Coppice was founded by Noé Cuéllar and Joseph Kramer in Chicago in 2009, as an inquiry into the capture and generation of music and its relationship to its physical sources.

Its compound studies include Bellows & Electronics (prepared pump organs, shruti boxes, and tape processors) between 2009–2014, and Physical Modeling & Modular Syntheses between 2014–2018; focusing on the interactions between direct and reproduced sound, and the perceptual links between original and emulated sources, respectively.

Its third study in Phonography & Fiction (in progress since 2018) scrutinizes the dynamics between its previous two studies, and their relationship to architecture and time: the acoustic preservation and obsolescence of the Yerkes Observatory’s refractor and reflector telescopes in Williams Bay being the locus of investigation.

With sustained interest in sound’s capacity to cross domains, Coppice crafts pathways between music and technology in a cross-disciplinary language, resulting in work that is an overarching documentation of experimental music in-formation. Operating in cycles of instrument construction and modification, recordings, and live presentations, its productions incorporate sound design, sculpture, installation, software, images, and video.

Modified Boombox IV

Functions in the same way as Modified Boomboxes I-III.

Traumatic circuit board amputations made it possible to rehouse the original tape machine and allow it to be set in record mode while simultaneously functioning in play mode. The addition of external jacks, knobs and switches allow for more flexible routing of signal into and out of the device. There is an internal microphone and external speakers can be connected directly.

Present in:

Compound Form

Origin: Modified and re-designed by Joseph Kramer
Year: cir. 2012-2014