically fun foray into an evocative and distinctive soundset traditionally reserved for video game sound effects and background music, all done on a console generally misperceived as being technically limited. Made possible by Oliver
Wittchow and Johan Kotlinski's respective home-brew Game Boy musicmaking programs Nanoloop and Little Sound DJ, Bit Shifter's music adopts and subverts the playfulness inherent in the familiar Game Boy soundset, repurposing it into the service of novel idioms.
Check out the Citypaper writeup here
