Month: May 2025

In November 2024 I traveled from Hamburg to Chicago, then to Champaign, IL to accompany my Continuum Fingerboard to its maker’s lab.

Biking through the campus of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign–on a racing bike of Lippold Haken’s–I came across expansive lawns, historical buildings,…

…and chanced upon the School of Music.

Some research taught me that this building was the home of the renown Experimental Music Studios and I immediately contacted Maxwell Logan Miller, the head of the EMS.

Thankfully Max got back to me on very short notice and arranged to meet up and give me a tour of the facilities, founded in 1958 by composer Lejaren Hiller, Jr.

Onward into geek central 🤓 Here is a vintage Roland Studio System 100M.

Next up a large Buchla system.

Early MIDI…

And an EML-200 mystery box I had never even heard about.

Most of the acoustically treated rooms are equipped with a high end stereo or surround monitoring system (one stereo, several 5.1 and one 8.1) and one had a speakerdome for immersive content, Ambisonics and 3D-audio projects.

Occupying the sweet spot 🤓

I even got the chance to meet the EMS’s director Eli Fieldsteel for an informal chat. Looking forward to a return and the possibility of doing a lecture in this amazing space 🙏

Yesterday was a blast! The idea of placing a speaker for the SOMA PIPE into the “Rückpositiv” / organ registers placed distant from the main body of the instrument, usually behind the back of the organist, worked out beautifully.

I did place a speaker close to the ground and next to piano for a soft but more direct listening aid and added the low frequency component of the PIPE’s signal to the main PA. Loved the low end! Check it out on May 25, 2025 here:

For the concert proper I captured a total of four camera angles so there will be lots of fun closeups in future releases. Stay tuned and feel free to subscribe to my YouTube-channel 🤗

I will be performing with Peer Schlechta again today (05/23, 2025)…

…and just completed the trilogy of selections from last year’s concert.

This time I bring along the SOMA FLUX for it’s concert debut. I am excited play it in front of an audience 🥳

I will also be playing the SOMA PIPE, which I brought along last year but ended up not using. As a new idea–for me–the PIPE will sound through a speaker placed within the “Rückpositiv”, the group of registers mounted apart from the main body of the organ and overlooking the nave of the church.

Only the low frequency component, of which there is a lot with the PIPE will come from the main PA (2 x RCF TT-808-AS + TT-515-A) at the altar. Let’s see how this works out in a live setting.