Originally published at: Electronic music from the 1930s: Prelude by Rachmaninov | Boing Boing
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This is sweet, visionary stuff! What a great find. Thanks!
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Move optical music; though from a few decades later.
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The 30’s were trippy, AF.
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very Norman McLaren
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I admire the incredible creativity that went into this.
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Whoa! I’m way out of touch. Pea Hicks has a modern Optigan upgrade for sale (pricy at $4k but it is verrrrrrry boutique).
Edit
I remember him talking about a Kraftwerk usage of a similar machine:
https://optigan.com/the-kraftwerk-connection/
/edit
If we are talking other visual synthesists I can’t resist a mention of Daphne Oram’s Oramics machine (her book is bonkers!) she founded the BBC Radiophonic Workshop. I believe the British Science Museum restored it:
And you can’t leave this topic without mentioning a later Soviet era synth, the ANS named after Scriabin. I see on its Wiki page that it was used by Alfred Schnittke and Sofia Gubaidulina, two exquisite composers.
Though you and I no doubt know it better from Tarkovsky soundtracks.
I can’t recommend too highly the Virtual ANS from Warmplace
https://warmplace.ru/soft/ans/
I used to send people birthday “messages” of creepy noise by writing on that. I believe he has a bunch of crazy tools out there but I must admit I haven’t followed. If you want crazy complex sythesis on an old iOS device I’m told he’s be the man to go to.
Actually, here’s another of his (clearly sounding the influence of the ANS - which also sounds like UPIC)
And seeing as I have that, and if you can tolerate the noise, I highly recommend a UPIC video from the great Iannis Xennakis - Mycenae Alpha
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Ooo, shiny.
The comic shop we went to in Houston in '84 had a stack of 45s of “electronic music” “inspired by Forbidden Planet,” and this guy never bought one of them.
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