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“Too Many Sweets (when Dorothy met Blake)” is a commissioned work created for three of my toy pianos: Perry, Bea and Lil' Blue, and a bespoke wavetable synth, "Pico". Exploring the relationship between robots and human, "Too Many Sweets" features a dialogue between Pico and human. Pico processes fixed MIDI information each time, but outputs with a small degree of variation, imitating the non-robotic nature of human performers. This commission is a collaboration between UK based composer Benjamin Oliver, and electronic whiz Protodome (Blake Troise), made possible by the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and University of Southampton. "Too Many Sweets" was premiered in NY in Dec 2021, and in UK by the London Sinfonietta in July 2022. |
"....here scored for Toy Piano (again with whip-smart playing, by Dorothy Chan), a timbre which blends much more seamlessly with Troise’s synths. The piece, then, feels more mutant in its marrying of worlds, |
Benjamin Oliver, Composer
Dorothy Chan, Commission + Performer Blake Troise aka "Protodome", Wavetable Synth Creator Ford Fourqurean, Video recording + editing |
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A few words about Pico, by PROTODOME:
The Pico Waves Oscillator is a hardware synthesizer and love letter to the noisy, crunchy sounds of home appliance jingles, inexpensive electronic toys, and musical birthday cards. Just as Dorothy's music challenges and reframes our expectations of what toy instruments can do (and in the contexts in which they are suitable), the Pico Waves Oscillator aims to do the same with low-fidelity digital audio technology, often considered kitsch or obsolete. The synthesizer is completely bespoke and built specifically for Dorothy and Ben's collaboration. I wanted the hardware itself to be an integral part of the instrument's sound: there are all kinds of pops, glitches, and timing errors caused by the limited capabilities of the electronics. For those interested in the technical specifications, the synthesizer uses wavetable synthesis and boasts seven waveforms, four oscillators, and one drum sampler, all squeezed into 6KB of program space. The brains of the synth is an ATtiny85 microcontroller, phantom-powered by the MIDI-out 5V. |