Brain Melters - Pulse Emitter

On February 17th, 2009, all American TV channels finally made the switch from analog broadcasting to a digital signal. Although anybody who still used a coat hanger antenna to pick up channels was disappointed, paranormal researches seized this "advantage of obsolescence". Now messages from outer space sent via electromagnetic waves wouldn't meet any interference from high-powered TV station antennae.

In his documentary Patrolling The Ether, Carl Diehl investigates "metaphortean phenomena" found in analog TV static as possible transmissions from beyond. Indebted to the research of Charles Fort, a pseudo-scientist who studied spontaneous combustion, teleportation, UFOs and other phenomena "damned" by mainstream science, Diehl's "metaphortean" patterns in electric phenomena are taken as evidence of extraterrestrial life.

Portland noise musician Daryl Groetsch, AKA Pulse Emitter, is featured prominently in the doc. Daryl attaches a light sensor to a staticky TV screen and leads it through a synthesizer he built by hand. The sound that comes out may not be proof that aliens exist, but it's definitely fucking beautiful. Despite the hilariously kooky context of the film, Daryl looks at his machine as a mystical physicist. "Electricity is alive," he muses in a Deluzian vein. "Anything with energy is living and should be respected to some degree."

Electricity itself is Pulse Emitter's instrument. After getting a classical music degree, Daryl built his first synthesizer in 2003 and has been experimenting with increasingly complex homebuilt systems since. Pictured above to the left is the first kit Daryl soldered together, a PAiA 9720, which is a synth that makes sounds controlled by manipulating voltage in a circuit. Pictured above to the right is a small detail (yep, it's that massive) from a new modular synth that Daryl built from scratch last year. As a modular synth, this complicated machine is completely flexible and changeable (yep, these are words that pop up if you plug the word modular into the thesaurus) in the ways that it can create, combine and sequence the elements of sound to create potentially unlimited soundscapes.

The Meditative Music series is a new direction in Pulse Emitter's music. His work from even a few years back was a barrage of synth tricks, like if the Harlem Globetrotters got engineering degrees. Twelve-tone arpeggios are scattered in random directions over scuzzy phasing drones that could begin, end and suddenly morph at any moment. To me, this earlier material is a lot more accessible and enjoyable—there's always something for the mind to grab onto in the improvisational clusterfuck. The live performance below, which begins an episode of Portland's community access show The Experimental ½ Hour, features a spastic Pulse Emitter live set next to Ashby Lee wrestling with a giant inflatable beach ball. This is a must see; truly mind altering stuff. The Free Music Archive also has a nice cross section of Pulse Emitter's output.

Previously - Long Distance Poison

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