This is a rather long post (with no pictures!), but I wanted to show you what happened in 2019 with your support and what are the plans for 2020. Please read on and see at the end what lies ahead for 2020...

January

FM+1 Mystery Event was the first concert I organized with my colleague Phuturo. This was quite a success. Marrying modular synthesizers with shibari, brought an interesting mix, for the performers as well as the spectators. We had a full house. Jason, the manager of the Armory Club and all the staff were awesome and very supportive. Guest performers: Particle Fields, Jack Hammer XL, Riven Reverie

February

I performed live a piece during KZSU day of Noise 2019 (17th edition). KZSU is the student radio station at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, and every year they invite performers for a 24 hours extravaganza of noise. Each performer has a time slot of 30 min or 1 hour. I sampled Caltrain arriving in station and used it to compose a piece on my modular Synthesizer. This was broadcasted live on the radio and on YouTube and It is the first performance on this video.

As we speak radio, several tracks were broadcasted on the following radios:

March

"Franck Martin's innovative entry video for NPR Tiny Desk Contest was filmed near the Golden Gate bridge in San Francisco using a 360 camera (view this video on YouTube for the full effect). His choice of instrument is just as creative: a portable modular synth. The sounds of the water crashing on the shore add to the improvisational nature of Martin's piece. Just like the tourists walking by in the video, we were stopped in our tracks watching this entry." - Clara Maurer

April

The album "Elements" was released. I performed live and recorded four pieces made on modular synthesizers following the same theme. It was done across multiple events, notably at the electronic open mic Resonant Frequencies in Oakland, California. The album was mastered by Nathan Moody of Obsidian Sound.

Asheville, North Carolina concert. Just after Moogfest I went to perform in Asheville, the town of Moog Music Inc and Make Noise. It was at the local 604 bottle shop, which welcomes many Synth and Modular Synth performers. It is run by Kri Samadhi and Jamie Howton. Illumination Station was the first part and this concert was sponsored by Dr Steve (whom I met at Moogfest a few years earlier). I had just made the Spectravox at Moogfest and used it for this piece. It may have been the first performance with this instrument, world wide! I also had a DFAM in my modular synthesizer case that I built at Moogfest a few years earlier. I remember, after the performance, the kind words from Steve Dunnington, the creator of both instruments, who liked how I used the DFAM in this piece.

June

FM+1 Mystery Event was on again. We performed to a full house and it was a great evening. I co-organized it with Phuturo and guests performers were Distortion Corporation, Jack Hammer XL, BunnyRamone. Thanks again to the management and staff of the Armory Club for being awesome.

I was interviewed by KZZL for North Beats podcast. We talked about the local music industry and about all the hard work that go behind the scene to make your music known.

August

Quadraphonic performance followed by a master class at Music Landria in Sacramento, CA. I began to explore quadraphonic sound on my modular synthesizer and created a piece to perform in quadraphonic sound at Music Landria, a free synthesizer library. The performance was posted on Youtube as a 360 video with ambisonic sound followed by the Master Class where I answered questions from the audience.

I created a piece for Data Cult Audio podcast. I was performer 0122. With one performer every week, this podcast has been running for the last 2 years, and has many modular synthesizer performers. A great place to discover artists and a really awesome podcast.

I wrote an article for MerciSF about the Electronic Music Scene in San Francisco. It is a great article to figure out what to attend in San Francisco to discover new artists and to learn more about where synthesizers really come from.

September

I produced a track for my Bandcamp Community called "Tomale" and released it. I was noodling on the piano at the end of the jetty in Tomale Bay, California, and once home, for fun, I built a dance track based on the musical line I was noodling.

October

I was invited by Peff for a private concert in an awesome "western style" barn close to Santa Cruz, California. I developed a quadraphonic piece, which was the start of a patch that I used to develop my next album. There are only pictures of this event on my Instagram.There were many perfomers, it was a great evening, concluded by a quadraphonic performance by Peff on his Buchla with visuals by Dirty Bill.

For my Birthday, I went to Lake Tahoe, California, and recorded 4 quadraphonic tracks for my upcoming album "Symphoney". There is a preview of 2 ambipanned tracks for my Bandcamp community. The goal is to release a DVD in 5.1 sound, so you can have the quadraphonic sound unaltered on your home theater.

November

The Spotify playlist I curate, passed 2,500 followers. It is a playlist to discover modular synthesizer performers. It has many genres and often the main point of entry to be discovered for many artists.

December

It is the time you get stats on your past year. Spotify informed me I had 19,400 unique listeners in 2019, an increase of 100%. The number of my Bandcamp followers (and community) also significantly increased and the number of people subscribed to my mailing list.

During 2019, I helped organize "Resident Monthly" a monthly electronic open mic event, hosted at The Laundry in San Francisco every 2nd Tuesday of the month at 8pm. I wrote a quick summary of the year, each event on YouTube and each artist.

What 's coming in 2020

FM+1 Mystery Event is on the 16th February, still co-organized with Phuturo and with guests: normalien, Jack Hammer XL, and more... I had many requests to do it again, so I know this is going to be great. If you can make it to the Armory Club in San Francisco, get your tickets.

I will perform a quadraphonic piece at Synthplex 2020 in Burbank CA in March 26-29. This is a major festival of modular synthesizer and electronic music on the US West Coast. I hope to see you there.

"Symphoney" will be released as a DVD in 5.1 sound, so you can get a quadraphonic experience on your home theater system.

There is more to come, a few projects I have in mind. I will keep you informed, but if you know any opportunities, please feel free to reach out, or if you want to tell me more about you, your projects for 2020, in any domain, I'm a good listener, and I really would like to hear from you.

Thanks for reading this far.