More than 40,000 years ago, our Neanderthal ancestors invented the first music instruments from simple objects around them (bones and stones, sticks and skins...), without reference to any existing music history, and primarily for their own pleasure rather than that of others. Nowadays, we use complex audio hardware and software which make it "easier" to make music, so long as channel our creativity into such established and socially-accepted avenues as Western Classical or Minimal Techno. But some of us, deep in our hearts, still long for the Stone Age simplicity of pure noise!

In this four day workshop, which ran from 11-14 Feb 2009, ten Estonians with no previous electronics experience were shown how to use simple objects from our modern environment (resistors, capacitors, transistors, LEDs, integrated circuit chips...) to design and build their own personal, customized primitive noise synthesizers. They worked their asses off and enjoyed themselves immensely, and here are the results.

Please write to "derek" AT THE DOMAIN "umatic.nl" for more info about this workshop.