39 thoughts on “Seaside Synth Jam”

        1. I’m confused though, isn’t me too about speaking up against sexual assault? What does that have to do with modular jams in the middle of nature videos?

          Is Colin Benders copying mylarmelodies by jamming in a room? Are all people recording themselves jamming in a room copying the first person that made it novel on the internet? Isn’t this a bit reductive on second glance?

          1. Didn’t mean “me-too” in that sense. I meant it as “hey me too I can do that”. In the sense that when every one is starting to do the same thing as the previous one it becomes a bit tiring eventually.

            1. I spend most of last year (and part of this) inside my “shoebox” due to lockdowns.

              I think people want just a change of scenery as the studio, which used to be the “sacred” creative space before lockdowns, became last year the norm rather than an option. That can get tiring. Nowadays I am taking some of my toys out in the balcony and jam there, but not everyone has that option. Once the weather is not so permitting, I’ll go back inside.

              All in all, I can understand the reason of this trend and it is likely that it will happen more often, especially during good weather. And it is all good! Our only job is to try to appreciate and enjoy the music.

    3. Live performances in front of audiences aren’t going to be coming back for a while, so this seems like a natural way to add some visual interest to a live performance.

      I always like Vogelsinger’s videos – she uses minimal material but still creates a performance that goes somewhere.

    4. I know it’s a bit of a meme right now but I like nature and electronic music so I enjoy it. Better than some sweaty old bald guy in a studio by himself. Now that’s repetitive.

      2. Except Jarre mimed his performances before 2007, when he did Oxygene in Your Living Room (which is amazing).

        To say Jarre walking in the beach for a music video is a first for anything is disingenuous.

  5. Haha. What a bunch of haters. Did you all forget to post comments like this to the previous, very similarly staged performance posted just moments before (that just happens to be two men)? Good grief.

    I really liked this track… had to listen again through my system that has a sub. I love her intensity and her aspiration to put the theatricality and embodiment into a performance medium (modular improv) that really responds to it. I also love how her eyes focus in such a way that suggests (at least to me) that she has learned to deal with the toxic negativity of certain kinds of men in her space. Bravo. Better on the second watch (with the sub.)

    1. @n9 you could be right.

      It is interesting isn’t it that the two guys by the rocks aren’t picked on
      Metrika Balcazar
      https://www.synthtopia.com/content/2021/08/15/metrika-balcazar-live/
      Synthopia posted just the article before.

      Yet this young Lady is picked on by three posters : buffaloketchup, wasyl, fastlanestranger
      With two more posters Sean Anderson, Henri commenting about equipment out in the sand etc
      That they didn’t comment on the two guys Metrika Balcazar article.

      Even Dacci Pucci and myself made the mistake of saying who was first
      When we should have done this on the two guys Metrika Balcazar article.

      Helene Vogelsinger’s music is more interesting to me than what those two guys were doing anyways.
      I listened to Helene Vogelsinger. I had to turn off Metrika Balcazar.

      1. For the record, I have been mocking outdoor modular performances in nature as well as succulents and salt crystals in studios since 2010, regardless of gender. And confidently so, because I just don’t dig hippie kitsch.

      2. It’s exactly the fact that 2 consecutive Synthtopia posts featured outdoor synths jams that triggered my exasperation (that had been building up for a while by the way). Had the 2 articles been posted in the other order I would probably have commented on the other one. It’s a bit sad that I happen to be commenting on a post featuring a women and it instantly gets people on their high-horses shouting “sexism!”. My comment wasn’t even on the quality of the performance itself which is irrelevant in the context of my exasperation.

        1. First: you *did* post on the one that happened to be a woman playing (and at a high level of competency) — and you did so in a dismissive way. Second: you misused the term “me too,” which has been globally adopted as a term used by English-speaking women and their allies to indicate that sexual assault and harassment are endemic in our society and too rarely spoken about.

          The very notion that your desire, conscious or unconscious, to respond to a piece of art dismissively and that it happened to be a female performer *is* part of the point. The (literally) thoughtless differentiation in the response of male individuals in a majority-male community (synthtopia, for sure) is a foundation of sexism: from holding females to a different standard the whole way up to sexual harassment and assault.

          The misuse of the term “me too” is also an indication: you are not aware of the term being used in a very prominent way by millions of women because most likely the fight for equality is not a priority for you. I would encourage you to make it a priority.

          And, lastly, your defended responses: that you didn’t know and that it was just a coincidence and that it is not your fault is also very consistent with the way that women are treated in male dominated spaces all the time. Men say what they want without consideration of the ramifications of their words and then indicate that any negative result was accidental.

          A more appropriate response would be to try to learn about what you do not know: that everyone (even women) are constantly repeating behaviors that diminish the work of women in these spaces and that we all need to work together to make a change so that someday we won’t have to consider implicit bias. But in the meantime it is important to make women feel welcome and secure, and that means (among many other things) being considerate. As in considering the ramifications of your words with regard to equality and privilege before you write them. Unless, that is, you don’t care—it is certainly your right to make that choice as well, it’s still not a crime to be an ass.

    2. To be fair, the two guys weren’t sitting on a beach with a modular, which is apparently the cliché the comment section is talking about.

      1. No, that’s not how it went. Go read the thread again. First it is that playing in nature is cringey, then pretentious, then derivative. THEN that she is too close the beach and water (which she isn’t, and there is no sand there anyways) which is a projection of the assumption that she doesn’t know what she is doing or how to care for equipment.

        Just very, very typical sexist nonsense that I see every single day.

  6. Quite sure I don’t want my synths anywhere near a sandy beach. A forest or a nice grassy field maybe but a beach, certainly not.

  7. Sitting in a nice environment is just a way to get more attention for your synth vid.

    For when you don’t share your moment with others i thing i would not drage a setup like this to outside but just a couple of small portable pieces of gear that fit in a backpack. In a sense this is just a studio performance but then outside for a good looking vid.

    1. This. She is likely trying to get more attention to her art, or she has a drive to try to create a captivating visual to go along with her music. I’ve seen several of her videos and she finds some really interesting abandoned structures to shoot out of. Places where it is clear she put some thought and effort into scouting locations ahead of time. I’m not going to bad mouth someone who takes time to create anything artistic, and that includes someone creating a visual backdrop to go along with their music.

    2. um. have you ever experienced inspiration? I’ve played several hundred gigs in my life (most in my 20s) and I’ll tell you that location can have an enormous effect on performance—especially if you are improvising.

      Still trying to figure out why so many folks have so much to say about the the locale of the performance and so little to say about the performance. I wonder why…

      1. Because some folks took a dump on her use of locales, and others of us are defending them…

        You clearly are struggling with this one. If someone takes a dump on her music, I’ll defend her music too. They aren’t mutually exclusive. And yes, I have experienced inspiration. I made my living as a musician for many years.

        1. Please don’t project your assumptions on to me. I’m not struggling with anything. The difference between this forums commentary and the YouTube comments pretty much says it all, though. A sign, pointing away from here and towards other places, I guess, unless you want to deal with this nonsense.

  9. Graham’s comment is the most on-topic, heh. Many of the rest need a fresh Depends. Synth music is an inside sport and there’s no guarantee there, either. I lived in a place I later learned was built over a small underground spring. That explained why part of my gear withered over time. Aliens ate my rusty mixer, tape deck & DW8000. 🙁

    That’s a lot of cash to have on the ground at a beach, but Helene’s elegant piece is more intriguing than any other modular work I’ve heard in quite a while. Rather than being relentlessly Berlin, for example, she understands how to *play* the instrument(s). Very fluid and sock-o-delic.

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