Patch Notes: Hélène Vogelsinger

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As part of the practice behind Hélène Vogelsinger‘s modular synth compositions, the French singer and sound designer explores abandoned places and connects with their energies to create immersive and suspended moments. “I love the fact that they have layers of stories and histories, with different occupants, often crossing times, and always full of beautiful and melancholic poetry,” she says.

Prior to this episode of Patch Notes, Vogelsinger went on a 800km trip to visit an abandoned cloister, where she took pictures, videos and recorded soundscapes. She then came back to her studio and started to create the musical foundations based on what she experienced during that day. “I always compose my main sequences and record the vocals and instruments upstream,” she says. “It is the first phase of creation.”

A few weeks later, Vogelsinger returned to record the finished piece, but the building wasn’t accessible. But on her way back home, in the south of France, she came across an abandoned castle, “an improbable apparition”, in the middle of an industrial zone. “With Chalisk, who films all my sessions, we were amazed and shocked at the same time,” she says. “We were amazed by this place’s aura and energy and shocked by the way it has been ransacked.”

Although the piece wasn’t recorded for the space, the castle’s own history (the family who lived there helped refugees who fled war) and aura made it suitable for the session.

“The installation and the recording session are always a process within the process, which takes a few hours. Technically it requires a good organisation: three modular cases and hundred of cables, a generator, a camera, lights and again so many cables,” she says. “It is something really intense, especially in those types of abandoned places, where you have to avoid a lot of obstacles.”

Video by Chalisk Pito

[SpicyEngineer]

Some details for anyone unfamiliar with how live performances work on a modular. First, they call them "Patch Notes" for a reason. If you want to reproduce a sound on modular, you need to make detailed notes (using Modular Music Notation) of your patches and spend time setting it up any time you break them down. That said, she is not using all the sound paths that she has wired in this single song and she definitely leaves her patches set between sessions. She can switch between and blend sound paths with her mixer to perform a full set without doing any live patching - simply by mixing the different inputs. She just has to remember what channel she has each sound path running to and then tweaks the knobs for the dynamic performance.

[regortex]

I love what she’s done with the place.

[lebowskiunderachiever]

I can visualize a time lapse of people moving throughout this space, like moving shadows dancing in reverse. The decay being replaced with furniture and people. Beautiful. Well done

[cryptohacker]

Just WOW. Some of the best modular patchwork and control I've ever seen and heard. She was the relaxed conductor of an electronic orchestra & choir. Transient and beautiful in a juxtaposed space of age and decay. Brava!

[davidlloyd]

When you sell the contents of your house to fund your modular synths.

[MisterNiles]

This film is a perfect metaphor for getting into eurorack.

[Olddfk]

That's one of the most impressive modular performances I've ever seen in my life.

That is - beyond anything.

[theQuietWire]

Hauntingly beautiful! It's like she's channeling the song of the soul of the house, that saw all the years and decades of family life within its walls. It's almost as though through the music, the veil of time comes down and I can visualize the goings-on of the families that could have lived in this house. The voices at the end make me wonder about who lived there and for some reason, especially who was the last family member to leave this home. Thank you for this work of art.

[JuanHernandez-qbrx]

What she is doing is not easily achieved. This is endless hours of experimentation and patching to achieve this. Beautiful to say the least!

[MicahBuzanANIMATION]

She is sacrificing her back to make mindblowing music for us all.

[benji]

I can't believe that this I'm listening over and over... the most exciting musicial discovery for me in many years. Thank you so much!

[jurgenwurgen]

Warum bekomme ich jedesmal eine Gänsehaut und manchmal laufen einfach die Tränen.? Wahnsinnig gut, diese Musik berührt mich jedesmal so tief wie nichts anderes es vermag. 💚

[modalmixture]

I would love to see how one prepares and rehearses a performance like this. As organic and improvised as it looks, I imagine there is an enormous amount of thought put into how the piece evolves, when things should happen, etc. That is the point where it goes from creating a patch to making music, and it is the point where so many (myself included) seem to get stuck.

[nosdamoslapela]

I love the vocal formant that the reverb sometimes has, sounds like a beautiful choir on a cathedral.

[creamsoda]

It's amazing that the series of sounds give me the sense of a narrative arc charged with emotional states

[anthonyryan]

This is an example of how the sound and vibe itself is more important than the formula or the strategy. This is two arpeggios and two pads constantly evolving across the synths settings, mainly in the envelope, and its perfect. It doesn’t take a video to hear it and feel it but this definitely helps the purpose of the climactic moments become more obvious

[keithsacra]

All the ghosts that haunted this house have moved on, satisfied and at peace.

[ricardooliveira]

Wow! Fantastic! That´s an orchestra with its conductor. Poliphony in great level. Thanks for your work!

[jeffbrown]

I just discovered another greatest musician on

[martinpohl]

Anybody else who doesn't want this to stop? I just could keep on listening to this forever! Wonderful!