BioRoald van Dillewijn is a sound artist, creative coder, designer and lecturer from the Netherlands. Always aiming to work on a new view of designing sounds and let them interact in a fascinating way.
The tools to create sounds are found in creative software design and hacking and designing electronic instruments. The combination of hard and software leads to powerful tools for composition, live performance, interactive installation and sound design for several disciplines.
van Dillewijn is member of the international sound art collective
Soundlings, the band
The Void* as a duo performer with
Tapage (as
Tapage & Espoir),
Dianne Verdonk and Erik Uittenbogaard (as
Puin+Hoop). Next to these musical activities he lectures Creative Systems Design at the school of Music and Technology at the
University of the Arts Utrecht Sound artist
creative software designer - hardware hacker
Current ProjectsFanfare
You are strolling along a beach. Suddenly you hear a gloomy marching band play, right behind you. When you stop, they stop. As soon as you continue to walk, there they are again. Eagerly following you. Clingy. They will keep you company and play four new music compositions, one for each season.
The idea for this project is by
Evelien van den Broek the software for the mobile web app is by Roald van Dillewijn
More info at
www.fanfaresoundwalk.nlTactology Lab
Tactology Lab is a multiple-day structured programme that brings artists and creators together to explore new ways of (tactile) interaction with electronic arts. This lab is created by
Sounds Like Touch The programme enhances the exchange between local professional artists and designers in Utrecht. Collaborating on new tangible electronic ways of expression for a live performance context.
The results of our first Tactology Lab 1 - Exchange - were presented during the Gaudeamus Festival 2021 in Utrecht.
Participants of Lab 2: - Perform - performed live at the Rewire festival in April 2022 and at Barbarella in De Helling in October 2022
The labs are curated by Dianne Verdonk and Roald van Dillewijn
Afstand Nemen
Afstand Nemen (to take a distance) is a new iteration of the
Digilog project by Roald van Dillewijn. With Digilog, guitar pedals have been hacked, giving them digital control in addition to their analogue operation. This led to a wide range of new sonic possibilities. The aim of Digilog was to get the ultimate control over these pedals to serve as an instrument during live performances and studio recordings. Afstand Nemen literally takes distance from this ultimate control and let the pedals itself generate an algorithmic composition. Each pedal knows what the other pedals are doing and adapts its own sound accordingly, in order to create a diverse composition.
Digilog
Digilog is a project about getting ultimate control over hardware effects and instruments. By adding digital control to the existing analog parameters of guitar pedal, a whole new range of possibilities unfolds for these effects. A couple of newly added options are:
- presets
- jump from one knob position to an other
- sequencing parameters
- random values for parameters
- adding CV control
Every pedal that is modified contains a couple of chips to control the parameters. The original knobs kept intact, so the pedal can still be used stand alone.
All the modified pedals are controlled by a host computer: a Raspberry Pi. The parameters can be controlled via a web browser on a computer, tablet or phone. OSC and/or MIDI-control is also implemented.
More information about this project on
digilog.roaldvandillewijn.nlWMWM
WMWM is an audio visual installation which is the central point in a concert series. The built in audio system is a inverted 5.1 speaker setup which leads to a complete new view on spatial music.
On top of the audio system is a sphere with eleven rotating disks create fascinating moving moiré patterns in different colors. Each disk has its own pattern, giving each part of the room a complete different experience.
WMWM is fully digital controllable, so a composer can create his own audio-visual piece for this installation
WMWM is created in collaboration with
Tijs Ham and Boele Zwanenburg from
Het Uitvindersgilde and supported by the Creative Industries Fund
Tapage & Espoir
Tapage & Espoir is a duo formed by Tijs Ham and Roald van Dillewijn. Their music can be described as something between silend ambient and noisey drones. The creative process of their music is always guided by projects they're currently working on, so a lot of experiments are involved. In 2015 Tapage & Espoir released their debut cassette
Poetic Infomercial Experimentalism on Moving Furniture Records.
In 2019 they released the cassette
Bumblebee Amateurism on their own label Crossfade Tapes accompanied by solo releases by Tijs and Roald.
In 2023 they will release the vinyl album
Descended Hope on Ant. Zen.
The Void*
The Void* (pronounce as Void Pointers) is a three-man band consisting of Tijs Ham, Eric Magnée and Roald van Dillewijn. During their studies at Music & Technology they started to experiment a lot with self built instruments and software, this led to forming the Void* and a collaboration in several projects.
Their music is a quest to find sounds between very subtle soundscapes and growling post-rock.
In 2016 their debut LP Values was released by Lomechanic, Esc.Rec and Shipwrec on vinyl in an unique lasercut silkscreened sleeve. This release led to shows at the Rewire Festival, FAQ festival among others.
Solo Music
Next to The Void* and Tapage & Espoir, Roald is also active as a solo musician. Using his recent projects Digilog and Digilog Pedals he is able to dive deep in the textural possibilities of ambient and drone music. As a solo musician Roald played at STEIM, Modulation, De Besturing, De Perifeer, and Pow!.
In 2019 his debut cassette
Digging for Oscillation was released on Crossfade Tapes.
Digilog Pedals
Next to the process of hacking existing pedals to add extended control, the quest for finding new sounds leads to designing new analog and digital guitar pedals. The goal of this design process is to create pedals that make sounds that others don't and that's suitable for the experimental minded musicians, which leads to adventurous new music.
At this moment this project is at it's first prototyping and experimenting stage . There are two pedals that might be released in the coming year: a distortion and a comb filter. More on this very soon.
Mannes
The interactive artwork Mannes that will be located next to the new train station in Assen, The Netherlands, is a giant statue of a dog that will be covered in mist when it hears the sound of childerens voices. Next to that it will monitor the amount of visitors at the station and react to that as well. The technical part from detecting the visitors to control the mist valves is done by Roald. The algorithm to detect child voices is done by Tijs Ham. Mannes is designed by Nio Architects
DD-500 editor
The DD-500 editor is a web based editor for the DD-500 digital delay by Boss. It differs from the official editor made by Boss in a couple of ways. It is faster to edit one patch, you can change parameters on the fly without saving it to the pedal and you can control the editor via OSC or midi from other programs as Max/MSP, Ableton Live or Supercollider. The editor is available on
github as a free download.
Soundroots
Soundroots is a soundwalk through the three (historical) botanic gardens of Utrecht. During these walks the visitor was able to experience the connection between plants and the sounds they make. The walk was splitted in three parts:
- a theoratical pary about the sound of nature
- an explorative tour along interactive sound installations
- a final composition in the glass house of the historical botanic garden in the city centre
Each participant got the job to take care of a plant that was able to store all the sounds from the interactive installation. All these plants combined formed the final composition.
Songlines
During the soundwalk Songlines, commisioned by Klankenbos, the participants visit various sound installations that refer to the Aboriginal animist view on nature. In the Dreamtime all things were created and Songlines refer to the paths that the ancestors took during that time. By singing these songs you can connect to the nature.
The installations and performances made for Songlines guided the visitors to a connection between sound and nature.
Macbeth
For the play Macbeth by Dutch largest repertory company Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Roald designed the sounds that accompanied the compositions by Warre Simons. The focus in the sound design was to voice the fear and paranoia that emerges in the play. As many animals pass during the play, all the sounds where based on animal sounds.
The Fountainhead
In the final act of the play The Fountainhead by Toneelgroep Amsterdam, the actors take over the music with a gesture controlled performance. The sensors to meassure these gestures are infra red distance sensor that are processed by a microcontroller and send to Logic Pro.