I came across Eliad Wagner’s solo set at the Goethe-Institut Boston, recorded on January 16, 2026 and presented by Non-Event, and fell into the research hole.
Wagner is an Israeli-born composer and performer based in Berlin (b. 1979), and heads the Electronic Music Production and Performance degree at the Catalyst Institute. He studied physics at Hebrew University, then composition of electronic music at HKU Utrecht. That path tracks with how he talks about his work: autonomous processes, feedback patches, and “manual interference in automatic sound.”
He also coined Infinite Coastlines, a composition framework for the modular synthesizer, born from the instrument’s refusal to be notated or recreated.
The system
His setup is mostly Eurorack, with Serge modules — SSG, DUSG, and Triple Waveshaper — added around 2019, plus spring reverb tanks. In his own words, the Serge has been exceptionally valuable for sound design, playability, and movement. Live setups have also included a ribbon analogue synth and a seven-channel feedback delay.
The C15 release, C15 (Falt, 2022), collects three feedback and cybernetic-patch recordings made during the 2020 lockdown. It is name-your-price on Bandcamp.
The Boston set
The Boston video is about 39 minutes: one uninterrupted solo set. At 21:40, he is deep in the middle of the performance. There is no setlist or chapter list, so I cannot name the patch, but I hear it through the lens of his Modulisme sessions: “stereo music for synthesizer and springs,” and Seeds.
This is his feedback-system territory — crackling VCAs, resonating filters, and slope detectors behaving like living things.
Why I am keeping an eye on this
The Serge feedback and cybernetic angle is exactly the mild-cybernetics territory I have been curious about. Wagner is one to watch — literally, and for patch ideas.