He doesn't use a Groovebox, but analog synthesizer pioneer Morton Subotnick is still around and still working.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35607200
Short article but any mention of Subotnick, who's never been well known outside the world of non-popular electronic music, lets people know about a legend of our times.
Morton Subotnick article on BBC website
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- Banned
- 2238 posts since 19 Dec, 2014
Meffy wrote:He doesn't use a Groovebox, but analog synthesizer pioneer Morton Subotnick is still around and still working.
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-35607200
Short article but any mention of Subotnick, who's never been well known outside the world of non-popular electronic music, lets people know about a legend of our times.
nice piece. interesting to see how the buchla easel got its name...
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- KVRist
- 394 posts since 29 Nov, 2012
The Beeb (Hear and Now, Radio 3) broadcast his performance of From Silver Apples of the Moon to A Sky of Cloudless Sulfur at Cafe Oto back in July.
It's still on my mp3 player.
Astounding.
It's still on my mp3 player.
Astounding.
None of the really dumb people I knew when I was young are young any more.
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- KVRAF
- 25849 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
$1000 back then is about $8000 now I think
A decent month (or two) salary, but nothing he could retire on.
Hope he also got royalties on sale of the two records he made for Nonesuch
A decent month (or two) salary, but nothing he could retire on.
Hope he also got royalties on sale of the two records he made for Nonesuch
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- KVRAF
- 2635 posts since 16 Jan, 2013
I liked the bit about how he kept his studio open and random peeps would just drop in and out while he worked.
Alas, I've tried and tried over the years to "get" Subotnick, but it just all sounds like random bleeps and bloops to me. Electronic, yes. Music, nope. And this is from someone who listened to TG, Neubauten and all that noisy industrial stuff. I'd rather listen to something electronic that actually sounds musical, like Laurie Spiegel.
Alas, I've tried and tried over the years to "get" Subotnick, but it just all sounds like random bleeps and bloops to me. Electronic, yes. Music, nope. And this is from someone who listened to TG, Neubauten and all that noisy industrial stuff. I'd rather listen to something electronic that actually sounds musical, like Laurie Spiegel.
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- KVRAF
- 25849 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
How about George Harrisons' Electronic Sound album?
A tip for the Buchla afficinados, check out the latest release by Ben Edwards (Benge)
http://zackdagoba.bandcamp.com/album/fo ... s-in-space
Done completely with a Buchla 100 modular synthesiser system from the 1960s
A tip for the Buchla afficinados, check out the latest release by Ben Edwards (Benge)
http://zackdagoba.bandcamp.com/album/fo ... s-in-space
Done completely with a Buchla 100 modular synthesiser system from the 1960s
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- Skunk Mod
- Topic Starter
- 21249 posts since 10 Jun, 2004 from Pony Pasture
Fixed that for ya. :-} I've got a copy, with opaque silver ink printed over Krause's name on the front of the album cover. Krause showed Harrison around his (George's) new Moog. From what I've read, Side 1 is a recording of that session, not intended as a composition and not authorized for release on a record.Numanoid wrote:How about Bernie Krause's and George Harrison's Electronic Sound album?
Got the Nonesuch Buchla albums too, and some other formative-period goodies.
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- KVRAF
- 25849 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
Except browsing Discogs I don't know too much about that Electronic Sounds album, so as GH is stated as sole artist there, I thought that was it.
But thanks for the info about Krause, just checking some vids on youtube, and for '69 this sound way ahead of it's time
But thanks for the info about Krause, just checking some vids on youtube, and for '69 this sound way ahead of it's time
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- Skunk Mod
- Topic Starter
- 21249 posts since 10 Jun, 2004 from Pony Pasture
I'll readily agree that Subotnick's compositions aren't everyone's cup of tea. They were meant to owe nothing to ordinary music. It's music just the same, of a different variety than popular idioms.
When I was a kid adults loved to tell the world how this "rock and roll" stuff wasn't music, just noise. A fad. It'll never last. Arthur Godfrey, now there was a musician who would be remembered through the ages as a giant.
In the back of a survey of popular music up to the mid-20th century, the author editorialized about this modern "bebop" stuff and how it wasn't music, just noise. Stephen Foster, now — he'd be loved forever.
And so on, back to certain cave paintings that I translate as "These kids with their whistles and drums aren't making music. It's just a lot of noise. Grob Klud, he was a real musician. Rhythmic guttural sounds were good enough for dad, they're good enough for everyone." :-}
sprnva, I'm not accusing you of taking the Old Fogy position, which I think of as the most extreme form of "it's not music." Just saying by my reckoning it's music even if it's got no tune, or even rhythm.
[edit] And Numanoid, you're welcome. It's always good to spread the word about Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jacques Perrey, and my other early synth heroes. YT is a mixed blessing, but I'm really glad to have access to so much obscure, formerly inaccessible material.
When I was a kid adults loved to tell the world how this "rock and roll" stuff wasn't music, just noise. A fad. It'll never last. Arthur Godfrey, now there was a musician who would be remembered through the ages as a giant.
In the back of a survey of popular music up to the mid-20th century, the author editorialized about this modern "bebop" stuff and how it wasn't music, just noise. Stephen Foster, now — he'd be loved forever.
And so on, back to certain cave paintings that I translate as "These kids with their whistles and drums aren't making music. It's just a lot of noise. Grob Klud, he was a real musician. Rhythmic guttural sounds were good enough for dad, they're good enough for everyone." :-}
sprnva, I'm not accusing you of taking the Old Fogy position, which I think of as the most extreme form of "it's not music." Just saying by my reckoning it's music even if it's got no tune, or even rhythm.
[edit] And Numanoid, you're welcome. It's always good to spread the word about Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, Gershon Kingsley and Jean-Jacques Perrey, and my other early synth heroes. YT is a mixed blessing, but I'm really glad to have access to so much obscure, formerly inaccessible material.
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- KVRAF
- 2635 posts since 16 Jan, 2013
Music is such a subjective thing that even if you were accusing me of being an old fogey I really couldn't take offence at that 
. Fact is, enough people "got" Subotnick. I just haven't been one of them. I don't really have any predefined expectations of what music is, which is why I mentioned my previous industrial interest.
I don't know if he's just been playing Silver Apples on all of his live shows over the last few years but the few times I've looked at these on YT they all sounded virtually indistinguishable from each other. Thinking about it a bit more, I think the core of my issue is his Buchla stuff all sounds the same. Listening to the second track on that Benge album Numanoid posted, I know it's possible to make something distinctive with a Buchla. But after owning one for 50 years I'd have expected Subotnick's tune to change a little. Maybe I should try and find some of his non-Buchla stuff.
Thinking about this a bit more I'm digging myself into a hole by saying one thing is music and another isn't. So disregard any of that. The good thing about discussing things like this in the open is it helps to sharpen ideas and thoughts I'd had for years.
And while we're throwing in random early electronic music, I just discovered this thanks to YT. Pretty cool
. Fact is, enough people "got" Subotnick. I just haven't been one of them. I don't really have any predefined expectations of what music is, which is why I mentioned my previous industrial interest.I don't know if he's just been playing Silver Apples on all of his live shows over the last few years but the few times I've looked at these on YT they all sounded virtually indistinguishable from each other. Thinking about it a bit more, I think the core of my issue is his Buchla stuff all sounds the same. Listening to the second track on that Benge album Numanoid posted, I know it's possible to make something distinctive with a Buchla. But after owning one for 50 years I'd have expected Subotnick's tune to change a little. Maybe I should try and find some of his non-Buchla stuff.
Thinking about this a bit more I'm digging myself into a hole by saying one thing is music and another isn't. So disregard any of that. The good thing about discussing things like this in the open is it helps to sharpen ideas and thoughts I'd had for years.
And while we're throwing in random early electronic music, I just discovered this thanks to YT. Pretty cool
Last edited by sprnva on Sun Feb 21, 2016 8:19 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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- KVRAF
- 25849 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
I never got Subotnick either
I followed Autechre religiously up until Confield, that's when they started to follow Subotnick, I dropped of the wagon...
I followed Autechre religiously up until Confield, that's when they started to follow Subotnick, I dropped of the wagon...
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- Skunk Mod
- Topic Starter
- 21249 posts since 10 Jun, 2004 from Pony Pasture
Not liking Subotnick is cool too. If you give it a listen and decide, you're miles ahead of someone who doesn't even give it a shot.
(By that criterion my mother was right about my opinion of broccoli, but that's another matter altogether.)
And no worries about the semantics and so on, just thinking about where we draw our lines. I've got mine too, no doubt.
(By that criterion my mother was right about my opinion of broccoli, but that's another matter altogether.)
And no worries about the semantics and so on, just thinking about where we draw our lines. I've got mine too, no doubt.
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- KVRAF
- 25849 posts since 20 Jan, 2008 from a star near where you are
Yeah, that is a good way of putting it.Meffy wrote:Not liking Subotnick is cool too. If you give it a listen and decide, you're miles ahead of someone who doesn't even give it a shot.
Now fifty years later, my beef is that there is too much going on. The Wild Bull got some really intersting rhytms but there is just too much over the top.
Anybody putting the needle on the record in '68, hope they had tuned in first
