Nobsrine 3fold by Air Jordans
Nobsrine is an odd sounding instrument controlled with two basic knobs and two portmanteau switches. It samples the turns and energy of knob twists to modulate triangle oscillators — producing a stereo-shifting range of unusual moans, drones, and shrieks.
Nobsrine was designed by Peter Blasser (Ciat-Lonbarde) as an ‘instrument for babies’ and released as a ‘Paper Circuit’ — you print the PDF, poke holes in it, stick in components, and solder it all together on the back. Because paper holds some moisture, and has a little conductivity, parts of Nobsrine’s Sample-and-Hold section are wired ‘above’ the page, floating in the air. Peter B refers to these connections as AJ — Air Jordans.
Similarly, Peter B uses a number of esoteric symbols on his board designs — on Nobsrine, sets of plus signs and 4-layered plus signs are wired to join different parts of the board together. Digging into Ciat-Lonbarde CAD files, you can see equally esoteric names — ‘wsqout’ and ‘4squin’.
In 2021, Murray started working with Peter Blasser’s circuits but, rather than use paper, remade Nobsrine on Printed Circuit Board. Later, Expanding Foam visited Murray’s studio for a Nobsrine Workshop, and Steep Gloss’s Ross picked up one of these Nobsrines for themselves. From these interactions, the idea of a Nobsrine collaboration was born.
Because the instrument has such a unique and distinctive sound, we were all pleasantly surprised by how our own individual approaches revealed a nuanced and differentiated variety of tracks. Ross has used a range of processing and effects to produce undulating drones; Expanding Foam recorded in their garden, intermingling Nobsrine’s unique sound palette with birdsong and incidental noises; Murray experimented with opening up Nobsrine’s internal connections to use the instrument as a kind of feedback mixer. Each submission was then edited and layered into two, side-length, collages.
Credits
All sounds and images by Murray Royston-Ward, Expanding Foam and Ross Scott-Buccleuch
thehouseorgan.bandcamp.com
expandingfoam.bandcamp.com/music
diurnalburdens.bandcamp.com
SG77
