(Studies on the ANS was recorded in 2004 at the Theremin Center in Moscow and published as a 5" CD with a clear outer rim by by Krabbesholm Højskole in 2006. The CD is out of print. Download files are 16-bit/44.1khz.)


In Memoriam Stanislav Kreichi

The works on this CD were recorded on the ANS, a photoelectronic instrument created by engineer Eugene Murzin in 1958. The ANS takes its name from the initials of Alexander Nikolayevich Skryabin. Its ingenious design uses periodic light beams to produce 720 tones with precise tuning relations: light is directed through 5 glass discs each with 144 bands of clear and opaque patterns (of frequencies varying at 1/6 of a semitone), picked up by 20 photocells after being gated by the "work surface." The latter is a large glass covered in non-drying mastic which the operator directs across the light beams by either motor control or a manual crank. Scratching clear spots on the glass' otherwise opaque surface determines what portion of the light beams are allowed to pass through to the photocells: a sloping line cranked pass the beams will create a glissando and a completely clear vertical section results in white noise. The audio signals synthesized by the photocells are then routed to a bank of 20 bandpass filters, which may be controlled by a set of keys on the console.

An eccentric hybrid design of optics, vacuum tubes and transistors, the ANS is a beast of a machine with its own automated Variac, ramping up the power supply voltage slowly on power-up. The tactile nature of interacting with the machine sets it apart from contemporary implementations of similar ideas (such as the UPIC); here the operator literally has to get his hands dirty with the mastic, which is quite difficult to wash off. By cranking the glass panel by hand, the pacing of the "piece" can be organically performed, that is, any particular spot can be extended indefinitely or pass by within fractions of a second. The inevitable "imperfections" on the glass, areas of mastic that are thin enough to pass some light, also become constant sources of much-welcomed indeterminacy.

—James Fei

Thanks: Andrei Smirnov/Theremin Center, Stanislav Kreichi, Michael Schumacher/Diapason Gallery, Trust for Mutual Understanding, Peter Bach Nicolaisen, Kurt Finsten, Krabbesholm Højskole.