(You can download it as well by clicking the little down-arrow on the Soundcloud thingy above.)

It’s time for another mix! I lean towards cheerful music in winter for some reason (see Episode 2). Maybe just to keep my downtrodden sun-craving soul alive and kicking through the darkness.

You can download it above, or subscribe to the podcast using the following URL in iTunes:

http://www.larkisadora.com/electro-magnetism.rss

Tracklist:

1. Blondes- Synthesist
2. Pete Shelley- Witness the Change
3. Eleven Pond- Portugal
4. Primadonna- Flashing on the Floor
5. Schmaalhans Weltraum- Samovar
6. Det Gylne Triangel- Maskindans
7. Grimes- Oblivion
8. Com Truise- Sundripped
9. Heartsrevolution- Teenage Teardrops (Pyramid Remix)
10. Plastic Mode- NY Life
11. Alden Tyrell- Hills of Honolulu
12. Clockwork Orange- Sensation Boys
13. Moß Garten- Moderna Kvinnor
14. The Arms of Someone New- Beacon
15. Big Ben Tribe- Heroes

I recently moved to Sweden and have been exploring some Scandinavian minimal synth lately, so I included some of that in there as well. Originally I wanted to do an all-Scandinavian mix, but I didn’t quite have enough super duper awesome material. Hopefully by next year I’ll be ready!

One of my new favorite compilations is Maskindans: Norsk Synth from Hommage Records in Oslo, which you can buy here. I highly recommend it! From their description:

Tracks from Tromsø up North to Arendal in the South, tracks recorded as early as 1980 and up to 1988, tracks shorter than two minutes and longer than six, spanning dark wave, avant garde, synth pop and most genres in between; songs that were hits on Norwegian radio and songs that have been totally obscure for 20 years or more. Maskindans is an impressively broad and thorough presentation of the finest Norwegian ’80s electronics.

The whole thing is really quite good, and some of the tracks are really addictive. On my mix, the tracks by Clockwork Orange and Det Gylne Triangel were my favorites from this compilation. I found it quite adorable to read that more than half of the first pressings were snapped up by the Norwegian government for use in libraries, all the way from Oslo to the Russian border.

I’ve also been trying to find as much Swedish language music as I can that I actually like. I included these favorites by Schmaalhans Weltraum and Moß Garten, both Swedish bands from the 1980s.

Some of my favorite modern bands of the moment are also featured on here, including Com Truise (who has a really nice looking website, btw) who I see just recently played Stockholm unknown to me (will. now. kill. self.) and Grimes. I have also been getting into Emika, but her music is in no way perky enough to fit on this mix. Perhaps after my perky wears off and I start wearing sunglasses and black velvet in the darkest depths of winter, I’ll make another mix more suitable to her. (Sounds fun!) But for now, here’s a very nice remix of a song from her recent self-titled debut.

My friend Vanessa Fatton and I shared a booth at the Brooklyn Renegade Craft Fair. Standing with us is the lovely and talented glass artist Jenine Bressner, visiting from Providence, Rhode Island.

I was really impressed by the fashion of many of the fair-goers. I saw so many innovative jewelry pieces being worn- I got all sorts of new ideas.

My setup was small, so I tried to maximize space by making some vertical displays. One of them was an Xray I found on the ground in Chinatown, which I framed and then displayed necklaces over. It was a hit with the doctor in the crowd, who let me know that it was displayed backwards. The heart should be on the viewers’ right side. Good to know!

It was interesting to see what people were attracted to on the table. The steel wool definitely captivated people and drew them in to handle the pieces.

Sunday morning jewelry times! Made this one bright and early. I think I am going to do more of these. I really like the clear ones with the different heights.

Made this one today, it’s in the kiln as we speak!

I’m going to be sharing a booth at Renegade Craft Fair in Brooklyn, next Saturday and Sunday.

Come by!

Brown translucent beads made with Northstar Nile boro. They’ve got subtle blue interference shades, really nice.

I have started working on some new glass pendants these days, and I am selling them on Etsy. They are clear Pyrex pendants that are hollow and filled with steel wool. Most of them are quite small, from 5cm to 8cm in length. I have paired them together to create a cluster of multi-sized pendants as well as solo pendants.

I’ll be adding more to this blog as I make and photograph them. Here are two pieces that I have made. The first (cluster of three) has been sold but the second (solo pendant) is currently for sale on Etsy.

I made this next one last week and photographed it this weekend. I’m trying out just a single pendant.

You can find my latest pieces at Larkisadora on Etsy. I’m open to collaborations and commissions! If you’re interested, please contact me through Etsy.

Light leaked through the cheap plastic of the disposable cameras onto the 35mm film to create lovely mistakes in the form of light flashes and streaks across the pictures.

Mira is a second generation whirling dervish. Typically dervishes are only men, but her father wasn’t too strict on gender norms and taught her all the same.

On Derek’s website, he suggests to listen to the video with headphones since he used binaural microphones for recording, which he says “are meant to mimic sound as the human ear encounters it.” I’m not sure if that translates through YouTube, but you can watch higher quality videos of this on both of their websites linked above.

I have decided to revive this blog. Obviously a lot has happened since my last post. I stopped making mixes after my external sound card was stolen off of a train going from Copenhagen to Stockholm, along with lots of other gear. I saw that as a sign from above, or something. To move on, to explore other avenues of expression.

I’ve been making a lot of cool crafty stuff this past winter and spring and I’ve been feeling the need for an outlet to show it off to the world. I go through that sometimes. Hibernating, making, exploring, then expelling whatever I made out into the universe.

Among other things, including miniature glass vessels and silversmithing (blog posts on these will soon follow!), I’ve been getting into knitting stranded colorwork mittens. This is my first pair. I haven’t really knitted before. I made a hat once with some coarse homespun wool. Before that I crocheted without patterns and made simple hats. I’m pretty stoked with how these turned out, and how simple they were to make really. Their complex appearance–defying their simple construction techniques–perhaps defines the magic of folk art?

I’m not sure what came over me, but I’ve gotten obsessed with these super intricate patterned mittens. It started with a ceramic lidded jar I found in the trash in my building, covered in what I later learned to be a Norwegian Selbu (rose) pattern. I loved the pattern and wanted to research what it was. Thus began a Google journey which took me to semi-traditional Selbu mittens on this blog. They looked so complicated and difficult yet miniature, perfectly controlled, vibrant and fun. Just the thing for winter couch times.

The more I looked around at other patterns (I gave in and joined ravelry.com… it’s like crack, beware), the more excited I became. I have fallen in love with the patterns of Latvia, Estonia, indigenous Russia and the Middle East. These first mittens of mine were based on a pattern created by a Finnish knitter, Tuulia Salmela, who adapted it from Egyptian stockings documented in Richard Ruttin’s History of Hand-Knitting. Supposedly aspects of this pattern date from 1200 and 1500A.D.

I loved the idea of carrying on a tradition of handmade clothing that goes back a thousand years.

I believe my next pair will be patterned from traditional Latvian figures.

Is it merely a coincidence that the Berlin Fernsehturm (TV Tower) resembles a disco ball upon close inspection? Was it by mystical divination that the East German architects constructed such a monument to as-yet undiscovered dance-floor pleasures in 1969? The world will never know.

This mix has been a long time coming.  I created it originally for my partner Jon as part of our ongoing music exchanges. From the beginning I felt like it would make a nice addition to the Electro-Magnetism family, so I asked him if it would be ok to make public and he said “hell yeah,” or some equivalent answer, so here it is. And nope, the Justin Timberlake track is not a typo.

This is a continuous mix, cut into separate tracks in the download link, for your pleasure.

Enjoy!

Listen to it here.

Download it for later.

Wanna get the podcast? Use this URL to subscribe:
http://www.larkisadora.com/electro-magnetism.rss

And! I finally validated my little rss feed, saying farewell to its jankness of the past few years. Celebrate!

Tracklist:

1. Human League – Interface
2. Throbbing Gristle – Convincing People
3. D.A.F. – Ich und die Wirklichkeit
4. X-Mal Deutschland – Stummes Kind
5. Crass – Sentiment
6. Harmonia – Walky Talky
7. Experimental Products – Golden Hours
8. Hell – The DJ Feat. P. Diddy
9. Modeselektor – 2000007 (Feat. TTC)
10. Plaid – Lat
11. Dome – Cancel Your Order
12. Carlos Peron – Oui, Oui
13. Human League – Morale… You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling
14. Grauzone – Eisbär
15. Tuxedomoon – Incubus (Blue Suit)
16. Hell – Action Interlude
17. Justin Timberlake – What Goes Around…/…Comes Around Interlude

I recently got back from Europe and it was a bit of a life changing journey. I was reminded that the majority of the world  are not Americans. I hadn’t left this country since Bush came into office and I think that I had just lost all hope in humanity since he showed up. But the rest of the world exists! And its beautiful and old and full of wonderful, kind, compassionate people who just get it. What a relief.

I ran into this wonderful man in Berlin named Inox Kapell.  He showed my friend Camalo and I his Insekteum, a storefront space that had giant plastic insects everywhere, old analog synths, organs and a thrift store too. There was even a really cute music venue in the basement.  As you can guess, I was pretty into the synths so I asked him about them and he told me he was a musician, loved the old electric organs dearly, and would I like his CD? Of course, I said, and thanked him.  I carried it with me for the rest of the trip, through Sweden and back to Holland. When I got home to Brooklyn I popped it in the player, and oh my god I loved it! He’s got many projects but this one is called Puckstörn and I included one of my favorite tracks in this mix.

Tragically, I just read on his website that the Insekteum is closing!
“4 years of subculture art, music and insect discovery is over now.”

Wow, what a shame. I’m so glad I got to see it! If any of you live in Berlin and want some very very cool shit he’s putting all of it on clearance this month. Damn, I wish I was there. The Insekteum is located at Plügerstrasse 70 in Neu Kölln.

For those of you that can’t see the place for yourselves, there is a video on YouTube about the Insekteum and an interview with Inox in German.

Listen to it here.

Download it for later.

Wanna get the podcast? Use this URL to subscribe:
http://www.larkisadora.com/electro-magnetism.rss

Tracklist:

1. Oskar Sala – Concertando Rubato
2. Puckstörn – Basura Del Mundo
3. Antena – To Climb the Cliff
4. Elisa Waut – Russia
5. Can – Oh Yeah
6. Tuxedomoon – Desire
7. Soft Cell – Persuasion
8. The Actor – Inside Out
9. Hypnobeat – Can God Rewind?
10. Klein & M.B.O. – Wonderful (instrumental)
11. Rex The Dog – Gecko
12. Crystal Castles – Vanished
13. Hypnotic Samba – Hypnotic Samba