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\r\nOver the last year, many of us have picked up new hobbies to fill the endless expanse of time between the initial lockdown and the present, the uncertain future of when life will go back to \u201cnormal\u201d and what that even means at this point. No longer do we measure time in minutes, days, or weeks, it would seem, but rather through loaves of sourdough bread and craft projects and how long it took your tomato plant to produce fruit last summer. Em Boltz, one half of Philly experimental electronic duo Enchanted Forest, is no different than the rest of us, except they spent their year delving deep into the world of modular synth construction.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
A recipient of the Audiofemme Agenda Artist Grant<\/a>, Boltz used the grant money towards the completion of an ambitious project – a recreation of the Buchla Music Easel (the iconic Additive Analogue Synthesizer spoken of in reverent tones since its incarnation in 1973) using Eurorack modules. If that sounds like a foreign language to you, that\u2019s okay – it does to me too. The most important takeaway is that the true Buchla Music Easel will run you over $3,000, whereas you can get pretty close to creating your own for much less.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Essentially, Boltz has been scouring the internet for elements that help to imitate the Easel\u2019s unique sonic possibilities, bits and pieces like oscillators, low pass gates, and spring reverbs, and patching them together to try and produce the organic, \u201cmagical acoustic space\u201d that only the Buchla itself offers as a compact package. Using a Eurorack format as the base allows the user to customize their desired experience as it has no set signal flow, so that one can gain the most from whatever singular modular components they desire.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Boltz\u2019s interest in the Buchla was born of their love of psychedelic and krautrock music, as well as the compositions of artists like Suzanne Ciani<\/a> and Terry Riley, both of whom included the Buchla in their musical repertoire. \u201cThis isn\u2019t by any means a precise replica of the Buchla,\u201d Boltz explains. \u201cAnd I\u2019m still very much learning how to navigate modular synths, but this is like my intro to it as well. I\u2019ve just been slowly adding modules and integrating them into this Eurorack that I\u2019m creating, which has been overwhelming definitely, but also super exciting… It\u2019s been interesting, building a synth, because I feel like my approach to music is so intuitive, and I\u2019ve been reading so much and trying to recreate this thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The challenge is further magnified by Boltz\u2019s background in the humanities; as a poet and an English student at Kent State University, they had no formal background in such a technical practice. They\u2019ve largely depended on YouTube and web forums to amass the necessary knowledge. \u201cI feel like I learn something new every day,\u201d they say. \u201cI\u2019m constantly trying to watch videos of other people talking about their set-ups… because essentially you\u2019re recreating what someone [else] has created when you go buy a synthesizer, so there are all these different variations of what you could do… the possibilities are limitless.\u201d The goal here is to recreate the uniquely organic sounds the Buchla is capable of – a \u201c60s zingy vibe,\u201d or an \u201cacoustic funk,\u201d for instance, according to one video I watched to try to get a handle on this. The Buchla, even as a replica, makes what Boltz says is \u201cthe trippiest stuff. It\u2019s the simplest way you can put it.\u201d<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n So far they\u2019ve been successful, utilizing the makeshift Buchla to write and record the latest Enchanted Forest release, a visual album appropriately titled Research<\/a><\/em>, out on Dear Life Records<\/a> on June 18. The tracks, and their accompanying videos, focus on the intersection of the natural and digital worlds; \u201ca lot play with nature because I just love nature, and I feel like that\u2019s something I see through all the work I do, like poetry, music, writing,\u201d Boltz says. \u201cMaking things that sound like they\u2019re created in nature, which is what\u2019s so cool about working with analog gear. It\u2019s this really organic sound to it that really aids that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Today, Boltz shares what they call \u201cabstracted visuals\u201d for two of the LP’s tracls – \u201cThe Tap\u201d and \u201cOpen Window\u201d – premiering exclusively on Audiofemme<\/em>. On \u201cOpen Window\u201d you can hear the sound of birds chirping layered under the synth effects. Though they are already using the synthesizer to produce music, it seems as though the project could carry as long as long as Boltz wants it to, acquiring new pieces of equipment and patching them into the existing set-up.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.audiofemme.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/emboltzsetup.jpg\")
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