Michel Waisvisz wasn’t the first to explore primitive electronic textures in improvisational music, but his 1978 album Crackle (whose title track gives this mix its name) signified more than that. The record was produced using Waisvisz’s self-invented cracklebox instrument, a notably personalized version of the plundered circuits used by so many (including myself). In my opinion, it’s just as important to seek out new sounds in everyday things as it is to make them using instruments with which we are already familiar. The piercing squeaks and grainy electric sputters of circuit bending have also become a recognizable and defining texture in modern electroacoustic improvisation.

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00:00. Michel Waisvisz – “Crackle” from Crackle (FMP, 1978)

02:28. Voice Crack – “Red Square” from Taken and Changed (Falsch, 1999)

08:27. English – “Senator Bustamente” from English (Copula, 2005)

14:24. Alexei Borisov & Phil Durrant – “Part 4” from In the Wood (Zeromoon, 2018)

19:37. Jazzkammer – “Bullets for Breakfast” from Timex (Rune Grammofon, 2000)

25:26. Yoshimitsu Ichiraku – “Machine Headz” from The Music of Surround Panner (Zero Gravity, 1998)

29:25. Takahiro Kawaguchi & Utah Kawasaki – “4:17” from Amorphous Spores (Erstwhile, 2015)

33:31. GOD – excerpt from Anti-Sex Anti-Wiretapping (Made in Taiwan) (Little Enjoyer, 2005)

36:40. Joe Colley – “Untitled Unstable Stereo Circuit” from Disasters of Self (CIP, 2010)