RIP Pierre Henry

Musique Concrete and clectonic music pioneer Pierre Henry has passed away at the age of 89. You can find a number of posts featuring his influence here on MATRIXSYNTH. Below is a tribute from Polynominaldotcom and The Art of Sounds documentary featuring Pierre Henry.

via @moogmusicinc

"The life in my sounds is an echo of the life within me."

Pictured: Pierre Henry in January 2008 (via wikipedia).



RIP Pierre Henry : tribute to electro pioneer musician (l'apocalypse de Jean) Published on Jul 6, 2017 Polynominaldotcom

"A modest tribute to a great musician, pioneer of the musique concrète genre. A true visionary man, 50 years ahead of its time.
Repose en paix."

The Art of Sounds (2007) - Pierre Henry

Published on Jan 18, 2013 mekonin

"Directors: Éric Darmon & Franck Mallet
Year: 2007
Time: 52 mins
Music: Pierre Henry

Veteran and co-inventor of Musique Concrète, Pierre Henry invites us for a short walk through his long career, his music, his concerts, his film-collaborations, and his home. An unique personality who fathered some of the most important developments in the music of the 20th century, remaining faithful to his vision and work till today."

"Poetry at the core of arts" with a Dedication to Pierre Henry by Marc-Henri Arfeux & the Access Virus

Many of you will be familiar with the Access Virus compositions by Marc-Henri from previous RADIOKLOW posts. Marc-Henri bridges the gap between electronic music and other forms of art. His most recent work is a poem in tribute to Pierre Henry accompanied by the Access Virus. The tribute is hosted on La poésie au cœur des arts : le Blogart which translates to "Poetry at the core of arts". Click through and click on the Access Virus image to get to the piece.

via Marc-Henri:

"This site called 'Poetry at the core of arts' is the net the extension of a book of the same title, an anthology of poetry published by the french publisher : Editions Bruno Doucey. The book contains a poem I wrote about electronic music. The site was conceived to developp an exploration for some of the poets and artists of the book. I am one of them for, poetry , music and painting.

You will find the poem I wrote for the book, three pieces of music composed in january 2014, four poems by other authors of the anthology, three improvisations performed in early february 2014, a former composition called De Haute Vallée you have seen in the form a video in late 2012, an interview in french and some photographs taken at my flat when I was interviewed."

The following is Marc-Henri's poem translated into English:

"Orpheus veil"

Fly down into Orpheus ear,
Where roll clockworks
Of the forbidden stars
And voices shreds seeking vision.

Listen at the well of walls
Echoes of illuminated faces
In their bronze palaces.

Pavings, folds of roses,
The naked heels
Playing the freshness game
With embers
And the childhood kisses.

Travelling back to horizon,
In the limestone of nights,
Is now the prophecy of the spices,
With its tissue gifted with red
And the sobbings of an initiation.

Marc-Henri Arfeux - 2013

----------

Update: the following an English translation of the interview with Marc-Henri Arfeux on "Poetry at the core of arts". It is a fascinating read and reminds me of why I initially got into synths. My first synth was a brand new Oberheim Matrix-6 back in 1986. When I first started exploring the Matrix-6 I had no idea what the parameters did, so I just dived in. For me it was an exploration of sound for the sake of sound and a fascination in creating musical instruments never heard before. The focus was on that exploration rather than the attempt to mimic real world instruments. Much of this spirit is covered in the world of musique concrete and is captured in the interview below. Do not miss the part on the short wave radio. Truly fascinating and an inspiration for sonic exploration.

CLICK FOR MORE »

grotbags/pierre henry

Published on Jul 7, 2017 Ned Rush

"remembering grotbags and pierre henry with an experimental modular jam. 4ms, make noise, mutable instruments, ladic."

RIP Pierre Henry

Pierre Henry documentary - The Art of Sounds

YouTube Uploaded by straypixel on Mar 19, 2011

"Experimental French composer Pierre Henry, one of the pioneers of musique concrète, is the subject of this documentary that traces his development of a new sound that shocked the music world. During the 1950s, the radical innovator and his colleague Pierre Schaeffer created a unique form of music based on electronically modified environmental noises.

Director: Eric Darmon"

Pierre Henry "Psyché Rock"

YouTube via nightwatch01.

"from the album "Variation" 2000, originally from 1967 (my year of birth). Hope you like it."
Previous posts on Pierre Henry including some of the instruments he probably used in this recording."

Pierre Henry on Chroniques de la Mao

Click the image for a bigger shot. That is one interesting piece of equipment. Title link takes you to the post on Chroniques de la Mao, translated to English here. You can find more on Pierre Henry on Wikipedia (translated).

Cliff Martinez Playing the Crystal Baschet

Published on May 30, 2012 zunkfloop

via wikipedia

"The 'Cristal Baschet' is a novel acoustical music instrument of a type of friction idiophones. Vibration as an element is used to produce musical tones by means of friction. These vibrating elements are metal rods embedded onto a heavy plate. The pitch of the sound tone is determined by the rod's length and weight position at the equilibrium point. The vibration is caused when an attached glass rod is gently stroked with wet fingers...

The Cristal Baschet was developed around the same time as musique concrète (Avant-Garde musical style introduced by Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry), Electro-Acoustic music and early Moog synthesizers. The Cristal Baschet produces music similar in style with these other musical forms, but it's completely acoustic without the involvement of an electric amplifying-device."

Bleep's Guide to Electronic Music

This one in via Scott, via Bleep: "Bleep's guide to Electronic Music is a 55 track compilation charting the historical emergence of electronic music by looking at landmark tracks from the 1930s up to present day.

Our aim with this selection of music is to show the length and breadth of the medium, providing a snapshot of the genres forms and styles, and the development of the artform. Whilst there are omissions and compromises that we have had to make, we hope that we achieve our aims and we do some justice to the variety of music that we love.

This compilation developed out of a project to create a Facebook timeline charting the development of electronic music from the late 19th Century until now."

For reference check out 120 Years of Electronic Music

The collection begins with Olivier Messiaen's Oraison from 1937 performed on Ondes Martenot & Theremin (you can find the original full track previously posted here and a beautiful cover on Buchla 200e and Haken Continuum from the late Richard Lainhart here):

"Originally composed by Olivier Messiaen, this beautiful and contemplative piece of music is a monumental moment in electronic music. Argued to be the first piece of purely electronic music written expressly for live performance on the Ondes Martenot, an instrument closely related to the Theremin."

The collection ends with James Blake's CMYK"

"At just 21 years old, London producer, James Blake releases on newly relaunched R&S Records.

At its core 'CMYK' is forged from a myriad of 90's R&B samples (Aaliyah, Kelis) their voices mangled, barely recognisable and thrown into a red-eyed fire of DSP and hours spent in the waveforms."

The full track listing:

CLICK FOR MORE »

RIP Bernard Parmegiani - Electronic & Acoustic Composer

Marc-Henri (aka RADIOKLOW) wrote in to let me know electronic acoustic composer Bernard Parmegiani has passed away at the age of 86.  He was mentioned here on MATRIXSYNTH a few times in the past.

The above image is from conceptoradio where you'll find a feature on him in Spanish. The following is some of the text translated to Googlish:

"Editions Mego is refocusing on the work of Bernard Parmegiani under his Recollection GRM series. reissued it "De Natura Sonorum" album first published in 1975 and probably one of the most important works of the French composer. This work consists of twelve movements, constituted in two series of six, combining analogue sounds with electronics, and is a true reflection of his studies at the Research Group Concrete Music (GRM) of Pierre Schaeffer. This work was also inspired by artists such as Aphex Twin or Autechre, since, as well quote the press release, 'has indelibly marked the classical period of electroacoustic music.'"

Bernard Parmegiani: De Natura Sonorum (1975)

Published on Jun 3, 2012 TheWelleszTheatre·1,789 videos

"Bernard Parmegiani (*1927): De Natura Sonorum (1975).
Création 3 Juin 1975, Paris.
Dédié a Michel Descombey et au Ballet Indépendiente de Mexico."

You can find a bio on Wikipedia here.

via Marc-Henri: "By a strange mystery of time, the INA-GRM has just released a few days ago a new version of his most important works in CD. Bernard Parmegiani was not so famous as Pierre Henry (still living and now around 85 years) but of the same artistic level in a very different style."

Parmegiani: "La Création du Monde" (Complete)

Published on Aug 29, 2012 NewMusicXX·836 videos

"Bernard Parmegiani: 'La Création du Monde' (1982-84) (Complete)
Lumière Noire (Black Light), Métamorphose du vide (Metamorphosis of the Void), Signe de vie (Sign of Life)

I have received many requests to post this work in its complete form, so here it is."

Salvatore Martirano on Chroniques de la Mao

Click here for a post on Salvatore Martirano on Chroniques de la Mao. "I have just put on my blog an astonishing machine of Salvatore Martirano - American composer born on January 12, 1927 in Yonkers, New York, dead on November 17, 1995 - which I had taken in photograph in 1981 at the time of the international festival of Electronic Music, Video and Computer Art" The post includes an mp3 link, more shots and a link to The SAL-MAR Construction. Fascinating stuff. BTW, you might recognize the SAL-MAR Construction from this post.

Update via deb7680:

"Thanks Matrix. Attention, the MP3 is not Salvatore Martirano but duet HplanK with synths (RSF and Ems Synthi Aks), guitar and computers (Apple II and first IBM PC) which I created in 1981. I evoked Hplank because it is the festival of the Plan K in Brussels which gave me the idea of the name of HplanK.
For the meetings, since 1971, I work in the arts centres and as a critic musical in the newspapers. It is my work. I was likely to meet a great number of composers, Pierre Boulez, Xénakis, Pierre Henry Morton Subotnick, musicians like John Mc Laughlin, David Murray, Soft Machine, Cure, Jean-Luc Ponty, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, etc...
See this : http://www.deb7680.com/documentation/pierrehenry.pdf"

BTW, if you haven't already, check out Chroniques de la Mao for a lot more on these subjects.

Electronic Musician Spotlights

Title link takes you to Electronic Musician's Spotlights page. EM Spotlights are articles on featured people. There's a bit of synth content worth checking out including analog conent on Steve Roach and Wendy Carlos. Via Peter Grenader of Buzzclick Music on AH.


The list includes:

Steve Roach
Wendy Carlos
Negativland
Malcolm Burn (String Cheese Incident)
Yoko Ono
Pierre Shaeffer & Pierre Henry - pioneers in sampling
Toby Marks (Banco de Gaia)
Tim Pagnotta
Roger McGuinn
Laurie Anderson
John Cage
Phillip Glass

Peter Grenader • Je Suis Anonyme

Published on Feb 17, 2014 Peter Grenader·23 videos

"From the album Secret Life, available on iTunes or CD Baby through Coda Recordings (link below).

Je Suis Anonyme (I Am Anonymous) is an A-B-Aprime-Coda arranged as a canon in both a micro and macro sense, meaning the construction of each gesture and the relation of one gesture to another. The process parallels elasticity and soft focus - stretching phrases to maximum duration while keeping elements loosely synced. The entry phrase was recorded in the late Summer of 2009. The work was completed during a three week period in September of 2010. It is distantly familiar to a work I did many years ago entitled "The St. Mathew's Passion, Part 2" (a lot of nerve there)!.

I approached Je Suis Anonyme with a rather empty conceptual pallet. This was by intention. Instead I relied more on noesis, something I became aware of while an art director where the distinct impression was that much of the creation was coming from the unconscious. Allow the piece uncover itself, continue until it tells you it's completed. In print art this manifests as carving an image out of a blank white page. In sound art that relates to silence and attested to synesthesia [1] - the visualization of colors, in this instance cobalt blue hues. Eastern culture defines this as Svadhisthana or The Sacral Chakra. There are other accounts of this phenomena in relation to music by Bela Bartok, Pierre Henry, Oliver Messiaen, Hanspeter Kyburz, Judy Collins and Robert Fripp [2].

JSA didn't begin as a dedication though through it's process it became evident it was a release of sorts to my mother, Harriet Avra Grenader. A final goodbye - something that's been long brewing. By sheer coincidence it was completed in the late evening on September 12th, the eve of her birthday.

TECHNICAL NOTES:

Most of the timbres in JSA were built utilizing source material recorded from the Plan B Model 30 Digital VCO Subsystem prototype in the Spring of 2009. Additional base reinforcement was added using a standard Plan B Model 15 VCO.

While the motifs in JSA may appear to have been generated in a single pass, they are actually the result of many layers of soundfiles. While the melodic progressions were scored utilizing a polyphonic instrument as a reference, governed by the monophonic attributes of the Model 30 the translation of this information involved multitracking. In instances where the required tonal information was not available in the original source material, Amazing Slow Downer was incorporated to generate those frequencies.


REFERENCE:

[2] Robert Fripp - 'Creativity: Finding The Source' (quote used through permission of the author): "Most musicians have experienced those moments of inspiration when magic seems to flow, when every note seems effortlessly right - but such moments are rare and their fleeting existence seems governed by capricious forces beyond our control. Is there any way to bring us into more consistent and productive contact with our Muse?

[1] Color Synesthesia: a phenomena in which voice, music, or assorted environmental sounds can trigger color manifestations which fade when the sound stimulus ends [3]. Until recently, synesthesia was believed to be rather uncommon, effecting only 1 out of 2000 individuals. Later studies indicate this percentage more towards 100 out of 2000 individuals and in some cases paralled to psychic perception in those tested. Although perception is often personalized (composers Liszt and Rimsky-Korsakov famously disagreed on the colors of music keys) sonic variation often affect the perceived hue, brightness, scintillation, and directional movement. In relation to amplitude: loud tones appear brighter than softer tones; in relation to frequency: lower tones are darker than higher tones; in relaiton to timbre: complex timbres appear brighter than purer tones. For some, the stimulus type is limited (music only, or even just a specific musical key); for others, a wide variety of sounds triggers synesthesia.

[3] Cytowic, Richard E; Eagelman, David M (2009). Wednesday is Indigo Blue: Discovering the Brain of Synesthesia (with an afterword by Dmitri Nabokov). Cambridge: MIT Press. pp. 309. ISBN 0-262-01279-9.

PERFORMANCE NOTES:

Je Suis Anonyme received its world premier at the Los Angeles Sonic Odyssey in Pasadena CA in November 2013

Available as a high resolution FLAC download on CD Baby at:

https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/petergrenader"

MOOG Demo Record

Update: see this post for the audio.
via this auction
"Ultra-rare private pressing, the first promotional recording produced by Moog, given out to prospective customers to demonstrate the capabilities of their amazing products. Both sides are identical and contain a wonderful montage of Moog-sourced sound effects and short original compositions created especially for this record by Wendy Carlos, ranging widely from experimental to classical to pop to ambient soundscapes and a real treat for collectors of her work. It is narrated by Ed Stokes who explains the different types of waves and filters available, the basics of sound synthesis, and Moog innovations like voltage control. This extremely hard to find record is an awesome artifact of early electronic music history and a gem for Moog
and Wendy Carlos fans.

Wendy Carlos studied under Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center, worked with Robert Moog to develop and popularize the synthesizer and pioneer its performance techniques, and scored films for Stanley Kubrick and Disney. Some additional points of reference for this synth demo record: Jean-Michel Jarre, Paul Beaver, Bernie Krause, Stereolab, Aphex Twin, Autechre, Mu-Ziq, Matmos, Dick Hyman, Raymond Scott, Bruce Haack, Pierre Henry, Tomita, Vangelis, Jean-Jacques Perrey, Gershon Kingsley, Tom Dissevelt, Ondioline, Theremin, Clara Rockmore, Arp, Donald Buchla, Chappell Recorded Music Library, De Wolfe, Montparnasse 2000, Patchwork, Piero Umiliani, Roger Roger, Cecil Leuter, DJ Premier, DJ Shadow, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Oskar Sala, trautonium, Morton Subotnick, John Eaton, Donald Erb, Bernard Parmegiani, Mort Garson..."

Voice Ping Strum by Michael William Gilbert, Electronic Music Composer

"On the 40th​ anniversary of the release of 'Moving Pictures' and in commemoration, MWGilbert has a new release, exclusively on vinyl. The title, '​Voice Ping Strum​' is an anagram of 'Moving Pictures'. This new album was composed using a Eurorack modular synthesizer; especially noteworthy in his rig is the full range of Tall Dog Electronics Eurorack modules, which feature prominently on the recording. The only other sound sources used were sampled piano & sampled voices. There are 2 suites, 1 on each side. These have been described as more intricate than ambient, and more ambient than not!

Available from Burning Shed Records and Perfect Circuit

MW Gilbert has been composing and recording actively from the 1970's through the present. In 1979 he released his 1​st LP, 'Moving Pictures', with the goal of humanizing electronic music, using wooden flutes, percussion, and voice to complement synthesized sounds and textures. After 7 more albums, in 2018 he released 'Radio Omnibus', with cutting edge electronic music, two acoustic chamber pieces, and featuring Adam Holzman (Miles Davis, Steven Wilson) and Mark Walker (Oregon, Lyle Mays).

MW Gilbert grew up in the US and Belgium. While living in Europe he encountered the music of Varese, Stockhausen, and Pierre Henry, as well as the music of India, Africa, and Japan. After studying electrical engineering at MIT, he continued studies at the Boston School of Electronic Music, and became a teacher there. He graduated with a degree in music from Hampshire College, and then served as the technical director of electronic music studios at Amherst College, Smith College, Hampshire College, and UMass Amherst. He has taught electronic music at Hampshire College, UMass Amherst, & Holyoke Community College.

http://www.mwgilbert.com
mwg@mwgilbert.com"

Happy New Year from MATRIXSYNTH! A Quick Look Back at 2017

Happy New Year everyone!

We have to keep this one short as the festivities are about to begin of course.

I just wanted to wish everyone a happy 2018! Keep strong and remember you are never alone. At least not as long as MATRIXSYNTH is around! :) I hope this site provides an escape for everyone. Remember to take time out to play your gear!

As for gear... In 2017 we saw a total of 764 new products featured on the site along with 119 new makers on the scene. We also saw 29 vintage products never featured on the site before. The following is the break down (you can click on each to bring up the posts in reverse order. Note only 20 posts per page will load so don't worry about overwhelming your browser):

14 New Cases
28 New Controllers
106 New DIY projects
119 New Makers
63 New Mobile Apps
343 New Modules
80 New Soft Synths
40 New Sound Machines
9 New Sound Packs
32 New Synth Effects
106 New Synths
47 New Tools
29 New Old Products

Update: 1/8/2017: I forgot to mention the stand out posts of 2017! You can find them here. There were 62 this year. These are essentially the rare and oddball synths you may not have known existed or you rarely ever see.

No New Years post is complete without a look back at who we lost in the synth community. This year we lost five:

William Onyeabor - Nigerian Electronic Funk Pioneer as well as Nigeria's 1st Moog Dealer
Ikutaro Kakehashi, Founder of Roland
Mika Vainio of Pan Sonic
David Alan Luce - Former President of Moog Music & Creator of the Polymoog
Pierre Henry

I hate ending on a sad note, but we can't forget who we lost.

I wish everyone a great 2018. Make the best of it!

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy days to visit the site. Thank you to all who take the time out to create the videos showcasing the gear we love, and of course the makers who make the gear that inspire us. And finally, thank you to all the supporting members of MATRIXSYNTH, and of course the sponsors you see via the banners on the site!

See you on the other side! :)

Warren Burt interview on VICMOD

"Warren Burt has to be one of my favourite composers, up there with the likes of Sun Ra, Merzbow, Morton Subonick, Pierre Henry, Parmegiani etc yet his recordings have remained unheard by the masses. Even today people interested in early electronic music may have missed his recordings.Thankfully they are available via his web site http://www.warrenburt.com/"

You can find the interview on VICMOD.

Synth Movies

Be sure to see Synths in TV and Film for videos and pics.


Deconstructing Dad - Raymond Scott


OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music (2005)


Moog (2004)


Tangerine Dream Live at Coventry Cathedral 1975 (2007)


Modulations: Cinema for the Ear (1998)


Better Living Through Circuitry (1999)


Oxygene: Live In Your Living Room (3D version here)


Et la tendresse?... Bordel!


Liquid Sky on IMDB
Liquid Sky on Ebay
Liquid Sky on Amazon

via synthetic in the comments of this post: "Neil Diamond's "The Jazz Singer" was on cable a few days ago and the synth player was rockin' an ARP Quadra. I think I saw a String Ensemble in there too. The last concert scene, "Fahhh, we've been travelin' faaahhh..."


Totally Wired

Stockhausen Interview 2007

Also see Synths in TV and Film and the Synth Movies label for more, for example this excellent documentary on KORG.

Uploaded by ssensseless on May 26, 2010

Theremin: an electronic odyssey -trailer-

YouTube Uploaded by ssensseless on May 26, 2010

on eBay

on Amazon

Latest posts:
Intro to Synthesis by Dean Friedman
Daphne Oram documentary - Wee Have Also Sound-Houses & Early BBC radiophonics: Private Dreams and Public Nightmares (1957)
Pierre Henry documentary - The Art of Sounds
Barry Schrader & Death of the Red Planet
DEWANATRON! A 3D Stereoscopic Documentary (Official Teaser)
DEWANATRON! A 3D Stereoscopic Documentary (3D Trailer)
What the Future Sounded Like (2006)

Héliopause by RADIOKLOW - A Tribute to Voyager 1 on the Access Virus Ti

Published on Sep 12, 2013 RADIOKLOW·88 videos

What's interesting is Marc-Henri aka RADIOKLOW composed and then published this piece earlier today just before news broke that Voyager 1 has indeed entered interstellar space.  That's some great timing.  :)

"In 1977, The NASA launched two space shuttles, Voyager 1 and 2, to explore the solar system and reach if possible its limits to cross them and travel in the interstellar space. The last news about them let us think they are now somewhere on this border called heliopause, may be just one step beyond. From time time to time, I have a though for them as I would of distant twins who would be brothers of mine, with a deep tenderness. This is the reason why I composed this piece as a tribute to them and their journey to the unknown. Heliopause was composed for keyboard Virus TI, film and music by Marc-Henri Arfeux"

And the news today via NASA:

"Voyager 1 has entered interstellar space. The NASA spacecraft, which rose from Earth on a September morning 36 years ago, has traveled farther than anyone, or anything, in history. Now Voyager 1 is in the space between the stars. How did Voyager 1 get there? How do we know and where is it going? For more information on humanity's first emissary to what lies beyond, explore the videos, images and stories below..."

Published on Sep 14, 2013 RADIOKLOW·89 videos
Follow-up to Héliopause posted here.

"Siralia is the second piece I composed on sunday 8th of September 2013, as a tribute to the two Voyagers traveling in the distant border of the solar system, without knowing at that moment the NASA would announce officially the crossing of this border by Voyager I who - I say "who" instead of "which" because I feel these ships are part of us an kind of distant brothers - now travels in the interstellar space, first of all the human spaceships to explore this open region of the unknown.

Siralia precisely refers to this unbelievable extraordinary journey in the outer space, according to my sonic and visual imagination. When I composed it, only knowing the two Voyagers where traveling in the Héliopoause I wanted to jump one step beyond to anticipate this great adventure in the interstellar void. Now Voyager I runs and glides in this mysterious ocean of silence and my composition becomes a message to "him" !

I called this composition "Siralia", for two reasons. Sirius is the nearest star that can be reached from the solar system, and it is also the title Karlheinz Stockhausen gave to the first opera of his Week of Light cycle, in 1976. At that time I was 14 years old and discovering the contemporary electroacoustic of the seventies with passion, having been initiated to this music by my father. The first record I heard in the early seventies was "Le Voyage (The Journey) by Pierre Henry, a major composition of 1963. Before that, in the late sixties, when I was 8 or 9, my father would often play with his radio at the extreme regions of the short waves band to produce strange sounds he compared to tibetan music, and I was found of it ! I think this is the first root of my passion for electroacoustic music and wanted here to pay this tribute to my father who will be happy to be quoted here for this beautiful reason, as well as my mother who will be very pleased to read here this little but essential anecdote about him !

Siralia was composed on my favorite Keyboard Virus TI. The film is done after personal videos and pictures treated for the circumstance as well as various pictures of astronomy, including images of Voyager, of the message it carries and of star Sirius, also treated by various means to produce this film."

Siralia - 2nd Tribute to Voyager 1 & 2 on the Access Virus Ti

Published on Sep 14, 2013 RADIOKLOW·89 videos
Follow-up to Héliopause posted here.

"Siralia is the second piece I composed on sunday 8th of September 2013, as a tribute to the two Voyagers traveling in the distant border of the solar system, without knowing at that moment the NASA would announce officially the crossing of this border by Voyager I who - I say "who" instead of "which" because I feel these ships are part of us an kind of distant brothers - now travels in the interstellar space, first of all the human spaceships to explore this open region of the unknown.

Siralia precisely refers to this unbelievable extraordinary journey in the outer space, according to my sonic and visual imagination. When I composed it, only knowing the two Voyagers where traveling in the Héliopoause I wanted to jump one step beyond to anticipate this great adventure in the interstellar void. Now Voyager I runs and glides in this mysterious ocean of silence and my composition becomes a message to "him" !

I called this composition "Siralia", for two reasons. Sirius is the nearest star that can be reached from the solar system, and it is also the title Karlheinz Stockhausen gave to the first opera of his Week of Light cycle, in 1976. At that time I was 14 years old and discovering the contemporary electroacoustic of the seventies with passion, having been initiated to this music by my father. The first record I heard in the early seventies was "Le Voyage (The Journey) by Pierre Henry, a major composition of 1963. Before that, in the late sixties, when I was 8 or 9, my father would often play with his radio at the extreme regions of the short waves band to produce strange sounds he compared to tibetan music, and I was found of it ! I think this is the first root of my passion for electroacoustic music and wanted here to pay this tribute to my father who will be happy to be quoted here for this beautiful reason, as well as my mother who will be very pleased to read here this little but essential anecdote about him !

Siralia was composed on my favorite Keyboard Virus TI. The film is done after personal videos and pictures treated for the circumstance as well as various pictures of astronomy, including images of Voyager, of the message it carries and of star Sirius, also treated by various means to produce this film."

Chroniques de la Mao

Title link takes you to a French blog by deb7680 with quite a bit of synth coverage including an interview with a Pierre Henry (I beleive that is his gear in this shot). Time to break out the translation tool again. I also see Matrixsynth on the blog roll. : )