Last Saturday, I presented the Behemoth Benjolin instrument in Stockholm at the Music Machines Summit @rumtiden@rumtidenidealab organized by @hakan_lidbo Ultimate salt&pepper photos by @micke_wall #analogsynth #analogsynthesizers #benjolin #macumbistabenjolin #robhordijk
On the 9th I will be speaking at an open seminar on musical instrument design with Tom Whitwell, Yann Seznec and Helena Linder, led by Ludvig Elblaus. We will present our individual instrument making practices and then join in a panel discussion on how new musical instruments can find their character through limitations and how a precise scope can be useful in designing tools that feel purposeful and inspiring. My section will include a live demo of the Behemoth Benjolin.
THU 09 APRIL 18-20:00
KTH Innovation, Teknikringen 1, Stockholm.
NEW PUBLICATION OUT NOW in Organised Sound, featuring the machine-learning enhanced Meta-Benjolin developed with some of my amazing colleagues @galileo_galilund@vincenzo_madaghiele
Vincenzo Madaghiele, Leonard Lund, Derek Holzer, Tejaswinee Kelkar, Kıvanç Tatar and André Holzapfel. 2026. “Expanding the machine: Notating generative synthesis with a state-based representation and a navigable timbre space”. Organised Sound, 2026. /10.1017/S1355771825100915
In this article, we propose a notation system for generative synthesis based on a projection from its parameter space to a timbre space, allowing to organise synthesiser states based on their timbral characteristics. To investigate this approach, we introduce the Meta-Benjolin, a state-based notation system for chaotic sound synthesis employing a three-dimensional, navigable timbre space and a composition timeline. The Meta-Benjolin was developed as a control structure for the Benjolin, a chaotic synthesiser. Framing chaotic synthesis as a specific instance of generative synthesis, we discuss the advantages and drawbacks of the state- and timbre-based representation we designed based on the thematic analysis of an interview study with 19 musicians, who composed a piece using the Meta-Benjolin notational interface.
A small bit of calm after the storm. Last September, it felt like the universe pulled the cosmic carpet out from under my feet, and I’ve been in freefall ever since. I’m currently in Berlin, working on what happens next. I will spend a brief period back in Stockholm for the spring, and after that the road is open. I am eternally grateful to Carsten Stabenow @tunedcity_ and Gesine Pagels for their support during this transitional moment.
One last Behemoth Benjolin still available!
The Behemoth Benjolin contains four independent Benjolins. Each Benjolin has been augmented with an external audio input that can process sound from other instruments or line level sources from through a Ring Modulation circuit and the Benjolin’s resonant Low Pass Filter. The Behemoth also contains a clock divider and a boolean logic circuit, which can be used to produce interesting rhythmic divisions from the clock of one Benjolin to control the others.
The Behemoth Benjolin has been produced in a limited edition of ten instruments, of which only one remains available for February 2026 delivery. The cost is EUR 2500 plus shipping. DM or email [email protected] for more information.
Benjolin circuit by #robhordijk
Licensed with kind permission of @biyiblip
#analogsynth #analogsynthesizer #dronemusic #noise #noisemusic #handmadelectronicmusic #benjolin #rungler #ringmodulator #notmadewithai
I recently found a few online auction listings for art by my father Steve Holzer (1950-2014). They were made in the 1980’s, and represent parts of my own adolescent as well. The first two images are from the “Shapes of Love” lithograph series (edition of 60 each), made in 1989 at Hand Graphics Studio in Santa Fe New Mexico. Babygoth me was horrified by the bright colors! The next six images are glass plate monoprints from the mid-80s. The small rolling press used for these was in Dad’s studio on Cerro Gordo Road, and I made plenty of smeared-ink-and-thumbprint masterpieces of my own on it when I visited one summer. The final image is a lithograph I am unfamiliar with, also made at Hand Graphics in the 80s. Much of Dad’s artwork from this period burned up in a storage building fire. Sadly, they did not fetch much on the auction block, but it’s nice to see them out in the world. #lithograph #lithography #handgraphics #steveholzer #santafeartist #santafeartists
Last week I discovered that my right to stay in the EU, my permission to work, the unemployment insurance I had planned to use to find my next job, my access to medical care and the meds I take, my ability to legally rent a flat and the person I thought cared about me had all disappeared. I have some challenging times ahead.
If you have ever considered buying one of the Benjolin synthesizers I build, this is the time. I am working on one big mega batch in the two months I have left in Sweden.
Apart from that, I have some second hand instruments for sale.
EDIT: Butterfly Benjolin prototype and Elektron Analog Rytm both SOLD. Still taking Benjolin orders, Elektron Analog Four and 1010 Blackbox still available.
Please write [email protected] for further info.
Vectrex light drawings created with analog sound synthesizer circuitry. At some point I would love to do a small book of these. Watch this space!
#vectrex #vectorsynthesis #audiovisual #videosynth #videosynthesizer #videosynthesis #ruttetra #macumbista
This beautiful green Macumbista Instruments Ring Mod Benjolin was built for my PhD defense concert earlier this month, and is now available for immediate sale. €665 plus shipping (€40 EU/€50 non-EU). DM for further details.
Thank you so much to the performing artists Helena Linder @helenastndc LeonardLund @galileo_galilund Vincenzo Madaghiele @vincenzo_madaghiele Kelsey Cotton @kelseysingsthings Henrik Frisk @frisk.h Yann Seznec @yann.seznec and Margaret Schedel @margaretschedel , to technictrix ValerieMol @eurodyke and the volunteers at @fylkingen.se , to the wonderfully diverse audience who joined us, to Jenny Soep @jennysoep for her amazing live drawings and to Marietta Radomska @mplateau for the photos at the Paradoxical Potentials concerts last night. This event came hot on the heels of my successful PhD defense at KTH on June 5th with opponent Sally Jane Norman and committee Kristina Andersen @littlegreyvan James Mooney and Margaret Schedel. It feels good but also very exhausted to finally be a doctor.
