JBRANDTP- PAINTING SOUNDS

(SpaceController Records - SPACD 06 - 2004)


jbrandtp is one of the pionéers of the Danish noise-scene. He has developed his own original drawingpad-instrument since 1999. Behind this lies more than 20 years of work with the integration of sound and images to a combined artform, resulting in performance-theatre, interactive sound- and light-installations, experimenting music-cdroms and internet-projects.
By connecting a drawingpad to the laptop jbrandtp creates surprising and very rich sonic soundscapes. While he is playing, he generate a drawing of the music that in a completely new and different way makes a connection between the visual and the auditive.

The basic idea, is that the musician by drawing on the pad generates music. The timbre and volume of this sound determines how the image, drawn on the screen, looks like. The placement of the image is determined by the position of the pen on the pad.

The drawingpad-instrument is the result of Brandt-Pedersen's goal of develop the laptop as a live-instrument. Often the audience feel there is a contradiction between the complex sounds that the laptop-musician creates whilesitting quietly staring into the screen. This makes a laptop-liveevent much less visual, compared to a normal guitarist or saxofonist playing. That's probably why many laptoppers use visuals created by VJ's in their performances. While there is many interesting possibilities in this constellation, the reality is that the visuals often seems like an excuse for the lack of visual content from the musician. From the start Brandt-Pedersen wanted to create an instrument, that had the same visual appearance as a "normal" instrument, that was quick and easy to work with, and that had a strong link between the audio and the visuals. The audience easily comprehends how the pen's movement on the pad generate sound and images. This transparancy is a central point in the framework of the instrument.

One of the forces of a computer-instrument, compared with other instruments, is the ability to work with random-algorithms. This has always been a central part of Brandt-Pedersens computerworks, and this is also the case with the drawingpad-instrument. jbrandtp uses the unpredictable element to challenge himself on the stage, letting it inspire him live into new directions. This way the live-koncerts become improvised to a large extent.


Today the drawingpad-instrument is jbrandtp's primary instrument. In addition of playing solo-concerts he also performed with the instrument in several other constallations including: the laptopband Minijacks, the noiseduo SLOPE and the Jazz'n'noise ensemble.

During 4 pieces the cd presents the soundgenerating possibillities of the instrument. In addition there is a a videoclip, showing how the images is generated to the sound. Also included on the cdrom is the images generated during the creation of the 4 compositions. An example of a drawing generated by the instrument HERE

Press-material:

Press-image:HERE (photo: Henriette Moos)
Portrait: 01 - 02 - 03 - 04 - 05 (photo: Helle Knutstad)
Images created with the drawingpad-instrument from the cd: Red Clouds - Colliding Clusters