Mads Emil Nielsen is a composer based in Copenhagen. He works with basic sound sources such as sine waves and noise, which he often combines with short percussive and orchestral samples, and an amplification of the surprises and errors produced by the machines he uses. He recently founded the artistic platform Arbitrary. Nielsen has performed at Wundergrund Festival and - as support for Future 3 - in DR Koncerthuset Studie 2 (Cph. 2014), and contributed to various theatre / film productions and exhibitions, including the Notations 21 Project in the US and Europe. 

Shades of Grain is an audiovisual performance using cnc machined phonograph records and high contrast monochrome projections. Grinding drone and noise soundscapes meet grainy black and white visuals. The first attempt on realizing self cut drone plates was in 2010 during a workshop. Together with the participants we modified, cut and distorted cardboard blanks to get out weird loops and noise patterns. That worked out really well and was triggering us to follow it up ever since.
 Together with our friends from Berlin-based motion designers Pfadfinderei we created an audiovisual performance out of it. Heavy and loud dronescapes collide with high contrast grainy backdrop visuals.

SHADES OF GRAIN from Pfadfinderei on Vimeo.