Dirty Electronics Sonar 20th Anniversary Synth

John Richards and MTI post-graduate Jim Frize have created a hand-held synth for Sonar International Festival of Advanced Music and New Media Art. The Dirty Electronics Sonar 20th Anniversary Synth is an ultra minimal pocket-sized synth, black finished with silver-plated etched Sonar logo. The synth is a analogue digital hybrid that comes with pre-written sequenced patterns that can be either listened to in their own right or ‘played’ (mashed-up, parts of the sequence looped, tempo changed, noise and feedback added, etc.). The synth is played by running fingers across the letters of the Sonar logo. Bit bashing meets analogue noise and crumpled grooves.

Workshops were held over a weekend at the new Sonar by Day venue where over a hundred people took part in building the synth with large audiences watching and listening to the results. Sonar saw a record breaking number of 120,000 attendees at the Festival along with a headline performance from Kraftwerk.