Elektronengehirn audiovisual concert Hardware 13. February 2026 as part of Block 4 dialogues I at Toinen Kerros / Äänen Lumo, Helsinki (FI) https://block4.com/dialogues1.php
Malte Steiner initiated Elektronengehirn in 1996 as an experiment to create music exclusively using software-based sound synthesis. The name Elektronengehirn is an old German term from the 1960s for computers, which were then referred to as electronic brains. What sounds trivial today was, back then, a pretty radical idea, especially when one lacked access to the computational resources of institutions like universities. Computer sound synthesis for the masses was in its infancy, and not much was possible in real time. Meanwhile, Block 4 studio added more and more hardware over the years, like the ever-growing Eurorack Modular system since 2002. The album Hardware from 2024 breaks with the initial Elektronengehirn concept and features tracks which are also done with Eurorack modular synthesizer and custom electronic instruments that Steiner has been developing since 2022. During the concert pieces from the album are performed live on computer and DIY modular synthesizer. The Linux computer runs Pure Data for the audio and a custom software created with the game engine Godot for visuals.
