● SIGNAL 15 / TERMINATE / GRACEFUL
Modular control,
transmitted by rotary dial.
sigterm is a small electronics studio working at the intersection of the modernist and the misfit. The megaphone project, where phonepunk meets cyberpunk is a 5HP Eurorack module paired with a salvaged BT rotary telephone. Behind it lies a monument to embedded firmware, signal processing, and a completely different pace of musical creativity.
// 01 — the module
A vintage telephone, treated as a controller.
The megaphone module reads dial pulses, cradle state and bell drive from a 1960s BT rotary phone and translates them into clean modular signals. The phone keeps its dignity. The rack gets a new dialect.
Every unit is hand-built in small runs. Each phone in the family is restored, re-numbered and paired with its own megaphone — a one-to-one relationship between the antique and the apparatus.
// 02 — the family
Six positions. Five filled. One waiting.
Each phone in the megaphone family is a one-off — restored, named and paired with its own module. They aren't products. They're entries on a register.
The sixth position is, for now, a vacancy. If a phone finds its way to us with the right character, it will be admitted.
// 03 — about
sigterm is a place for reflow and gerbers — a blunt instrument with a refined touch.
New, unapologetic explorations in embedded systems, electronics, software and control. Hosted in the Hut-181 studio, where analogue synthesisers meet acoustic pianos.
The megaphone project is the front of the shop. The work behind it is harder to summarise — and is shared, when it is shared, by enquiry and partnership.