I am uncomfortable talking about the music that I make. It isn’t something that I decided to do, it is my vocation. The music that I have been called to bring forth isn’t of a particular genre or style, it is called “transelectronic”.

I don’t actually make music, I just coax sounds and compositions to come out of the software and hardware that is in the Transelectronic Laboratory. I don’t make decisions about how the musics should be, I simply free them from the instruments they hide in. I don’t decide when something is done either, it is simply done is when it is done. I can’t take credit for the music that comes out of the Lab, as I feel I am always just a spectator to what is happening. I am merely a conduit for the music to be released. I am a student, and technology is the teacher.

Music is more than just sound, or a product. Music is art, and as such it doesn’t need to fit into a particular genre, or be easy to classify. Music should make you think, wait, and rewarded the listener for their attention. Music is refreshing when it sounds different. Music can be, and should be, at times, challenging to listen to. It should defy the listeners expectations and play with their ideas of standard motifs and mechanisms. Music can let you know what it is going to do, but keep you guessing as to when and how it will do it.

It can be hard to get to that place where everything stops and the moment simply is. It is that moment that the music that comes out of the Transelectronic Laboratory encourages. It is this state of being that all of efforts of the Lab are dedicated to.

I know, late notice yet again. I think that is fine as this is for all those who are looking for an alternative to the traditional NYC NYE debauchery. I know that I am looking for one. And, keeping in tradition with my 2008 mantra of free IS good, tonight’s event is 100% free.

What: NYE NYC Happening
Cost: F-R-E-E
When: 8pm-2am
Where: Coco66, 66 Greenpoint Ave.
How: G train to Greenpoint Ave, walk two blocks towards the water. #66 on the left.
Directions: http://tinyurl.com/nycnye0809
Visuals: Saturated and Contrasted Series 1: Tarkovsky & Tetsuo

I have been invited to co-host and- DJ at Coco66 this evening in Greenpoint, from 8 - 2 am. Coco66 is located at 66 Greenpoint Ave, and there is no cover for the evening. It ends early, so for all of those that want to start slow and simmer all night long it is just might be a good place to ring in the new year than head on out for the debauchery later.

Here is what will be going down:

Coco66 is a Bar and Resturant that has good food and a warm atmosphere. I will be taking care of music for 2 parts of the evening, separated by my good friend Jule’s Jazz Quartet.  He’s been playing at Coco66 every tuesday for about a year and the band is in top form.

For the early evening sounds I’ll be bringing classic records by Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, Herbie Hancock, Chet Baker and the like.  I’ve found some really amazing records lately and can’t wait to play them.

Following the jazz albums we will be switching it up, and Jules will be playing some salsa, jazz and other more latin flavors, as he is known to do. He is a classically trained Sax player from Miami, and he will be letting his musical roots grow deep.

As the night will progress, and the witching hour approches, we will be turning things towards the dark side, and we’ll be playing some Joy Division, New Order, Tones on Tail, Bauhaus, Love and Rockets, and that sort of thing. I will be throwing in some Aphex, Autechre, BOC, .snd, Willets, Byteone, Rob Model, Claro Intelecto, Monolake, … You get the idea.

And finally, for the late part of the evening, I’ll be DJing as Isomer Transition, playing released productions created under this moniker with new and unreleased tracks as well. It is a full-on DJ set unlike anything else you’ve heard from me.

And finally, for the late part of the evening, I’ll be DJing as Isomer Transition, playing released productions created under this moniker with new and unreleased tracks as well. It is a full-on DJ set unlike anything else you’ve heard from me.

For visuals for the evening we will be showing cinema classics by Andrei Tarkovsky and Tetsuo, presented in a way that you have never seen before. Truly exceptional.

Recently I had the honor of participating in a series of releases curated and released over on the modyfier blog. Shepherded by the ever-insightful Rayna, this series of site-specific works focuses it’s attention on not only the product of the works, but on the process behind them.

I wrote a 3 page paper to accompany the 4 composition to be posted on the site. Here is an excerpt of what I wrote.

“… Another aspect of the project was that improvisation was used as a central part of the compositional structure. The general form for each song was created using a MIDI sequencer, but the final recorded version was a combination of improvised performance and structured composition. It was this paring of improvisation and composition that allowed this series of compositions to stay fresh and novel. …”

Visit modyfier for the full text as well as to download the tracks. They are experimental and minimal.

Last weekend I curated and performed at a monthly event called “SINK”. Unfortunately the cops came and shut it down due to no liquor license. Here is a video of Burak’s visuals with some of what I was performing in the background.

April 26th // SINK @ Reboot
A Night of Electronica in Two Movements
XELA | CLOUTIER | PANDATONE | INSIDEOUT | PRAVEEN | VALEO | CHIKA | ARIKAN | SMITH
37 Avenue A (betw. 2nd and 3rd St)
$5 / 10pm - 4am+

For this edition of SINK we have put together a very eclectic lineup of music and visuals to be performed in two movements.

Movement One
To begin our night we have Percussion Lab’s infamous Praveen know for his tasty hip hop and laptop-pop selections. Following Praveen we have Music Related’s Pandatone performing some of the most beautiful noise to come out of a laptop since Finezze was last in town. And to close out the first Movement we have Type Records’ man-in-charge John Xela performing a very special DJ set of some of the most emotive and moving electronica to ever grace the sound systems of NYC. John rarely DJs state-side, so this is a very rare opportunity to get an earful of what the head of one of the UK’s most respected electronica labels throes down.

Movement Two
Following Xela we have RJ Valeo performing as Isomer Transition. For SINK Valeo will be mixing his own productions of recent and past into his Live PA performing a special 2 hour long live set, blurring the lines between experimental, minimal, live pa and dj performance. Closing out the night we have an amazing booking of Detroit’s Eric Cloutier doing a tag-team with Clink Record’s Insideout. This is an idea that Eric and Grant have been working on for sometime and they are excited to have the opportunity to realize their joint vision of what a proper minimal techno tag-team is. This performance promises to be the highlight of the evening as we have arranged with the venue’s management to allow us to go past the usual 4am stop point for the evening. How late we go, no one knows.

Visuals & Installations
For this evening we have booked two of New York’s best visualists, Chika and Burak Arikan to crate an enveloping visual environment. Chika, with her minimalist geometric patterns, has performed along side artists such as John Tejada, Bubblyfish, Sawako, and countless others. MIT Media Lab graduate and Ars Electronica presenter Burak Arikan has been a major player in the field of data visualization, lending his visual wizardry to (amongst others) Richie Hawtin for several of his Minus tours and shows. David Smith, an acclaimed NYC artist and Warp Records colaborator will present Indexed Color, a new installation of video and slide projection. The work engages with a variety of ways of looking at and thinking about color, from Bob Ross’s relation to color field painters, to color wheel aesthetics, to the effect of colored light on photographic film.

Music
Praveen - DJ Set
PercusionLab / Music Related
http://percussionlab.com

Pandatone - Live PA
Music Related
http://musicrelated.net

John Xela - DJ Set
Type Records
http://typerecords.com

RJ Valeo - Live PA
Type Records / Moodgadget
http://transelectronic.net

Insideout - Tag Team w/Eric Cloutier
Clink Recordings
http://clinkrecordings.com

Eric Cloutier - Tag Team w/Insideout
Subtrak / The Bunker | NYC via Detroit
http://www.elementeight.net/

Visuals & Art
Burak Arikan
http://burak-arikan.com/

Chika
http://www.imagima.com/

David Smith
http://www.thedavidsmith.com

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TheReturn of Gel & Weave
…for one night only

Magda | Mike Servito | Igal Nassima | RJ Valeo

Tuesday,November 13 2007
Bar 13 (35 E. 13th St. NYC 9pm - 4am |$10)

We’re excited to announce the return of Magda and her infamousparty, Gel & Weave. This isa one-time only event takingplace on Tuesday November 13th 2007. Now, we know thisisa bit of a strange day to do a techno party with Magda,Mike Servito, Igal Nassima,and RJ Valeo. A Tuesday ofall days! But, the stars aligned to make this thing happenandwe hope that you will come out and join us for what promises to be a really greatnight of music, featuringsome of the best talents that Berlin, Detroit and NYC have to offer. So take Wednesday off, grab your activator, and be prepared to get your snake on!

Magda // Minus, Berlin

Currently residingin Berlin, a relative stone’s throw from her hometownof Zywiec in Poland, Magdaseems to have found a city thatmirrors her own attitude to life - no restrictionsandcer-tainly no compromise. It’s a philosophy that also flowsthrough her musicproductions and her DJ sets and has madeher a vital artist on the Minus roster.Her ability toguide the audience through the dark recesses of contemporaryminimalismbefore delivering them back safely into thelight means her name is never far fromthe lips of discerningclubbers and fellow DJs alike.

Mike Servito // Blackbx/Burnlab, Detroit

A Detroitlocal favorite for years, Servito has finally madethe move to Brooklyn. As a DJ,he is best known for thevariety in his sets and his impeccable musical knowledge,traitsthat have steadily earned him the respect of hispeers. As he grew up Detroit, hewas influenced by localradio at an early age, and began DJing over a decade agoduringthe heyday of the rising De-troit electronic musicscene. Servito has played inNYC many times including theBunker, this past August, as well as at the originalGel & Weaveseries, back in 2002.

Igal Nassima // LESS, NYC

Originally fromIstanbul, Igal moved to NYC to pursue his passionfor dance music. The growing minimaltechno movement inNew York City proved to be a proper home for his glitchy,offcenter style of Djing. Influenced by the concrete ofthe city, the rawness of Brooklyn’sstreets, and his passionfor techno, he created loft.n.space, a late-late-nightafter-hoursparty series hosted with fellow NYC transplantand DJ, Vadim. He has played alongsidethe talented DJsand producers such as Ryan Elliot, Ryan Crossan, HakanLibdo, TimXavier and Nick AC. Igal currently holds courtat NYC’s latest addition to the undergroundminimal technoscene with a residency and curatorial seat at LESS.

RJ Valeo // Moodgadget, NYC

Valeo, bornin New York, is a seasoned producer and performer,perhaps best know for his seminalalbum “September” onthe UK’s Type Records. Recently, in contrast to previous releases,he has been focusing his meticulous beat programmingand production skills on craftingsubtle and heady techno.His latest explorations journey through the subtle interplayofrhythm & bass and minimally placed melodic elements,leading the listener tofind solace in the negative spacesinbetween these juxtaposed of his productions.As all ofhis music has been, these pro-ductions are influenced bythe minimalismof microsound, glitch and idm, industrialand new wave, and by technology itself.

The Return of Gel & Weave is brought to you by vivianne’sprojects and transelectronic.net

With the preceding decade’s technology explosion, particularly in the arena of home computing, it has become easier than ever to compose and record music. Unfortunately, as most of us know, it has as a result also become harder than ever to find really good stuff in the sea of song that is being created. Social networking sites like Myspace alone are a labyrinth of sub-par and half-baked ideas, but that didn’t stop electronic label Moodgadget Records from embarking on the daunting task of weeding through the Myspace dumpster in search of a genuine soundmaker. Luckily for all of us the hunt paid off in the form of a talented Brooklynite composer.

Isomer Transition, whose real name is RJ Valeo, has composed four songs in a blend of techno and house styles for the Moodgadget EP Mission to Mars. Some of the beats crafted - although typically techno in their bass-snare 1-2-1-2 pattern and middling tempos - are the overall primary hot draw here. “Loop Me Through to Control the Mains” and “Deep in Space” each start out simply, with thumping drum programming lathered on thick enough to warm up anybody harboring any frigid suspicions as to whether or not Valeo is of ‘real deal’ caliber. Rest assured, frosties - Isomer Transition is legit.

The beat construction on this painfully short joint is most easily likened to that of Matthew Dear’s Audion: dirty, danceable, and constantly building. With each new set of 8 bars, Isomer Transition throws in subtle new sounds like crisp offbeat hi-hats, further subdivided bass drum rhythms, and all sorts of sonic touches (hand claps, ambient curtains, quickly tapped clicks & clacks). In all four roughly six-minute tracks there are no down (read: shitty) moments and the only disappointments with Mission to Mars is it’s aforementioned brevity. One can only look forward to bigger developments from this artist and more gem-like finds from his determined parent label.

Reviewed by Josh Zanger
Joshua Ian Zanger, a native of rural Chicago, rocks many a world with his writing, style, and generally sweet aroma.

link to review

Isomer Transition: Mission to Mars
Moodgadget

Can machine funk be simultaneously cold and warm? The four minimal techno tracks on the Mission to Mars EP, Isomer Transition’s (RJ Valeo) follow-up to last year’s Future Days release Shadowland, certainly suggest as much: the songs’ shiny surfaces may be as cold as deep space, but their earthy dance quality bespeaks bodily warmth too. The sleek textures and punctuating starburst blasts of “Deep in Space” place it in a dance club at some distant docking station but the irrepressible funk of its skipping stomp and bass rumble reveals an all-too-human physicality at its core. “Space Madness” batters rubbery percolations and snappy beats with meteor showers of warped synth lines, while “The Exploration of Region 13” guides a swinging disco groove and slithering bass line through silken stratospheres. Merge the drum machines and synth acid of Plastikman with the pristine elegance of Kraftwerk and the result might sound something like Isomer Transition.

September 2007

Link to textura.org review.