An Avant-Garde Synthesizer From 1960s East Germany

video upload by HAINBACH

"The Subharchord is a very rare electronic instrument from East Germany, made in the early sixties. At that time, the international music world was excited by the new electronic music coming from places like the WDR Studio in Cologne. As the GDR sought to lead over the West in all aspects, they established the „Labor für Akustisch-Musikalische Grenzprobleme“ (English: Laboratory for Problems at the Acoustics/Music Interface) to develop advanced electronic sound production. There the Subharchord was created by Ernst Schreiber as the lead engineer, while the striking look was designed by Gunter Wächtler. From the beginning it faced ideological concerns, which should later spell its doom. Thanks to the Elektro-Akustische Studio at ADK Berlin I got to explore it."

A Documentary on The Subharchord

Biosphere and The Pitch - The Subharchord concert (excerpt), at CTM February 2nd 2013 from Atelier Nord on Vimeo.


Biosphere plays on the Subharchord from Ina Pillat on Vimeo.

"During the 'Only connect' Festival in Oslo, june 2013, the Norwegian musician Biosphere played on the Subharchord. Before it had to be restored with the help of Bjørn Roar Svensson, who was responsible for the Norwegian instrument from 1970 until 1991.

produced by Ny Musikk / Norsk Teknisk Museum

Photography: Ina Pillat
Sound: Biosphere, Archive material"

Two videos from an upcoming documentary on The Subharchord sent my way via Atomic Shadow. There's a Facebook Page on the documentary here, which links to an Atelier Nord site here. The following is from the site in Googlish:


"Research, project development and filming for documentaries and pilot

Ina Pillat (2010-2013).

In the early 60s there was built an instrument in East Berlin that was far ahead of its time. Subharchord was an electronic sound generator, constructed by the foremost audio experts in the country. Today there are only a few who know the instrument history.

The protagonist of the film is Gerhard Steinke, an energetic, curious and spirited 85-year-old. Steinke was 1956 head of "Labor für Musikalisch-akustische Grenzprobleme" in East Berlin - where Subharchord was developed and built.

Early in 1968, three employees from the Norwegian Broadcasting on visits to East Berlin. Shortly later became a Subharchord secretly sent to Oslo. Since this meeting, Gerhard Steinke not know anything about what happened to the instrument.

Of the six instruments that were built in the former GDR, there exists today only three - one in Vienna, one in Berlin and one in Trondheim. The documentary makes a deep dive in Subharchord story based on the copy was purchased by NRK and uncovers a story that has parallels to the Cold War, Norwegian experimental music and culture.

Director Ina Pillat is originally from East Germany, but is now living in Oslo.

She was educated at Burg Giebichenstein in Halle and Academy of Media Arts Cologne. Pillat has directed and produced several documentaries and has worked at several German TV stations."

Starring: Gerhard Steinke, Klaus Bechstein, Georg Geike, Bjørn Roar Svensson, Biosphere

Genre: Documentary

Directed By: Ina Pillat

http://ateliernord.no/prosjektarkiv/subharchord/

Stephen Howell and the Subharchord

Stephen Howell and the Subharchord from Ina Pillat on Vimeo.

"December 2011 at the Museum of Technology (Deutsches Technikmuseum) in Berlin. Stephen Howell takes recordings of the instrument. Per Platou, founder and leader of www.pnek.org, has invited him to create a sound library and helps him with the recordings. Inventor Gerd Steinke in conversation with Stephen Howell.

Photography: Jenny Barth
Sound: Johannes Schmelzer-Ziringer
Director: Ina Pillat
Production: Norwegian Arts Council // Per Platou, Ina Pillat"

This on in via Atomic Shadow who brought us the sad news on Stephen Howell's passing. I added the video to that post as well.

Custom Blue Synth with Orange Knobs

via FFFFOUND!

Anyone know more about this one? It could be an organ. It seems vaguely familiar but I couldn't find a previous post on it. Giving this one a title that is sure to show up in the site's search results. BTW, FFFFOUND! is just an image sharing sight. The image comes from tumblr, but I wasn't able to back track to the source. It does appear real and not photoshopped.

Update: It's the The Subharchord. Via Atomic Shadow in the comments.

"In the course of extensive research on the history of electronic music instruments, in 2000 Manfred Miersch, a Berlin artist and musician, made a truly remarkable discovery: the trautonium is not the only instrument of its kind; another exists that produces subharmonic sounds — the “subharchord”. As described above, this instrument was invented in the GDR, under difficult technical conditions but using the latest technology available. However, the subharchord differs from the mixturtrautonium in key respects. The subharchord has a keyboard and is played like an organ whereas the mixturtrautonium’s manual is a resistor wire over a metal plate, which is pressed at various points to create sound (like a ribbon-controller), a rather difficult procedure. In addition, the subharchord possesses considerably more possibilities than the mixturtrautonium for generating and manipulating sounds..." See the link above for more and the Subharchord label below for additional posts here on MATRIXSYNTH.  I knew I recognized it!

Mixtur Trautonium on Abstract Projection

Abstract Projection has a post up on the Mixtur Trautonium in the Musical Instrument Museum in Berlin. You can find the post including more images and info here. The Volkstrautonium (bottom image) is mentioned as well as an interview with Oskar Sala. via 24db in the comments of this 2006 post on Das Subharchord.






Oskar Sala - Elektronische Impressionen Nr.1 - YouTube via muza3

"www.blurfilm.wspaniali.net"
Search on Oskar for all posts and of course click on the labels below for more.

Soundmachines - Klangmaschinen and the Hönig-Synthesizer

via swissdoc: "something I came across at synthesizerforum.de

Klangmaschinen website

Very nice electronic music stuff from Austria and/or used by
Austrian acts and/or shown in Austrian museums.

For instance:
the "Hönig-Synthesizer" (pictured)
Neo-Bechstein Grand
Subharchord II
Max Brand Synthesizer

Some sound examples included. Worth to click through all items." Definitely worth checking out.

Excerpt on the Hönig-Synthesizer pictured from the site:
"125 x 87 x 166 cm, ca. 70 kg
Metal, sound frequency unit (eight voltage controlled oscillators, twelve amplifiers with envelope generators, eight filters, three ring modulators and impulse and noise generators), control voltage unit (four digital 12-bit low-frequency oscillators, sample & hold, envelope tracker, control voltage mixer), control computer (SYM) with 6502 CPU, eight 12-bit digital-analogue converters, twelve trigger impulse outputs, software), matrix plug board (4 x 16 x 16), sound and control voltage patch bay

The control voltages and trigger impulses generated by the SYM microcomputer can be attributed to the envelope generators, LFOs, sample & holds, filters and oscillators on the matrix plug board and the patch bay. The EMC Compiler composition software developed for this machine by the composer Helmuth Dencker allows the use of a variety of algorithms (tendency, loop, random, transposition) – a hybrid system for complex compositions (without tape splicing and with purely analogue synthesis)." more

Das Subharchord

via Das Subharchord

"The Subharchord is a unique electronic instrument which is somewhat comparable to the Mixturtrautonium from Oskar Sala. This site is dedicated to the Subharmonic Sound Generator, which was developed during the 1960s in East Berlin (GDR) at the Radio and Television Technical-Centre (RFZ) of the German post office."

The Mixturtrautonium.


You can find a VST emulation and more info on Rick Jelliffe's site.

More on 120 Years and wikipedia.

Via this this electro-music thread.