Electro For Droids

Ocean Of Sound 3: Booming On Pluto: Electro For Droids. Available thanks to The Unheard Music.

The many Moogs of Ruth White

RUTH WHITE, an artist-composer of the West Coast, is shown here creating her own brand of electronic music. Miss White, whose first album on Limelight Records will soon be released, believes much of today's electronic music is sounding the same.

Billboard Nov. 2, 1968

Some months ago while looking for what I thought was a version of Couperin's "Les Barricades Mistérieuses" I taped off WMNF-FM in 1982, I found two of Ruth White's LPs at moogswings.

Short Circuits (1970) is a collection of Moogified classical pieces.

Flowers of Evil (1969), based on Baudelaire's Fleurs du mal.

"I never do the same thing twice. Some composers get bogged down on repetition and slight changes in the name of perfection. I do something, as well as I can do it, then go on to do something else."

The Norton/Grove Dictionary of Women Composers, 1995

Tubular Bells by the Brooklyn Organ Synth Orchestra

Over 20 different NYC female keyboardists playing vintage keyboards at Joe McGinty's Carousel Studio in Brooklyn, NY.

news from Martinibomb

What?! Martinibomb is sharing their catalog for free!
Martinibomb (The 1998-2004 Collection)
via bloglio oddio

Blah Blah Blah

Let's get really wasted and record an album!


Cool.



Liquidizing Chickens - Blah Blah Blah (1981)
From The Thing on the Doorstep
Found via Kevin Rutmanis

Musique Idiote

Roger Roger- Musique Idiote. Available thanks to Egg City Radio.


Le Bavard

Effets Spéciaux

" ... Don't let the bright magenta colored cover of this album deceive you. Many of the tracks on this release consist of haunting ambient music, punctuated by a variety of percussion instruments, deep bass, electronic synths and strange sound effects. On the whole, Umiliani creates an atmosphere that is bleak, desolate, and mysterious. ..."
Piero Umiliani - Effets Spéciaux. Available thanks to Digital MeltdOwn.


Piero Umiliani - Batiments N° 1

Flowmotion

"I was quite proud of the fact that the booklet that came with the album stated that I had copy #137 of 500. Oh yeah, chicks dug me!
...
It's hard for me to now objectively evaluate an important artifact of my youth, but I can tell you that I used to be endlessly fascinated by songs like the mutant disco of David Jackman's orgy of overdubbed Casios, and the one vocal number on the album, The Legendary Pink Dots' "The Hanging Gardens," which was seemingly the greatest tune that Syd Barret never recorded. Colin Potter's "Rooftops" was sheer Moogy bliss. ..."
Mr. Fab at Music For Maniacs shares Flowmotion: an album of contemporary and electronic music.


The Legendary Pink Dots - The Hanging Gardens

Passport to the future by Dana Countryman

You might not know the name “Jean-Jacques Perrey”, but chances are that you’re heard his music. It’s been everywhere: on commercials, in cartoons, and Top 40 hits. It’s been sampled by over 70 hip-hop artists including Ice T, Dr. Dre and A Tribe Called Quest. Even the Beatles sampled his music.

This book chronicles Perrey’s musical transformation from being just another young accordion player in France, to eventually becoming a pioneer of electronic pop music.



read more

Ondiolini (1948)

The ondioline again:

Music lessons (3) The ondioline

From wikipedia:

The Ondioline is a vacuum tube-powered keyboard instrument, invented in 1941 ^[1] by the Frenchman Georges Jenny, a forerunner of today's synthesizers.

The Ondioline was capable of creating a wide variety of sounds. Its keyboard had a unique feature: it was suspended on special springs which made it possible to introduce a natural vibrato if the player moved the keyboard (not the entire instrument) from side to side (laterally) with their playing hand. The result was an almost human-like vibrato that lent a wide range of expression to the Ondioline. The keyboard was also pressure-sensitive, and the instrument had a knee volume lever, as well.

A few videos:

First a vintage record demonstrating Georges Jenny's Ondioline tube-driven electronic instrument, an important but almost forgotten ancestor of the modern synthesizer. The uploader included English translation of the French-language narration in this video.



From I've Got A Secret an episode of co-inventor of the ondioline Jean Jacques Perrey. (thanks to JJP for posting this on fb)





See also this previous post on the subject.

Sunday Project

Lord knows I have no better way to spend my Sunday, so I think I'll tackle this little build you own theremin project from the April 1955 Popular Electronics. The "T-V" arms sticking out just gives the project a little more panache, don't you think?

Found by Francoise Poodle Wah-Wah

Hans Edler

I hope Mr Dante Fontana didn't post anything about him before ... for those of you who don't know him, i urge you to listen to this true pioneer of electronic music from Sweden.

Hans Edler - Elektron Kukéso (1971) album is available via exp etc (you will find there lots of great and unique music believe me!)

About Hans Edler ...
"In the early 1960's, Edler turned into a teen idol in Sweden with his bands The Ghostriders and We 4. Later, he initiated his own record label wich during the 1970's released anything from obscure progressive rock and children's records to religious and classical music, all at a frienzied pace. He produced numerous shows for Swedish television during the 1980's and also wrote hyms and music for choirs. These days he is devoting his time to techno and dance oriented music, orginizing rock festivals with a nostalgic touch and managing young bands for export outside sweden. And that is only part of it.
However, very few people know about his short but intensive career as the wild man of vintage electronica.
The same goes for the offspring that came of it - a one-of-a-kind album named 'Elektron Kukéso' which not only contains some of the most odd sounds ever scratched into vinyl, but also seems to be the world's first computer-programmed LP in the history of rock 'n' roll, at least occording to Edler. "(from Hans Edler Myspace Fan Page)

Mr. Ondioline

Mr. Ondioline's secret identity revealed as....Jean-Jacques Perrey.

Giving Up with Stock, Hausen, & Walkman

Experimental music CAN be fun, so says bravo juju.

Life on Ceres

Mike Gregoire, Founder/Curator blocSonic.com says about this compilation:

"If you’re turned off by electronic music that merely rehashes tired formulas… with this netBloc release, don’t expect clichés… you won't hear any! This boundary-smashing, international, sonic journey through the world of netaudio packs in artists who come to you from Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, UK, and the US… how’s that for international!"

The title track is composed by Marco Kalnenek, known overhere as Mr. Weirdomusic

Check it out here!