Quintron Takes Over the New Orleans Museum of Art

New Orleans-based Quintron is no stranger to making a scene. The avant-garde musician constantly turns heads with his Drum Buddy, a hand-built, light-activated analog synthesizer that is "played like a turntable" and creates otherworldly electric sounds. Although Quintron and his Buddy usually amaze crowds around the world, the often jet-setting performer has decided to stick around his hometown for awhile: On Jan. 29 (today), Quintron and his lover/partner/housemate Miss Pussycat will be taking up residency at the New Orleans Museum of Art until May 2. While Miss Pussycat premieres a new installment of her live-action puppet soap opera, Trixie and The Treetrunks, Quintron will be turning the gallery space into a public recording studio.

FILTER recently caught up with Quintron and Miss Pussycat to discuss the details of their installation. Here, Quintron describes how his exhibit is performance art without it being a complete performance, per se:

"I want people to feel free to talk, but make it clear I'm not there to entertain anyone, or show anybody how the Drum Buddy works. It will be as though I'm a blacksmith in colonial Williamsburg: I'll be going about my work, on view, and not looking for any type of interaction. If it happens, it happens, but my intent won't be to make beautiful music at every single moment ... I might just work on beats for the first two weeks. I can't wait."

Read more about Quintron, his Drum Buddy, and Miss Pussycat's puppeteering in the latest issue of FILTER, which hits newsstands on March 5.