The “Lightness of Being” art show was held in March 6th, in Pavillon Vendôme. K11, the shopping mall specialist in China, took advantage of the Paris Fashion Week to present the new concept “In Art We Live”, malls mixing art and luxury shopping. The title of the show is inspired by Milan Kundera’s novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being, a title that fits the exhibits’ style of breathability and sensitivity.

As an active force in art, K11 has been the sponsor of a host of artists. Through this event, K11 introduced a new generation of Chinese artists to the world and created an opportunity for them to display their talents. It featured the luxury jewelry creations of Chow Tai Fook and the collections of Xiao Yu, Chinese fashion designer, and Huishan Zhang, fashion designer of the year in China. The celebration showcased works from contemporary photographer and master of graphic art Li Shun.

In addition, Yin Fang and Huang Huan, from Beijing Dance Academy, together with the electronic music composer and Karlax player, Thomas Goguelin, presented an innovative performance combining music, dance and digital arts.

After the Paris event, K11 is bringing the show to Hong Kong under the theme « Paris, Bonjour! » from March 22 to May 6. Decorated in a special monochrome effect, K11 will transform in an international art and couture platform by inviting Xiao Yu and other 4 artists to Hong Kong to stage the cutting-edge art and couture performances in K11 Art Mall, on the March 24.

Thomas Goguelin on Karlax will perform with the both dancers, Yin Fang and Huang Huan, on March 22nd and 24th.

More info:
- Pictures of « Lightness of Being » at the Pavillon Vendôme

At the instigation of the Center for Electronic Music director, Eric Daubresse, the department of composition and theory of the Haute Ecole de Musique of Genève acquired a Karlax.

This department is a center of creativity and experimentation in the field of composition and the mixed composition (acoustic and electro-acoustic). It hosts the Center for Electronic Music (CME), infrastructure in the field of music technology, sound recording, assisted composition.

More info:
- HEM website

Jean Lochard will present his work with Karlax and Max at Ircam Forum, on Thursday, November 17.

Jean LOCHARD is researcher in computer music and composer.
He teaches technics of synthesis, musical acoustic, technics of studio and the tools of musical creation in real time to young composers in the classes of composition and computer music at Ircam.

From interactive glove to the Karlax, he designs software for new instruments. With these tools, he composes electronic music for performances, short films, cine-concerts with François Regis and remixes Emilie Simon.

He worked with David Shea for the exhibition “Sonic Process” (Centre Pompidou) or with Roland Auzet for the video of the performance “Le Cirque du Tambour”. In 2009, he designed installations for Pierre Estève and a tactile sequencer for the tour “IN>DOORS” of Jean-Michel Jarre.

More info:
- Jean Lochard SoundCloud
- Jean Lochard MySpace
- Ircam website
- About the exhibition Sonic Process (in French)
- About the performance « Le Cirque du Tambour »

The second user conference, Expo ’74 of Cycling ’74, will be held in New York in October. The conference will include presentations, installations, workshops, and collaborative events covering the company’s Max/MSP/Jitter software.

The conference will take place October 14-16 at NYU Poly in Brooklyn, New York.

Cycling ’74 creates software for the specialized needs of artists, educators, and researchers working with audio, visual media, and physical computing. The visual programming tools Max, MSP, and Jitter serve as the creative engine behind thousands of innovative projects.

Tom Mays will be here to present his MAX work for Karlax to the community.

For more info:
Tom Mays website
Expo ’74 schedule
Cycling ’74

« Fabrique Nomade » is a new electronic chamber music ensemble that wishes to recover gestures the gestures and the listening of “classical” chamber music.

In opposition to common practices of today’s contemporary music scene, in which the sound of “hyper” instrumentalists is being driven by a computer technician off stage, “Fabrique Nomade” instrumentalists control every sound produced with their own computer.

Six pieces will be commissioned in 2011 to 2013 to composers whose reputations are based on acoustic composition as well as on their work on digital musical gesture.

The current lineup of the ensemble is : Anne Cartel, hyper-flutes; Francis Faber, digital instruments; Martina Rodriguez, hyper cello and Szuhwa Wu, hyper violin.

Lorenzo Bianchi (contemporary composer and computer music specialist) will be composing an exclusive piece for violin, cello and Karlax, specially for the new ensemble.

Francis Faber is also composing for Karlax and Cello.

“Fabrique Nomade” will perform in prefiguration at the Conservatoire de Musique de Dieppe on November 25^th, 2011 featuring musical pieces by Bianchi, Faber, Saariaho,  Schilingi and Tadini.

For more informations visit :

La Grand Fabrique website

Lorenzo Bianchi biography

Tom Mays will perform with Karlax on may the 29th in Oslo during the 10th edition of the NIME (New interfaces for Musical Expression) conference.
The 2011 NIME conference, which will run  from may 30th until june 1st, is an essential key event for every professional in the field of music and technology. Between 200 and 500 researchers, musicians and professionals from all over the world gather to share their knowledge and latest work on musical interface design. It is one of the most important conferences dealing with innovation in music technology in the world.

Tom Mays, computer music expert, composer, performer and associate teacher in the New technologies applied to Composition class at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris (CNSMDP), will perform “L’instant”, a solo piece specially composed for Karlax, and will host a workshop dedicated to Karlax.

For more information visit:

NIME 2011 website

NIME 2011 Twitter feed

Tom Mays website

[video] Tom Mays playing Karlax with Wu Wei on the Sheng (chinese mouth organ)

As you may know, Karlax is supported by few artists who play it or just love it. Cyril Etienne aka DJ Deep is one of the most devoted Karlax defender.

DJ Deep is one of the pioneers of house in France. He began djing 20 years ago, and became resident DJ at Rex Club with Laurent Garnier in 1995, launched his own label, Deeply Rooted House, in 2003 (with artists such as Ben Klock, Kerri Chandler, Marcelus,…). Nowadays he’s a very respected and talented DJ, and his playlists and mixes (check the “Deep Library” on his website) are very appreciated.

We are very pleased to present you his playlist that he made exclusively for Karlax with tracks which influenced him.

Listen all the tracks in the next part of the article

continue reading "[playlist] DJ Deep"

Last week we told you about our meeting with Gilb’r, boss of Versatile Records and one half of Chateau Flight. This week we had another great meeting with I:cube (the other half of Chateau Flight) in the Da Fact showroom, it was really interesting to discuss his vision of live performances and  his ideas on how midi controlers may be used.

The new Chateau Flight 12″ is released this week, and I:cube is currently fine tuning his forthcoming album on Versatile records (due somewhere around September 2011)

Visit Versatile Records website

We were very pleased to meet Dj Gilb’r (boss of Versatile records, and one half of Chateau Flight, with I:Cube) in his Parisian studio last week. He gave us a lot of interesting feedback on Karlax and on some future products that we are currently working on!

Gilb’r has produced the 1st album of The Big Crunch Theory (new project of the singer Lisa Li-Lund) that was released last week as well as the new Chateau Flight  12″: « Chichi Devils »  out this week.
Stay tuned for his new production Aladdin, to be released on Versatile in may 2011 ….

Visit Versatile Records website