Experimental Music (1984-1989) - EMS SYNTHI 100

YouTube via zijun01.

via THE SYNTHI EMS SYNTHI 100 track comes in at 3:46.

"I recorded these pieces in the 1980s and recently recovered them from twenty-year-old cassette tapes. The first excerpt is from a work that was recorded at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. The other songs were recorded at Carleton University in Ottawa.

The video clips are processed (using AfterEffects) screen captures (using CamStudio) of music visualizations (using the iTunes and Dr. Glitter visualizers).

'Blade' features drums, synthesizer (Yahama DX-7), alto saxophone, voices, a bicycle pump, coins, pieces of wood, water and probably a few things I have forgotten about.

'Ýoung Sycamore' has a live vocal and percussion part that wasn't recorded. The lyrics were adapted from a poem by Wlliam Carlos Williams (http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/35368-Willia m-Carlos-Williams-Young-Sycamore). The piece was written/played using the software 'PC Composer' and a midi controller.

'Untitled' features an EMS Synthi 100, a very early synthesizer from the early 70s. It takes up half of small room and is interesting to use because you have to physically connect all the different sound items like sine waves, noise and filters. According to Wikipedia, only about 30 of these synthesizers were produced and their original selling price was 25,000 USD (the equivalent of over $100,000 USD today). If I had known it was so rare and expensive, maybe I would have appreciated it more back then. The arpeggios and background sounds are from a Korg Poly61 synthesizer.

For 'Sting Quartet No. 2', all the notes were typed into a computer (using the PC Composer programme) and then played back through a midi controller before being recorded on a reel-to-reel tape deck.

'Mammals I Have Known and Loved' features the EMI Synthi 100, a tam tam (a kind of gong, but this time played with a violin bow), alto saxophone, empty pop bottles, voices, loops made of sound effects and laughter. The voices mainly came from outtakes of interviews I had been recording.

Well, I hope you enjoy the pieces, weird as they may be."