Barry Schrader Interview Live on Outsight Radio

Update: For those that missed it, you can find a streamed archive here for the next week or so:

http://www.live365.com/stations/94510

Update: This is starting now. Direct link. Save the file and open it with Winamp or your favorite streaming player. He's currently talking about the Buchla Electric Music Box - 200 System. And a plug for Plan B.

Barry Schrader's website

When: Sunday, February 25, 2007

Where: On the Web (see <http://www.new-sounds.com/> for links)

Time: 5:00 P.M. PST (February 26, 1:00 A.M. GMT)

On Sunday, February 25, Barry Schrader will be doing a live interview with Tom Schulte on his Outsight Radio Hours show. Outsight Radio is also available on demand from the New Artist Radio site.

That would be in the next twenty minutes or so folks. Previous Barry Schrader posts.

Update via tearaway in the comments:
"Hello, Tom Schulte of Outsight Radio here. Thanks for the interest in my show and the Barry Schrader interview. Fortunately, I recorded the interview and it is here:

http://www.musicsojourn.com/AR/Alt/page/s/SchraderBarry.htm

"the real punk was the synthesizer" - that's a great quote!

It also makes me think about how some early punk in England (Crass, Sham 69, Damned, Clash) and U.S. West Coast (Germs, Flipper, the scene around The Masque club), East Coast (NYC No Wave of James Chance, Lydia Lunch, Suicide, DNA, etc.) was much more diverse and experimental than the surviving punk rock sound is, which is just a distillation sub-genre of rock (Southern LA, NYC) and glam (England).

Upcoming interviews are with Mark Volman (Turtles), Roye A (Nektar), Sonja Kristina (Curved Air), 180-Gs (a cappella group covering Negativland)"

Barry Schrader “Ambient : Aether”

Acclaimed electronic composer Barry Schrader has a new release out titled “Ambient : Aether”.

You can find an interview I did with him in 2015 here. It includes many of the rare and unique instruments he has used over the years. You can find additional posts featuring Barry Schrader here.

Press release follows (note the accolades):

At 80, Barry Schrader — hailed by the Los Angeles Times as “a composer born to the electronic medium” — releases his first album of new music in over a decade. Ambient : Aether blends ambient textures, distortion, and noise with Schrader’s celebrated sound design, creating an immersive journey through Earth’s atmospheric layers into the unknown.

Composed in 2024–2025, the work experiments with stylistic features of ambient music and controlled distortion. While ambient elements have appeared in Schrader’s earlier works, this is the first album to intentionally embrace the style — yet it remains rooted in his techniques of musical development and timbral transformation. All sounds were created using computer and software; no acoustic sources were used.

Track List

1. Cloudrise (15:12) — Ever‑changing skies in sound.
2. Atmospheric Rivers (13:32) — Torrents of vapor dissolving into rivulets.
3. Supernal Ascent (15:50) — Layered voyage through: Troposphere [0:00], Stratosphere [2:52], Mesosphere [5:30], Thermosphere [8:30], Exosphere [12:26].
4. Aether (15:42) — At the edge of mystery.
5. Selected Review Quotes

ATMOSPHERE & IMAGERY

“Schrader feels vast, expansive, timeless.” — Perfect Circuit “Imbued with mystery… ageless appeal.” — AllMusic

TECHNICAL MASTERY

“A composer born to the electronic medium.” — Los Angeles Times “Uses timbre fully as a structural tool.” — Gramophone

EMOTIONAL IMPACT

“Conjures up a whirlwind of emotion from some primeval source.” — Bebe Barron. “…outsynthesized Tangerine Dream in its hypnotic electronic coloration.” — New York Times

Barry Schrader has been acclaimed by the Los Angeles Times as “a composer born to the electronic medium” and described by Gramophone as a creator of “approachable electronic music with a distinctive individual voice to reward the adventurous.” His works for electronics, dance, film, video, mixed media, live/electro‑acoustic music, and real‑time computer performance have been presented worldwide.

He is the founder and first president of SEAMUS (Society for Electro‑Acoustic Music in the United States) and recipient of the SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award. Schrader has authored Introduction to Electro‑Acoustic Music and contributed to The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Grolier’s Encyclopedia, and Contemporary Music Review. He taught composition at CalArts from 1971 until his retirement in 2016 as Professor Emeritus, and has also taught at UC Santa Barbara, California State University Los Angeles, and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His music is released on Innova, SEAMUS, Laurel, Opus One, Centaur, Pure Destructive Records, and Ex Machina."

You can find Barry Schrader’s full bio at https://barryschrader.com/bio-works

https://barryschrader.bandcamp.com/

Barry Schrader Interview

The following interview is up for live streaming. Title link takes you there.

"Outsight Radio Interview: Barry Schrader This 25 February chat with Barry Schrader covers his '60s and '70s innovations with early Buchla models and the animal kingdom input of a bird ("Fallen Sparrow") and a musical pot-bellied pig ("Duke's Tune"). (Barry Schrader has generously made his albums Available as a Member Premium (In Limited Quantities) for your Membership Support of this series - Click Here)" [link after the hop]

BarrySchrader.com

An Interview with Barry Schrader Questions 6F: The Barnum Museum & 7 Current State of Synths

The final two questions in my interview with Barry Schrader are now live. Barry discusses what may be his magnum opus, The Barnum Museum, followed by his take on the current state of synthesizers. There are some tie ins to his previous work on Atlantis as well as Louis and Bebe Barron.

"If someone were to ask me what I considered to be my best work, there’s no question in my mind that I would respond that it’s The Barnum Museum. Taken as a whole, this is my longest and most ambitious composition, and one that took me four years to compose. At this time, it remains my last completed work.

The idea for The Barnum Museum came from a short story by one of my favorite living authors, Steven Millhauser. Millhauser is a unique writer, and, so, difficult to classify. He’s been compared to such authors as Calvino and Borges, as well as other writers classified as “magical realists,” but I think he’s in a class by himself. The Barnum Museum is a short story in a collection with the same title. I was fortunate to get permission from Millhauser and his agents to base the work on his story. I was especially lucky that Millhauser agreed to a years-long email correspondence about the work: I would send each movement to him as I finished it and he would comment on the work and my ideas behind it. This was invaluable help in my completing the piece.

P. T. Barnum established two museums in New York City in the nineteenth century. Barnum's American Museum was on the corner of Broadway and Ann Street from January 1, 1842 to July 13, 1865 when it burned to the ground. Barnum built a second museum soon after, but it was also destroyed by fire in 1868. The attractions made the venue a combination of a zoo, museum, lecture hall, wax museum, theatre, and freak show. At its peak, the museum was open fifteen hours a day and had as many as fifteen thousand visitors daily."

Don't miss the full interview question here. You can also go back to the beginning of my interview with Barry Schrader here.

And don't forget, Barry Schrader's Soundtrack to Galaxy of Terror is currently available for Pre-Order.

Barry Schrader Lost Analog on the Buchla 200

See my extensive 2015 interview with Barry Schrader here. You can find additional posts featuring Barry Schrader here.

Press release follows:

Barry Schrader has announced the release of a new album, “Lost Analog.” This is a collection of previously unreleased works Schrader composed between 1972 and 1983 on the Buchla 200 synthesizer, aka The Electric Music Box. This album of definitive works of West Coast electronic music serves as a companion collection to Schrader’s famous “Lost Atlantis” release, widely regarded as a benchmark for classical electronic music works. The “Lost Analog” album contains music from the film “Death of the Red Planet”, the complete versions of “Bestiary” and “Classical Studies”, and an electronic suite of three movements from “Moon-Whales and Other Moon-Songs.”

The release date for “Lost Analog” is Friday, October 28, 2022. The limited-edition CD and the digital tracks will be sold on Bandcamp, and the tracks will also be sold on all major online music stores. Until then, you can hear previews of the tracks at https://barryschrader.hearnow.com/.

“…the music outsynthesized Tangerine Dream in its hypnotic electronic coloration.” - New York Times review of “Death of the Red Planet"

“Schrader's music has fascinatingly subtle shifts of color and volume. The listener could wrap himself in a development of metallic sounds seamlessly transformed from speaker to speaker, a delicate but penetrating pulsation of notes woven with a music-box effect, or a melange of dizzying, sliding, wind rushing patterns that make the revving-up of a jet plane seem demure.”
- Los Angeles Times review of “Bestiary"

Those interested in getting the CD or digital download should sign up on Barry Schrader’s “Follow” mailing list on Bandcamp before October 28 in order to get special offers when the album is released.

Barry Schrader CalArts Farewell Concert Set for Saturday, September 26

Broadcast live streaming video on Ustream
Update: live stream from ROD Webcast added above. Interview with Barry here.

Barry Schrader, one of the founders of the early electronic music scene at CalArts School of Music is retiring after 45 years. Many of you will remember him from previous posts here on MATRIXSYNTH. Here he is with a Buchla 500 in CalArts' studio B-304, along with Morton Subotnick and John Payne. If you are in the area, you do not want to miss this event. This is a chance to see one of the founders of our scene perform live. For those not in the area, the concert will be available on the live ROD Webcast. I hope to have an extensive interview with Barry Schrader in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that as well.

"Active in the promotion of electro-acoustic music, Schrader is the founder and the first president of SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States). He has been involved with the inauguration and operation of several performance series such as SCREAM (Southern California Resource for Electro-Acoustic Music), the Currents concert series at Theatre Vanguard (the first ongoing series of electro-acoustic music concerts in the U.S.), and the CalArts Electro-Acoustic Music Marathon. He has written for several publications including The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, Grolier’s Encyclopedia, Contemporary Music Review, and Journal SEAMUS, and is the author of the book Introduction to Electro-Acoustic Music."

via Barry Schrader:

"After what will have been 45 years on the faculty of the CalArts School of Music, I've decided to retire at the end of this academic year. Starting as a graduate student at CalArts in 1970, I was hired on the faculty by Mel Powell, then the Dean of the School of Music, in 1971. It’s been an incredible adventure to have experienced the evolution of the school from its beginnings at the temporary Burbank Villa Cabrini campus to its current incarnation as The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts. Along the way I’ve been fortunate to have had superb composers and performers as colleagues and friends, a host of talented students, and also to have met and worked with many brilliant people in various areas of the arts throughout the world.

To mark my retirement from CalArts, I’ve decided to present a farewell concert containing a variety of works from a forty-year period. This program will be held on Saturday, September 26, at 8:00 pm in CalArts’ Roy O. Disney Hall. Admission is free, and there will be a reception following the concert. I’ll also be giving away a limited number of my CDs to those that attend the event.

The concert will feature Mark Menzies on violin playing Fallen Sparrow, and Vicki Ray on piano performing Ravel. Also on the concert will be the original quadraphonic version of Trinity, along with short sections of Monkey King and The Barnum Museum. Adam Beckett’s groundbreaking 1973 film Heavy-Light will be shown, along with Michael Scroggins’ early computer video, 1921>1989.

For those that wish to hear and view the concert online, it will be available live on the live ROD Webcast."

Wadada Leo Smith and Barry Schrader - Pacific Light and Water/Wu Xing - Cycle of Destruction

Barry Schrader has a new release with Wadada Leo Smith. Barry tells me there will be a CD version limited to 100 copies, 40 of which will be available through CD Baby starting January 15. There will also be an mp3 version available. Be sure to check out my interview with Barry Schrader here. There's some fascinating synth history to be discovered there.

Barry Schrader on the new release:

"In early 2005, I was approached by the remarkable composer/ performer Wadada Leo Smith to create what he calls an 'overlay' work. This is a work in which Wadada creates a composed/ improvisational performance on the trumpet against a fixed electronic piece that I had made. This overlay concept allowed each of us to create a work simultaneously, and then Wadada would perform his work over mine, allowing the fixed structure of my piece to influence his performance. Wadada's side of this unusual duet was Pacific Light and Water, and we had a discussion early on in the process about what we would do, in which Wadada gave me a drawing he made depicting the various frequencies of light that would filter through the Pacific ocean at different depths. My mind was filled with things Chinese at that moment from all of the research and work I had been doing on my work Monkey King, which I had already started composing, and so the water idea led to using the Chinese concept of "wu xing", of which water is one of the five elements (metal, wood, earth, water, fire). These are usually ordered in one of two ways: the cycle of birth, which ends with water, and the cycle of destruction, which ends with fire. I chose the latter for this piece, and, at Wadada’s request, created a graphic score (available from Theodore Front Music) to allow him to coordinate with the electronic music. This, then, is a rare combination of compositional approaches and means, blended into a unified whole."

http://barryschrader.com

Lost Analog by Barry Schrader

You might remember the announcment for Lost Analog by Barry Schrader posted back in September. Not mentioned was some of the unique history and significance of this particular release featuring the Buchla 200 in the liner notes, including possibly the first quadraphonic electronic music score for a commercial film.

The liner notes for the release follow:

I’ve chosen to call this album Lost Analog not only with reference to my previous release, Lost Atlantis, but also because all of the works are analog electronic music, and parts of them are, indeed, lost. All of this music was created from 1972 through 1983, using the Buchla 200 analog modular synthesizer, also known as “The Electronic Music Box.” The music contained in this Lost Analog album was originally created in 4 channels, sometimes referred to as quadraphonic sound. In mixing and remastering these pieces as stereo files, some of the original aural intent has unavoidably been lost, another reason for calling this release Lost Analog. As I write this, realizing that some of this music hasn’t been heard in public for almost fifty years, I’m taken back to much earlier days in my life and career, which, although remembered, are also lost, as are all of our pasts.

Death of the Red Planet Suite” (1973) is made from parts of a score for the film “Death of the Red Planet." The 20-minute film was the first to be created from images made with lasers, and it toured theatres along with “Yessongs,” a concert film of the band Yes. It is, I think, the first quadraphonic electronic music score for a commercial film. This suite of the music from the score is all that I have of the original soundtrack. Whether or not the film still exists in its original theatrical format, I have no idea. More information on this film may be found here.

“Bestiary" (1972-74) is a five-movement work drawing on mythological creatures from medieval bestiaries, treatises about real and fictitious animals. Originally, I had planned seven movements, but ended up composing only five. The first and last movements are imaginings of mythological beasts convening and dispersing (the latter in an increasingly disorderly way), while the interior three sections focus, respectively, on sea serpents, a unicorn, and basilisks, the latter being venomous winged reptiles that supposedly lived in caves or deep wells. “Bestiary” is the first work of mine to fully incorporate what has become one of my main compositional concerns: the creation of new and transformational timbres.

After composing “Lost Atlantis”, I wanted to do something very different, and so I wrote "Classical Studies" (1977). These three short pieces use abstractions of old musical forms: canon, chorale, and perpetuum mobile. The timbres are almost always changing with each successive event in these works, very quickly so in “Perpetuum Mobile."

The”Moon-Whales Suite” presents three sections of a larger work, “Moon-Whales and Other Moon Songs" (1982-83). This is a seven-movement work for soprano and electronics. The even-numbered movements are for soprano accompanied by electronics, and the odd-numbered movements are for soprano solo followed by an electronic music section without voice. The three movements presented here, are the 2nd, 4th, and 6th sections of the work, without the soprano introductions. The work is based on poems by Ted Hughes, the British Poet Laureate from 1984 to 1998, taken from his collection “Moon-Whales and Other Moon Poems." The three poems referenced are also the titles of the pieces in this suite: “The Moon-Oak,” “The Moon-Bull,” and "Moon-Wings". Reading the poems will help to uncover the inspirations and ideas behind these works, but I think they also stand on their own as musical compositions. While the master tapes for the electronics of these pieces still exist, they are unplayable due to tape deterioration, yet another reason for this album to be called “Lost Analog."

You can find the release on Bandcamp: https://barryschrader.bandcamp.com/album/lost-analog and other platforms: https://barryschrader.hearnow.com

You can find additional posts featuring Barry Schrader here. Don't miss my interview with Barry from 2015.

An Interview with Barry Schrader Question 6E: Monkey King (2005-2007)

Click here for the next installment of my interview with Barry Schrader. This one covers Monkey King (2005-2007), featuring the Yamaha TX816 and several computer applications, particularly FM8. As I'm finding with all of Barry Schrader's compositions, this one has a great story to go along with it. Once there, it is recommended that you start each video before reading each corresponding section. You can then read along as each part plays.

Also remember to scroll up for previous sections of the overall interview once there, if you haven't read them already, or come back to this post and click here to get to the top. There some incredible bits of synth history here. It's not often we get to follow the story of an artist that was not only there at the birth of it all, but one who continues to embrace new synthesis technology with a focus on making music, throughout the years. Don't miss this. Bookmark it for later if you have to.

An Interview with Barry Schrader - Question 5

5. Who came through the studio in the later years at CalArts? Were there any notable experiences that you remember?

You'll find the answer in the main interview post with Barry Schrader here. You'll find some fascinating history there including the early Buchla systems at Cal Arts studios B303, B304, B305 and B308, as well as the transition of the studios in the 1980s. You'll find experts of Barry Schrader's music, including the full film of Galaxy of Terror which featured a score composed by Barry on the Buchla 200.

Sawtooth Stack Origin Story featuring Barry Schrader

video upload by Verbos Electronics GmbH

"A look at the Sawtooth Stack from inspiration to performance. Featuring interview footage with Barry Schrader and performance clips from ‪@OoraMusic‬ ‪@LucasMarchal‬ (DC11), Pietro Coquinati and Mark Verbos."

https://barryschrader.com
https://barryschrader.hearnow.com
https://barryschrader.bandcamp.com

Check out my exclusive interview with Barry Schrader here, and additional posts here.

An Interview with Barry Schrader - Question 4

Question 4 has been added to the Barry Schrader interview post here. Don't miss it!

Find out what that is to the left. It has a very interesting history and an unlikely source. Hint: it's not Buchla.

Update: a few additional pics and links added to the post.

An Interview with Barry Schrader - Question 3

Question 3 has been added to the Barry Schrader interview post here. It's a good one. Don't miss it!

Barry Schrader CalArts Farewell Concert This Saturday!

This is just a quick a reminder that Barry Schrader's CalArts Farewell Concert is this Saturday in Valencia, CA. You can find the previous post with details on the event here.  Remember you can also listen in online.

Be sure to check out the beginning of my interview with Barry Schrader posted here.

An Interview with Barry Schrader Question 6D: "Duke's Tune" Featuring the Yamaha TX816

Click here for the next installment of my interview with Barry Schrader. As you can probably guess from the image on the life, this one, like all of the interview questions to date, has a great story behind it. :)

An Interview with Barry Schrader - Question 6B: "Atlantis" Featuring the Buchla 204 Quad Spatial Director

Click here for the next installment of my interview with Barry Schrader. This one covers his Lost Atlantis composed in 1977 on a large Buchla 200 system featuring the 204 Quad Spatial Director, and the Fortune modules featured earlier in the interview.

Galaxy of Terror Original Soundtrack to be Re-Released on Vinyl

Galaxy of Terror Published on May 5, 2017 Pure Destructive Records

Barry Schrader composed the soundtrack for Galaxy of Terror entirely on a Buchla 200. The film was re-released on DVD and Blu-Ray back in 2010. You can read an excerpt from Barry here. You can also read about it in my interview with Barry here (scroll down to get to the section on Galaxy of Terror).

via Pure Destructive Records:

"Pure Destructive Records is proud to announce, for the first time ever, in any format..Galaxy of Terror original soundtrack!.

There will be two variants pressed. 150 orange/red swirl and 150 black. Both will be pressed on 180 gm vinyl

Tracklist :

1. Main Titles and Death of the Remus Crewman; in the Master's Study
2. Quuhod's Death
3. Damia's Death
4. Exploration Music; Discovery of the Spaceship Remus
5. Alluma's Death
6. The Cathedral Chamber; Magic Stairway to the Inner Chamber
7. Monsters of the Red World
8. Discovery and Exploration of the Pyramid
9. The Commander's Death
10. Baalon's Death.

More tracks may be added.

Over the past few weeks, P.D.R has been working directly with the composer of the score..Barry Schrader. With Barry's knowledge and help, this project is now becoming a reality!

Galaxy of Terror is a 1981 Roger Corman Sci Fi, staring a very young Robert Englund and Sid Haid.

Roger Corman has started the careers of many prominent Hollywood people with his films. Galaxy of Terror was one of the earliest films for director James Cameron, who served as Production Designer and Second Unit Director on the film. It was the second Corman film on which Cameron worked as a crewman

Dedicated to the memory of
ERIN MORAN
who played "Alluma" in the movie. *"

Update: Official trailer for the original film added below.


Published on May 13, 2013 ScreamFactoryTV

"When a team of astronauts land on a strange planet to rescue a stranded space ship, they are soon attacked by alien creatures - physical manifestations of fears projected by their own imaginations. This cult classic from legendary producer Roger Corman features Robert Englund, Sid Haig, Taaffe O'Connell and Grace Zabriskie and featured the production design of James Cameron.

BUY ON BLU-RAY: http://www.shoutfactory.com/?q=node/1...
BUY ON DVD: http://www.shoutfactory.com/?q=node/1..."

An Interview with Barry Schrader - Question 6C: "Triptych" Performed on the Yamaha TX816

Click here for the next installment of my interview with Barry Schrader. This one covers Triptych performed on the Yamaha TX816.

Pacific Light and Water/Wu Xing - Cycle of Destruction

Published on Jan 26, 2020 ExMachinaPub

"This is an excerpt from a collaboration between jazz legend and trumpet wizard Wadada Leo Smith and electronic music master Barry Schrader. Pacific Light and Water/Wu Xing - Cycle of Destruction is what Smith refers to as an 'overlay' composition, combining works by two composers. Schrader created a graphic score, available from Theodore Front Music, for live performers to follow and coordinate with the electronic music of Wu Xing."

See this post for details on the release, including a link to an interview with Barry Schrader.

Barry Schrader Interview Live on Outsight Radio - Update

In case you missed the live interview, a recorded version is now up. You can find it in the last update to this post.