Exploring the 1st Buchla 100 Modular Synthesizer

video upload by Sarah Belle Reid

"This video is a historical, technical, and musical deep dive into the Buchla 100 Series Modular System at the Mills College Center for Contemporary Music. This instrument was the first voltage controllable modular synthesizer built by Don Buchla—it was delivered to the San Francisco Tape Music Center in the mid-1960s.

In this video we’ll start with a brief historical overview of the Buchla 100 Series Modular System and the San Francisco Tape Music Center. Then, we’ll unpack everything that’s inside the instrument module by module. Finally, I’ll share some of the quirks of this particular instrument, and lots of patch examples to illustrate its unique voice and character.

As I was getting to know this instrument, I tried to keep in mind the circumstances surrounding its development—the people who contributed to it, the time in which it emerged, and the state of electronic music at the time of its invention. These thoughts greatly inspired my approach to working with the instrument and are present throughout this video.

It’s a rare opportunity to be able to work with a historical instrument like this one. I have always been super inspired by Buchla’s work in general, but like many people have had few opportunities to work with his original instruments. Instead, much of my experience has been through newer instruments inspired by his designs. Being able to work closely with this instrument was an incredibly inspiring and clarifying experience that allowed me to gain a deeper understanding of Buchla’s own creative and technical development, as well as the multitude of music, modern modules, and instruments that have been inspired by his work.

Special thank you to Mills College for letting us spend a week in the electronic music studio working with the Buchla 100; to The Buchla Archives and Ryan Gaston for helping to put this video together; and also to all of the amazing folks in my Patreon community for your support in helping to bring educational projects like this one to life!

Learn more / join the waitlist for Learning Sound and Synthesis, my online modular synthesis and sound design class: https://www.soundandsynthesis.com

Join my Patreon community for behind-the-scenes content, unreleased music, and extended tutorials: sarahbellereid

Thank you to:
Mills College Center for Contemporary Music https://www.performingarts.mills.edu
The Buchla Archives https://www.buchlaarchives.com
Ryan Gaston (co-producing + filming) https://gastonsounds.com
Hainbach (tape slicing footage)

TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 Historical Overview: Buchla 100 + the San Francisco Tape Music Center
7:38 Mills Buchla 100 System Overview
14:27 Timbre in the Mills Buchla 100
18:29 Chaos in the Mills Buchla 100
21:52 Voltage Control Quirks
25:00 Sequencing Tactics: Triggered Segments
30:40 Sequencing Tactics: Extended Sequences
32:06 More Patches + Sounds
32:36 Ring Modulated Reverb Patch
34:40 Keyboard Chaos Patch
36:55 Gated Voice Patch
38:29 Wonky Drum Machine Patch
38:57 Triggered Gestures Patch
39:14 Transposed FM Sequence Patch
39:48 Bell Tones Patch
40:27 Touch Controlled Ratchet Patch
41:00 Sequenced Melodic Patch

Sarah Belle Reid is a performer-composer, active in the fields of electroacoustic trumpet performance, intermedia arts, music technology, and improvisation.

www.sarahbellereid.com"



"In the Spring of 2024, Reid spent a week at the Center for Contemporary Music at Mills College, where she worked closely with their original Buchla 100 modular synthesizer system. This specific instrument’s historical significance can’t be overstated. It was the very first voltage controllable modular synthesizer that the now-famous artist, inventor, and electronic musical instrument designer Donald Buchla built in the mid 1960s—indeed, one of the very first modular synthesizers altogether. In its time, this specific system has been used by countless inspiring and influential musicians, such as Pauline Oliveros, Morton Subotnick, Suzanne Ciani, Warner Jepson, and others.

The video begins with a brief historical overview of the Buchla 100 Series Modular System and the San Francisco Tape Music Center. Then, Reid unpacks everything that’s inside the instrument module by module, with sound demos and examples. Finally, she shares some of the unique quirks of the Mills Buchla 100 instrument, and patch examples of how the instrument can be used to create a wide range of music and sounds."

All Connected - Modular Event in Brussels, Belgium Starting in October

"‘All Connected’ is a new series in Huis23 that will feature concerts, films, readings and instrument presentations with and about artists who play with the language of ‘voltage control’. Artists who use the ‘modular’ as creative thinking process and who explore musical boundaries in doing so. Artists who work in the spirit of the San Francisco Tape Music Centre, a collective that came into being when pioneers like Terry Riley, Morton Subotnick, Steve Reich, Ramon Sender, Pauline Oliveros, and many others connected their oscillators and tape recorders together to produce the most progressive music of the period.

The title 'All Connected' is inspired by the idea of Dick Raaijmakers. He destabilised his studio and created unpredictable noises for pieces like Plumes and Flux, by connecting everything to everything and turning up the voltage as high as it would go - See more at: [link]"

You'll find full details on the event here: http://www.abconcerts.be/en/projects/p/detail/all-connected

Some additional details in via Mich:

"First day of the series [October 22] is with Daniël De Wereldvermaarde Botanicus with his collection of Korg MS synths, W. Ravenveer with a Eurorack modular system, a screening of a short Eliane Radigue documentary and Makino Takeshi will screen his movie Recorder with music from Jim O’Rourke.

On the second date, December 6, we will have Kassel Jaeger of GRM coming over with an all night event on the Coupigny synth and the INA-GRM.

Other dates will be announced soon."

Also:

In early 2014 there will also be specials on IPEM and on the San Francisco Tape Music Center.  You'll find the ‘general’ project page for that here:

http://www.abconcerts.be/en/projects/p/detail/all-connected

Music Non Suck - Early Electronic Music

Radio 216;s Musique Non Suck

Track listing:
01. Raymond Scott - Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. (1960)
02. Laurie Spiegel - Patchwork (1976)
03. Pauline Oliveros - Bye Bye Butterfly (1965)
04. Tom Dissevelt - Ignition (1963)
05. Roger Powell - Lumia (Dance Of The Nebulae) (1973)
06 RCA - demonstration of synthesizing a human voice on the RCA Modular Synthesizer (1955)
07. Ralph Lundsten - IT (1968)
08. Ron Geesin - U.F.O. (1972)
09. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece - Waterwheel (1976)
10. Charles Dodge - discussion on the cumbersomeness of early computer music
11. Charles Dodge - He Destroyed Her Image (1972)
12. Bell Labs - demonstration of the VODER speech synthesizer (1939)
13. Ursula Bogner - Für Ulrich/Pulsation (1969)
14. Erkki Kurenniemi - Sähkösoittimen Ääniä #1 (1971)
15. Gil Mellé - Wildfire (Andromeda Strain Soundtrack) (1971)
16. Delia Derbyshire - Effervescence (1972)
17. Tom Dissevelt - Syncopation (1958)
18. Raymond Scott - IBM Probe (1963)
19. Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples Of The Moon (1967)
20. Hugh Le Caine - demonstration of synthesizing strings on the Electronic Sackbut (1953)
21. Ilhan Mimaroglu - Agony (1965)
22. Raymond Scott - Futurama (1964)
23. Tom Dissevelt - Pacific Dawn (1963)
24. Louis And Bebe Barron - Once Around Altair (Forbidden Planet Soundtrack) (1956)
25. Herbert Eimert And Robert Beyer - Klangstudie II (1952)
26. Erkki Kurenniemi - Improvisaatio (1969)
27. John Pfeiffer - Orders (1968)
28. Frank Coe/Forrest J. Ackerman - Tone Tales From Tomarrow (1964)
via Jez

WAD v Zeroscillator

YouTube via hexenduction
"Serge M-Class WAD versus Cynthia Zerocillator. All sound was created by the Zeroscillator and WAD. Some modulation, a staircase and a a sine wave for the ZO was provided by the Serge Creature.
Shot on Kodak Zi6 in macro.
Sound recorded direct via Apogee Duet.
Cheers!"

Homage To Tony Martin

YouTube via hexenduction
"Using Non-Newtonian Fluid with bass frequencies to make dancing slime. Shot in Macro with a Kodak Zi6. Audio made with Serge M-Class modular synth consisting of SQP, Creature, Gator and Quadslop M-odules along with the Cynthia VC Tabla.

Tony Martin was a member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center and used psychadelic light projections of mixed oils and pigments to accompany the audio work of people like Pauline Oliveros, The Jefferson Airplane and Toshi Ichiyanagi."

The Noise Floor of the Universe

MAKEN0ISE

"I love to make noise, and I am also keen to learn about the many ways in which noise makes me.

The observations in this video are not really anything new. If they strike any chord with you, here is some recommended further reading:

Pauline Oliveros, “Some Sound Observations” - perhaps the piece that kick-started my interest in the removal of boundaries between music and sound, sound and silence, listening and playing.

John Cage, Silence - among much other material this includes the famous story of a visit to an anechoic chamber where Cage was unable to hear “silence” because he could always hear the sounds of his own body.

Joe Allen, “Academic Archive Vol XII: The Soul of Hank Shocklee” - Shocklee discusses the unfound sounds and rhythms that emerge, consciously and otherwise, when multiple recordings are sampled and mixed together.

Eliane Radigue with Julia Eckhardt, Intermediary Spaces - Radigue discusses how underlying tones are a necessary bed for the harmonic explorations in her music to be heard, or even to exist.

Daphne Oram, An Individual Note - Oram spends the better part of her book using electronic music concepts as a sometimes clunky but always interesting extended metaphor for the human body.

George Lewis, "Improvising Tomorrow's Bodies: The Politics of Transduction" - Lewis argues for improvisation as key to "the foreshortening of distance between art and life."

http://www.makenoisemusic.com"

Morphagene Science: Gain Staging and Input Leveling & Time Lag Accumulation

Published on May 3, 2017 MAKEN0ISE

"This video will cover how to get the best results out of the Morphagene’s input. As with any audio signal path, it is important to pay attention to gain staging and headroom to ensure the best signal-to-noise ratio."

Make Noise Morphagene pt. 5: Time Lag Accumulation

Published on May 3, 2017

"The Time Lag Accumulator was a device used by Pauline Oliveros, Terry Riley and others at the San Francisco Tape Music Center for extended overdubs and delays. The Morphagene can record over a Splice continuously for similar effects."

All parts here.

One Synth CDs

Ross sent me the following list of one synth only CDs. I put the ones available via Amazon on the right section of the site under CDs. BTW I previously had CDs, DVDs and Books all in the same section. I decided to break it out so it's easier to parse. If anyone knows where you can get the other CDs let me know and I'll update the list. For now I just created artist links, so what you'll find will be hit and miss.

Buchla
Morton Subotnick
– Silver apples on the moon
– Touch

Pauline Oliveros
- Electronic works
- Alien Bog/ Beautiful Soop

Douglas Leedy
- Electronic Zodiac

EMS Synthi/ Synthi 100
- Douglas Lilburn – Complete Electro Acoustic Works
- University of Melbourne – Electronic Music
- Cor Fuhler – Whistlelight
- New Zealand Electronic Music
- Greek Electronic Music 1
- Thomas Lehn - Feldstarken

Serge Modular Synthesizer
Warren Burt
- Sketches of Scenes and Seasons
- Studies for Synthesizer
- Harmonia Mundane
- Bobo The Clone

ARP 2600
Dub Taylor – Lumiere

FM Synthesis Pioneer
John Chowning - Turenas

laurie spiegel - appalachian grove I

YouTube via zulutron.
Update: Re-Published on Feb 13, 2015 PermasmokeSoundLab

via A Brief History of Computer Voltage Control on The Stretta Procedure. Be sure to see that post.

video description:
"The main intention of this youtube-account is to feature mixes and tracks somewhere between deep-minimal-dub techno/house and sounds from detroit/chicago.

well, it's sometimes hard to categorize and some tracks won't fit into that pattern at all. let's eclecticize a bit. anyway, it's music that i would like to share with others. constructive comments are highly appreciated!

- support the music : buy vinyl -

track: appalachian grove I
artist: laurie spiegel
label: 1750 arch records / sonar kollektiv (S-1765 / SK096LP)
year: 1977 / 2006

taken from ame's "...mixing" LP, originally released on "new music for electronic and recorded media" LP in 1977. for more info on laurie spiegel:

http://retiary.org/ls

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Laurie+..."

Update via fluxmonk in the comments:
"Originally from "New Music For Electronic And Recorded Media: Women In Electronic Music-1977", which included:

Johanna M. Beyer
Annea Lockwood
Pauline Oliveros
Laurie Spiegel
Megan Roberts
Ruth Anderson
Laurie Anderson"

Morton Subotnick And Joan La Barbara On Q2 Music's 'Spaces'

"April 17, 2013The pioneering electronic composer responsible for Silver Apples of the Moon turned 80 years old this week. Q2 Music visited with Subotnick and his wife, vocalist Joan La Barbara, in the couple's Greenwich Village apartment for this installment of their web series Spaces."

via NPR:

"by HANNIS BROWN

It's difficult to overstate Morton Subotnick and Joan La Barbara's contributions to contemporary music.

Subotnick's pioneering work in electronic music includes such game-changing pieces as Silver Apples of the Moon and A Sky of Cloudless Sulphur. The composer, who turned 80 this past Sunday, also helped to develop the California Institute of the Arts's groundbreaking curriculum. He also co-founded the highly influential San Francisco Tape Music Center, where Terry Riley, Pauline Oliveros and Steve Reich would cut their teeth writing tape music.

Joan La Barbara is one of today's most iconic vocalists — John Cage and Morton Feldman both wrote music for her. Her own music, which often stretches the possibility of the human voice, has been honored with a slew of awards including a 2004 Guggenheim fellowship in music composition.

For the second installment of Q2 Spaces, we visited the couple's Greenwich Village apartment, where they've resided for the past 17 years. The walls are lined with the artwork of friends and collaborators, and the kitchen cupboard doubles as La Barbara's vocal booth. A shelf in Subotnick's studio houses a piece of the first Buchla analog synthesizer — the instrument used to create Silver Apples. The bustling sounds of the city streets sift through their kitchen window.

Soundtrack
Morton Subotnick, And the Butterflies Begin to Sing (New World)
Morton Subotnick, The Key to Songs (New Albion)
Morton Subotnick, Silver Apples of the Moon (Wergo)
Joan La Barbara, ROTHKO (New World Records)
Joan La Barbara, Shaman Song (New World Records)
Credits
Video: Kim Nowacki and Hannis Brown"

Periphery Label Launch Event, August 20th, Philadelphia

"One Thousand Pulses, the Northeast's premier concert series for electronic & experimental music, invites you to the launch event for its new CD label, Periphery. / otperiphery.com

Periphery's maxim is "wrestling frequencies from the edges & otherwise", proffering uncategorizable works from musicians operating across the electronic & experimental music spectrum.

All three recent releases, including Richard Lainhart's Polychromatic Integers, and the One Thousand Pulses compendium Home Patterning (with tracks by Tim Motzer and Color is Luxury, recorded live in the OTP soundspace) will be available at the event.

Our launch event lineup:

> TIM MOTZER / 1krecordings.com / Philly-based guitarist and composer Tim Motzer finds infinite joy in diversity. His output as a leader and sideman crisscrosses multiple musical universes, including jazz, fusion, prog, hip-hop, soul, electronica, and the avantgarde. Motzer gets to explore these genres and the intersections between them via his ubiquitous presence in the wildly deep and varied Philly scene. He also traverses manifold territories through the many albums released on his own 1k Recordings, such as the rhythmically diverse soundscapes populating the Tilomo release, and, more tellingly, as Fractured Reverb Underground (FRU). The sole FRU CD comprises electronic studio experiments from 1999 — a decade ahead of their time — generously tipping its hat to the Orb’s Alex Patterson thanks to its psychedelic clouds of mercurial ambient textures. Motzer has also worked on releases by British singer-songwriter David Sylvian with the ongoing Secret Rhythms project comprising electronica/dub luminary Burnt Friedman and ex-Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit, as well as with German Touch guitarist Markus Reuter on Descending, a deeply sublime and stunningly beautiful work that references Brian Eno, Frippertronics, Supersilent, and David Sylvian.

> RICHARD LAINHART / otownmedia.com / Since childhood, Richard Lainhart has been interested in natural processes such as waves, flames and clouds, in harmonics and harmony, and in creative interactions with machines, using them as compositional methods to present sounds and images that are as beautiful as he can make them. Well-versed in the varied applications of his beloved Buchla boxes, yet equally agile on numerous synths, keyboards, vibes, and guitars, Lainhart has been reorganizing the topography of tone and texture for over 30 years. After studying composition in Albany under EMF founder and professor Joel Chadabe, Lainhart not only went on to create idiosyncratic recordings in his own right, but has performed and worked with the likes of John Cage, David Tudor, Steve Reich, Phill Niblock, David Berhman, and many others.

> COLOR IS LUXURY / colorisluxury.org / Obsessed with circuit-bending and inner ear manipulation, intrepid Philly experimental sound duo Color Is Luxury combines the talents of erstwhile Buchla veteran Charles Cohen and the curiously monikered hair_loss in the yielding of some of the most provocative boops and beeps around. Ripping the innards out of their respective electronic arsenals, this diminutive motley crew twist their varied sound palettes into corkscrew whorls of new shapes, sizes, and hues. Noise but not noise, drawing clear lineage from the pioneering work of Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, Gil Melle, and Wendy Carlos outward, Color Is Luxury remain tonally consciously even when they go all atonal on us, sonic provocateurs sharing a rich aural history that blossoms before your very ears.

> PTO / PTO (Pulses Tones Oscillations) is one of the numerous sound-producing aliases of Darren Bergstein, longtime music journalist, collector, historian, and archivist, former publisher of the magazines i/e and e/i, and founder/owner of both One Thousand Pulses and the Periphery label. Free improvising in the wellworn electroacoustic tradition, Bergstein has at his disposal tools old (tongue drum, rainstick, metallophone) and new (iPhone), but they're all just texture-mappers regardless of origin, simply various objects to be tapped, stroked, and struck at will.

Join us for an immersive evening of audiovisual electronic interfacing."

"In C" Performer for iPad & 50th Anniversary of "In C" - sfSoundOrchestra Event

iTunes: "In C" Performer for iPad - sonomatics

"Fifty years ago, Terry Riley essentially launched the Minimalism movement with the premiere of 'In C', influencing iconic composers like Philip Glass, Steve Reich, and John Adams.

Now, you are able to recreate history in the comfort of your own home.

'In C' Performer for iPad allows a single person to play 'In C', normally an ensemble work, as a solo performer. You can play the piece using the Built-In sounds, or via MIDI (through a USB camera connector or WiFi MIDI).

Double-tapping on a sliders will 'group' them together so you can adjust the volume of multiple instruments at once."

"sfSoundSummerSeries

Tuesday, July 8 2014
uptown nightclub
1928 telegraph :: oakland
donation :: 9p
active music series
presents

sfSoundOrchestra
commemorating the 50th anniversary of
Terry Riley's In C


On November 2, 1964 at The San Francisco Tape Music Center, 321 Divisidero, Terry Riley essentially launched Minimalism with the premiere of In C. Performers included Jeannie Brecken, Steve Reich, Jon Gibson, Terry Riley, Warner Jepson, Stan Schaap, Sonny Lewis, Ramon Sender, James Lowe, Morton Subotnick, Tony Martin, Mel Weitzman, Pauline Oliveros, and Phil Winsor. Although this classic work is often cited for its influence on composers like Glass, Reich, and Adams, its use of open instrumentation and dynamic form determined individually during the performance is perhaps more radical, and certainly more relevant to today’s Bay Area experimental music scene.

This performance is also the “App Release Party” of a new iPad app created by sfSound’s Matt Ingalls and Henry Warwick from Ryerson University (Toronto). Prof. Warwick will be present performing on the app as part of the orchestra. This extraordinary piece of software allows one person to play "In C", which is normally an ensemble work, as a solo performer. In this this way, and in a first-of-its-kind performance, he will be performing as an ensemble, with an ensemble.

M U S I C I A N S
Cory Wright, saxophone
Richard Worn, bass
Henry Warwick, ipad
Christina Stanley violin
Meerenai Shim, flute
Aram Shelton, saxophone
Monica Scott, cello
Larry Polansky, electric guitar
Stacey Pelinka, flute
Crystal Pascucci, cello
Theodore Padouvas, trumpet
Aaron Novik, clarinet
Lisa Mezzacapa, bass
Dominique Leone, keyboard
Benjamin Kreith, violin
John Ingle, saxophone
Matt Ingalls, clarinet
Diane Grubbe, flute
Phillip Greenlief, saxophone
Giacomo Fiore, guitar
Mark Clifford, vibraphone
MaryClare Brzytwa, flute
Kyle Bruckmann, oboe/english horn
Jacob Abela, melodica


O P E N I N G S E T S
Gosling
Malocculsion

Malocculsion is the solo recording/performance moniker of Oakland based sound/visual artist malocculsion proto of Ratskin Records. Proto uses voice, tapes, loops, homemade electronics, and field recordings to create a dark mirror of the unknown through audio and visual trap door psychosis and high tension performances. Proto also runs and co-curates the Ratskin Records and Lewcid Joosebox imprints and often can be seen as the lead roadie for the Styrofoam Sanchez project. proto has solo recorded works planned for release on Tusco/Embassy and Ratskin Records.https://soundcloud.com/malocculsion-proto/malocculsion-occams-razor-2013

Danishta Rivero (Voicehandler,Blood Wedding) and Sarah Elena Palmer (EFFT, Lutra Lutra) are Gosling: an electro-acoustic soundscape project that uses analog machines and acapella effects. The Gosling code of conduct is that each improvisation adhere to the journey of the sound, without rush, fear, or assumption."

This one in via Brian Comnes.

IMPREC Podcast #3- "The Synthcast" with Alessandro Cortini & More

"May 10th 2013
Good afternoon friends,

We are pleased to announce the newest podcast from Important Records:


Summary:

IMPREC podcast #3- "The Synthcast"

This weeks show will focus on the role of the analog synthesizer as a creative tool in the production of electronic music, modern composition, and sound art. This podcast highlights artists in the Important Records catalog that have made a connection with specific systems or instruments in the analog domain. Some artists have made momentary, inspired connections and managed to capture those results while others have spent decades exploring and mastering their given voltage-controlled instrument.

Each track represented in the podcast brings something unique and challenging to the table. This is not an attempt to fetishize or promote analog synthesis hardware; it is a snapshot of the results that are yielded by careful study, improvisation, and creative approaches to the technology available to artists at a given point in time. Although some may consider analog synthesis an archaic mode of expression, the tracks here attest to the opposite. There are three tracks featuring the EMS Synthi on this podcast but if you expect to hear something akin to "On The Run", well…you're in for a wild ride.

Track Listing:

Alessandro Cortini makes his Important Records debut with the track "Gloria" from the upcoming Forse 1 album. Alessandro created the Forse series of recordings using an original Buchla Music Easel. 2012

Pauline Oliveros- 'A little Noise in the system' (excerpt) from Reverberations (2012) was created on the Moog III modular system at UCSD in 1968.

Eleh- "Indictiva" from the Return LP. Eleh uses a custom Serge Modular. 2009

Jessica Rylan- 'Phantasia' (excerpt) from Interior Designs. Serge Modular feedback patch with home made electronics. 2006

Space Machine (Yamazaki Maso)- "Track D" from Space Machine 3. Maso uses multiple sound sources including the EMS VCS3, Arp Odyssey, Roland System 100M with various echo/tape delays. 2003

Christina Kubisch- 'Ocigam Trazom' from the Intorno al Flauto Magio exhibition, an interpretation of Mozart's opera 'The Magic Flute'. Performed on the EMS Synthi with processed field recordings. 1985

Astro (Hiroshi Hasegawa)- 'Artificial Lake' realized on an EMS Synthi with Tape Delay. From the album 'The Echo From Purple Dawn'. 2008

Eliane Radigue- 'Triptych Pt. 3' created on the ARP 2500 in 1978. From the album 'Triptych'.


We hope you enjoy the podcast and thank you for you continued support."

New Documentary: SUBOTNICK - Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer

Published on May 22, 2017 Waveshaper Media

"An upcoming, official bio-doc on electronic music pioneer, Morton Subotnick. Fundraising NOW on IndieGoGo (from May 23 - June 21, 2017): http://igg.me/at/subotnickfilm

Waveshaper Media, the makers of 2014's acclaimed modular synthesizer documentary 'I Dream Of Wires,' is excited to announce that production is now underway for a new, official bio-documentary about revered avant-garde music composer, and electronic music pioneer, Morton Subotnick. Through a series of candid interviews and illuminating conversations with key figures from his past and present, "Subotnick" will provide an overview of this fascinating composer’s rich life and uncompromising career."

Note Waveshaper is still working on the upcoming documentary on Bob Moog, Electronic Voyager. The following are some details on SUBOTNICK captured for the archives.


"2017 is a milestone year for revered avant-garde music composer, and electronic music pioneer, Morton Subotnick. It not only marks the 50th anniversary of his iconic 1967 album “Silver Apples of the Moon,” but also sees the premiere of “Crowds and Power,” a new multi-media tone poem for voice, electronic sound, and live imagery, commissioned by NYC’s Lincoln Center, and premiering there in July.

CLICK FOR MORE »

An Interview with Barry Schrader

Hi everyone! As you know Barry Schrader will be giving his farewell concert at CalArts on September 26. The following is the beginning of my interview with him. I opted to post the questions and answers as they come in.  New QAs will get a new post so you do not miss them and they will be added to this post so we have one central post for the full interview. This should make it easier for all of us to consume in our busy lives, and it will allow you to send in any questions that may come to mind during the interview process.  If you have anything you'd like to ask Barry, feel free to send it in to matrixsynth@gmail.com.  This is a rare opportunity for us to get insight on a significant bit of synthesizer history, specifically with early Buchla systems, and I'd like to thank Barry for this opportunity. Thank you Barry!

CLICK FOR MORE »