Peter B "Misophonia" Bio

Peter B is webmaster of ciat-lonbarde.net, where he develops analog synthesizer products, such as "Sidrazzi Organ", "Tetrax Organ", "Plumbutter", and "Cocoquantus". Other activities at ciat-lonbarde.net include paper circuits, free synthesizer designs for various noise/chaotic touch sensitive interfaces. Peter B has conducted workshops in Berlin, Providence, Vancouver, California, Montreal, DC, and Manchester. During a typical workshop, synthesizers are built, either from paper or kitted form. If the synthesizer is installation oriented, such as the "Deerhorn", participants and Peter B then realize it vis a vis the architectural space of the workshop. If the synthesizer is performance oriented, such as "Mr. Grassi" or "Sidrazzi Organ", then there is an ensemble to end the workshop. However, most of Peter B's life form is spent soldering. He is also webmaster of shbobo.net, which produces the new "Shnth", a "squish synthesizer" that uses computer music to emulate the processes of the analog synthesizers.

Peter B, drawn by Angela Guyton

Peter B has misophonia, a psychological condition wherein he reacts uncontrollably to small, human sounds. A typical meal with Peter B will find him agitated and perhaps angry, because he is exposed to chewing sounds, tupperware sounds, or bowl clinking. This condition leaves him stranded in most social situations, a captive of his own anger, who must seek the quiet dark closet at these most important moments. The upside of it, however, is its usefulness to the craft of synthesizer debugging, as it leaves him more attentive to the subtle variations of timbre and distortion and the mechanisms they imply. Misophonia is a rage directed at other people, but it is rare to feel rage at the sounds of a machine, an animal, or a child, whose sounds are "innocent". The trigger is an intimation of habit, gluttony, sin, or perhaps self ignorance, behind another adult's small sounds, and how these sounds are performed in public. Like gum chewing but with every sound it is examined and found faulty in the misophonists mind.

So you can see there are two faces to Peter B; the visionary, looking out through clear and broad glasses; and there is the criticizing, myopic, fearful of sound, looking sallow and spectre like through thick coke bottle spectacles.