Superbooth: Modular synth wonder

When I first fell in love with synthesiser music, I had no idea what a 'modular' synth was. The ones I saw - on 'Top of the Pops' - were ones that looked like piano keyboards augmented by lots of exciting knobs and sliders.

Maybe the first modular synth I ever saw was on the cover of Wendy Carlos's seminal 'Switched on Bach', but I very much doubt that I had any idea what it was.

At some point over the last forty years, though, I have come to at least grasp an understanding of the theory, even if the real thing remains a daunting (and expensive) prospect.

My companion for today's SuperBooth expo, though, is an all round expert. In the mid-eighties, John and I were in a band together, where I sang (not that well) and he played synthesiser (very well). These days, he has a modular synth rig, which I would imagine will continue to grow and grow. That is the way of these things.

Today, we met up at Wuhlheide station, and then walked across to FEZ Berlin, which was where the Superbooth exhibition was being held. It was a beautiful sunny day, which made for a very pleasant stroll along the path through the woods, accompanied by the surprisingly broad demographic that is Modular Synth Lovers.

The venue itself turned out to be ideal, with the multitude of stands housed either indoors or in tents, but food and performances outdoors. Having obtained our wristbands, we sat by the large pond and enjoyed a coffee in the sunshine before immersing ourselves into the multitude of stands.

Much like the Minx, John has no reservations about diving into conversation with complete strangers, and he happily chatted to the people manning the stalls, while I mooched about, occasionally putting on some headphones and messing about with one of the huge variety of synths.

Over the course of the day, we also watched some of the performances along with a beer, and generally enjoyed ourselves and the super friendly vibe of the whole endeavour.

Amazingly, we were there for over six hours, but then it was time for John to take a taxi to the airport and for me to catch the train back to Hackescher Markt station, where I met the Minx for a couple of drinks and a trip to our favourite kebap shop, Mustafa Demir's Gemüse Kebap. Would heartily recommend.

Post Script. I should probably make clear that the people in my second Extra are playing not with modular synths, but with the extraordinary kit made by Soma. I'm fortunate enough to own a Lyra 8 (a present from the Minx), and I'm not at all surprised that an exception was made to give them a stall at Superbooth!