‘Tantra’ is the new single from Timo Maas, taken from his latest artist album, ‘Lifer. The video for the single, created by Daito Manabe, Motoi Ishibashi, Muryo Homma and Youichi Sakamoto (rhizomatiks) includes a machine that uses Arduino controlled ball dispensers, motorised rotating steel plates and LED lights to create a nexus between electronic music and a sound responsive mechanical object.

‘Tantra’ track was first deconstructed into MIDI parts, the data that specified notation, pitch and velocity. Each control signals are used as parameters – volume, vibrato, audio panning, cues – to run through the machine to control its movement.

The first time I listened to ‘Tantra’, I imagined someone producing something endlessly in a base, deep underground. With this image in mind, we started testing different machines, systems and so on, and then we finally figured out the structure and how we’d control the machine – and the motion of the balls – with the music. We felt that this would give it a sense of reality and beauty that is impossible to realise with CGI. — Daito Manabe

Remixers on ‘Tantra’ include Tom Demac (who’s about to drop a forthcoming collaboration with Will Saul on Aus), James Teej (the My Favourite Robot boss returns the favour for Timo’s reworking of ‘Liking Your Disorder’), Atelier Francesco (a new project and accompanying pseudonym from an already eclectic Italian producer) and Wolfgang Haffner (the ECHO music award-winning German drummer famous for his work with Nightmares On Wax and beyond).

Creative director/ Software engineer: Daito Manabe
Hardware engineer: Motoi Ishibashi
Video director: Muryo Homma
Installation designer: Youichi Sakamoto

Timo Maas | Daito Manabe | Motoi Ishibashi | Rhizomatiks

See also Squarepusher × Z-MACHINES by Daito Manabe + Team