Electronic music pioneer and composer Suzanne Ciani discusses her career highlights in conversation with William Stokes, including early performance struggles due to her determination to present shows in quadraphonic, a career resurgence thanks to Moogfest and why she loves working with the Buchla interface.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:06 - The First Female To Score A Movie
04:01 - Having More Than 20 Albums
04:36 - Golden Apples Of The Sun
07:55 - Live Performance Struggles
11:57 - A Love Of Programming
14:09 - Interacting With A Buchla
17:14 - A New Way Of Performing Music
22:32 - The Buchla 250 MARF
25:36 - Making A Comeback At Moogfest
29:36 - Creating Spatial Content
38:40 - A Meeting Of Art And Science
41:36 - Future Plans

"I didn't build the machines, I certainly didn't design them, but I could interact with them and use them, you know, and that's what I liked".

#buchla #moog

Suzanne Ciani Biog
Suzanne is a five-time Grammy award-nominated composer, electronic music pioneer, and neo-classical recording artist who has released over 20 solo albums including "Seven Waves," and "The Velocity of Love," along with a landmark quad LP “LIVE Quadraphonic,” which restarted her Buchla modular performances. Her work has been featured in films, games, and countless commercials as well.

She was inducted into the first class of Keyboard Magazine's Hall of Fame alongside other synth luminaries, including Bob Moog, Don Buchla and Dave Smith and received the Moog Innovation Award. Most recently, she is the recipient of the Independent Icon Award from A2IM, The Golden Ear Award and the SEAMUS Award.

Suzanne has provided the voice and sounds for Bally's groundbreaking "Xenon" pinball machine, created Coca-Cola’s pop-and-pour sound, designed logos for Fortune 500 companies and carved out a niche as one of the most creatively successful female composers in the world. A Life in Waves, a documentary about Ciani’s life and work, debuted at SXSW in 2017 and is available to watch on all digital platforms.

Ciani is a graduate of Wellesley College and holds a Masters in Music Composition from the University of California, Berkeley.

http://sevwave.com/
https://transversales.bandcamp.com/album/golden-apples-of-the-sun-3

William Stokes Biog
William Stokes is a producer, writer and artist in three-piece avant-psych band Voka Gentle. As well as being a critic and columnist for Sound On Sound, conceiving the popular Talkback column and heading up the Modular column, he has also written on music and music technology for The Guardian, MOJO, The Financial Times, Electronic Sound and more.

As an artist in Voka Gentle he has made records with producers from Gareth Jones (Depeche Mode, Grizzly Bear, Nick Cave) to Sam Petts-Davies (Radiohead, The Smile, Roger Waters), has had songs featured on franchises from FIFA Football to The Sims and has toured across the UK, Europe and the USA, playing festivals from Pitchfork Avant-Garde in Paris to SXSW in Austin, Texas. He has collaborated with artists including the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne, Morcheeba, Panda Bear and Sonic Boom.

Alongside being a guitarist and pianist, he is a synthesis enthusiast with a particular interest in sampling and explorative sound manipulation. As a producer and engineer, he has made albums with acclaimed avant-garde musicians from composer Tullis Rennie to Mute Records artist Louis Carnell. “I’m always seeking out the most ‘out-there’, experimental, risk-taking musicians I can find to work with,” he says, “to capture vibrant, detailed recordings and create three-dimensional mixes of music that might otherwise struggle to know where to begin in the studio environment.”

Stokes currently lectures in Music Production at City, University of London.

https://www.vokagentle.com/

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Krust, also known as K or DJ Krust, chats about his early involvement in the Bristol music scene in the late 80s to early 90s, the development of the Drum & Bass sound and setting up the Full Cycle and Dope Dragon labels with Roni Size.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:28 - Early Influences And Getting Started
07:28 - Getting Immersed In Rave
08:45 - Launching A Label
10:23 - Learning The Equipment
12:12 - Jungle DJ / Producers
16:11 - Creating A Sound Palette
17:58 - Making Use Of Hardware
19:52 - Preparing A Track
23:23 - Dealing With Burnout
28:20 - Helping Musicians
31:06 - Crafting The New Album
41:15 - The Current Jungle / DnB Scene
48:36 - Current And Future Projects

Interviewee Biog
Bristol-born b-boy Kirk Thompson is best known as DJ and producer Krust, an artist whose ideas and frequencies rumble and resonate deep within jungle’s DNA. With an indelible legacy as a key figurehead in the Bristol sound, he has never compromised since emerging in 1989 as a member of Fresh 4. As a founding member of Full Cycle, the first non-London label to truly mould and manipulate the jungle schematic, and Reprazents, one of the first D&B acts to infiltrate the popular psyche and win critical Mercury Music Prize acclaim, his designs continue to help shape our understanding of what drum & bass is.

He is regarded as one of drum & bass and jungle's founders and pioneers noted for his unique musical style. Epic experimentalism of Krust’s can be heard in his 1997 single ‘Soul In Motion’ and similarly ground-breaking ‘98 single ‘True Stories’ for Talkin Loud. An in-demand remixer, Krust has reworked tracks for Bjork, Korn, Moloko, Claude VonStroke, DJ Krush, Adam F, Shy FX, Alex Reece, DJ Ron, DJ Rap and many more. His recent album entitled Edge of Everything was released in 2020 on Crosstown Rebels and received critical acclaim. It was nominated for a album of the year with AIM Award and DjMag.

In addition to making music Krust has helmed Adapt The Canvas, a lifestyle coaching consultancy that holds workshops and seminars giving advice on time management, overcoming personal challenges, creative thinking, wellness and the development of the working mindsets, which have taken place in music colleges, universities and The Barbican, London. His Weekly podcast Conversation for Creatives reaches a global audience of creatives and can be checked out on his Instagram and Spotify profiles.

https://crosstownrebels.bandcamp.com/album/the-edge-of-everything
https://www.instagram.com/dj_krust/
https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/adaptthecanvas

Caro C Biog
Caro C is an artist, engineer and teacher specialising in electronic music. Her self-produced fourth album 'Electric Mountain' is out now. Described as a "one-woman electronic avalanche" (BBC), Caro started making music thanks to being laid up whilst living in a double decker bus and listening to the likes of Warp Records in the late 1990's. This 'sonic enchantress' (BBC Radio 3) has now played in most of the cultural hotspots of her current hometown of Manchester, UK. Caro is also the instigator and project manager of electronic music charity Delia Derbyshire Day.

URL: http://carocsound.com/

Twitter: @carocsound
Inst: @carocsound

FB: https://www.facebook.com/carocsound/

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Pedals are not just for guitars. Here Paul White connects his extensive pedal collection to a modular synth system, effectively using the pedals as additional modules and suggesting some creative ways of setting up and combining them to create a range of sounds for different applications.

• (00:00) - Introduction
• (00:42) - Connecting Your Pedals
• (01:31) - Using A Delay Or Reverb
• (03:49) - Adding Some Overdrive
• (04:38) - Adding Effects With Pitch Shift
• (05:37) - Using Chorus To Thicken A Sound
• (06:28) - Tremolo And Vibrato
• (06:54) - Phasers And Flangers
• (08:10) - Adding An Envelope Filter
• (09:21) - Creating Textures With Granular Delay
• (10:26) - Ring Modulator Effects
• (11:52) - Combining Effects
• (14:33) - Adding In An Arpeggiator
• (15:23) - Creating A Softer Sound

#StrymonCloudburst

Paul White Biog
Paul White initially trained in electronics at The Royal Radar Establishment in Malvern then went on to work with Malvern Instruments, a company specialising in laser analysis equipment, before moving into technical writing.

He joined the Sound On Sound team in 1991 where he became Editor In Chief, a position he held for many years before recently becoming Executive Editor. Paul has written more than 20 recording and music technology textbooks, the latest being The Producer’s Manual.

Having established his own multitrack home studio in the 1980s he’s worked with many notable names including Bert Jansch and Gordon Giltrap. He’s played in various bands over the years and currently collaborates with Malvern musician Mark Soden, under the name of Cydonia Collective. Paul still performs live claiming that as he has suffered for his music he doesn’t see why everyone else shouldn’t too!

http://www.cydoniacollective.co.uk/

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Jason Singh is a sound artist, producer and performer. His creative output is an exploration of the natural world, voice and a wide range of music technologies. Works include live performance, immersive installations, studio recordings, broadcasts and sound walks.

In this show he talks about how he makes music using the MIDI Sprout interface, a device that senses the electrical voltage of plants and converts it into MIDI information. He then uses the notes to control Ableton to produce the sounds he used in his recordings and immersive installations.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:48 - Getting Started in Audio
06:17 - Collaborating With Other Creatives
09:46 - Studio Toys
12:48 - Custom Built Instruments And Interfaces
14:08 - Live Performances
19:41 - Collaborating With Nature Using Biofeedback
25:07 - Using The MIDI Sprout and PlantWave
29:47 - Experiencing Nature Sounds In Real-Time
31:44 - Creating An Immersive Installation For Womad
40:54 - Opening Your Ears To Everyday Sounds

Audio Credits:
Afternoon - a commission by National Trust to create an entirely vocal piece which mimics the sounds of a woodland area in Tatton Park in Cheshire.
Passing Light - an Ambient Jazz piece featuring trumpet player Yazz Ahmed.

Rhubarb - is a biosonfication track from the latest release "The Hidden Music of Plants and Trees", created in collaboration with a Rhubarb plant.

MIDI Sprout - https://www.midisprout.com/
PlantWave - https://plantwave.com/en-gb

Jason Singh Biog

Jason Singh is sound artist, nature beatboxer, producer, dj, curator, facilitator and performer. Jason’s life and work is rooted in listening - he follows a multi-sensory and cross-species approach to sound and music. His creative output is an exploration of the natural world, voice and a wide range of music technologies. Works includes live performance, immersive installations, studio recordings, music for film and theatre, deep listening and well being experiences, sound walks, broadcasts, music workshops, podcasts, soundtapes and immersive DJ sets.

Collaborations and commissions include a diverse range of organisations and artists including BBC, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, V&A Museum, Earthshot Prize, WOMAD, Kew Gardens, Chester Zoo, SONOS, Luke Jerram, BFI, Celtic Connections, RNLI, National Trust, Tate Britain, Nitin Sawhney, George Ezra, Big Narstie, Yazz Ahmed, Shabaka Hutchings, Sebastian Rochford, Leafcutter John, Graham Massey (808 State), Natacha Atlas, Sarathy Korwar, Talvin Singh and Rokia Traore to name just a few. Jason is an associate Soundscape artist with D&B audiotechnik.

https://jasonsinghthing.com/

Credits:
Afternoon - was a commission by National Trust to create an entirely vocal piece which mimics the sounds of a woodland area in Tatton Park in Cheshire, England.

Passing Light - Ambient Jazz piece featuring trumpet player Yazz Ahmed

Rhubarb - is a biosonfication track from the release "The Hidden Music of Plants and Trees" created in collaboration with a Rhubarb plant.

Caro C Biog
Caro C is an artist, engineer and teacher specialising in electronic music. Her self-produced fourth album 'Electric Mountain' is out now. Described as a "one-woman electronic avalanche" (BBC), Caro started making music thanks to being laid up whilst living in a double decker bus and listening to the likes of Warp Records in the late 1990's. This 'sonic enchantress' (BBC Radio 3) has now played in most of the cultural hotspots of her current hometown of Manchester, UK. Caro is also the instigator and project manager of electronic music charity Delia Derbyshire Day.

URL: http://carocsound.com/

Twitter: @carocsound
Inst: @carocsound

FB: https://www.facebook.com/carocsound/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

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In an impromptu chat, Tom Oberheim tells Sam Inglis about his early years as an engineer and his accidental route into creating electronic musical instruments. As he celebrates his 50th year since the launch of the SEM, Tom talks about the rise of digital, the resurgence of analogue and the launch of the new TEO-5.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:26 - An Accidental Engineer
02:46 - Building For Musicians
06:34 - Becoming a Distributor For The ARP 2600
11:05 - Designing The SEM
12:43 - The Filter Design
15:03 - The OB-1 And Patch Memories

16:36 - OB-X - Polyphony And Programmable Presets

19:35 - The Oberheim Sound
22:37 - The Digital Takeover
24:40 - The Resurgence Of Analogue

28:01 - Launching The OB-X8 With Focusrite

29:23 - The Oberheim TEO-5

30:37 - Utilising New Technology

Oberheim Biog
Oberheim is the 21st century return of the legendary company that helped fuel the original electronic music revolution in the 1970s. Now, just as then, Oberheim is guided by the vision of engineer and inventor, Tom Oberheim. Tom’s genius for innovation introduced the world to the first commercially available poly synth and other groundbreaking electronic instruments that literally changed the sound of music.

Today, Oberheim reawakens this extraordinary legacy by bringing the famed Oberheim sound to a new generation of instruments and artists. The company’s passion remains unchanged by time or technology — to once again provide the world with the finest-sounding analog synthesizers ever made.

https://oberheim.com/

Sam Inglis Biog
Editor In Chief Sam Inglis has been with Sound On Sound for more than 20 years. He is a recording engineer, producer, songwriter and folk musician who studies the traditional songs of England and Scotland, and the author of Neil Young's Harvest (Bloomsbury, 2003) and Teach Yourself Songwriting (Hodder, 2006).

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

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Electronic Music artist Jlin talks about her processes for creating a new work, being ready to tour straight from the studio and staying grounded and focused when your work starts to gain recognition.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
01:27 - The Journey So Far
03:09 - Using FL Studio
03:50 - Live Performance With Ableton
09:23 - Developing A Sound World
10:51 - Focusing On The Detail
12:12 - CPU: Clean, Precise And Unpredictable
14:55 - Favourite Plug-ins
16:02 - Preparing For A New Project
18:36 - Being Disciplined
21:33 - Staying Humble And Working Hard
23:55 - Preparing For A Tour
26:13 - Stereo Vs Immersive
29:14 - Going With The Flow

Jlin Biog
Jlin (Jerrilynn Patton) has quickly become one of the most distinctive composers in America and one of the most influential women in electronic music. Jlin’s thrilling, emotional and multidimensional compositions have earned her praise as “one of the most forward-thinking contemporary composers in any genre” (Pitchfork). She is a recipient of a 2023 US Artist award and a 2023 Pulitzer Prize nomination.

Her mini-album Perspective was released to critical acclaim on Planet Mu 2023. Her much-lauded albums Dark Energy (2015) and Black Origami (2017) have appeared on “Best of” lists in The NY Times, The Wire, LA Times, Rolling Stone, The Guardian and Vogue. Jlin has been commissioned by the Kronos Quartet, Third Coast Percussion, the Pathos Quartet, choreographers Wayne McGregor and Kyle Abraham, fashion designer Rick Owens and the visual artists Nick Cave and Kevin Beasley.

Her next release, Akoma (Planet Mu March 2024) features collaborations with Philip Glass, Bjork and Kronos Quartet.

https://www.jlintheinnovator.com/

Caro C Biog
Caro C is an artist, engineer and teacher specialising in electronic music. Her self-produced fourth album 'Electric Mountain' is out now. Described as a "one-woman electronic avalanche" (BBC), Caro started making music thanks to being laid up whilst living in a double decker bus and listening to the likes of Warp Records in the late 1990's. This 'sonic enchantress' (BBC Radio 3) has now played in most of the cultural hotspots of her current hometown of Manchester, UK. Caro is also the instigator and project manager of electronic music charity Delia Derbyshire Day.

URL: http://carocsound.com/

Twitter: @carocsound
Inst: @carocsound

FB: https://www.facebook.com/carocsound/

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

Get a print or digital subscription to Sound On Sound magazine.

The drum machine has progressed massively since the days of the home organ player. Here Oli Freke takes us through a brief history with lots of audio examples, highlighting the most iconic models to have been released during the last 40 years and the part that they have played in shaping musical trends.

Chapters
00:00 - Introduction
00:51 - Early Rhythm Machines
02:57 - The First Korg Rhythm Machine
04:03 - The Invention Of The Transistor
08:02 - Solid State Rhythm Machines
13:48 - Using Drum Machines In Mainstream Hits
17:05 - The First Programmable Drum Machines
21:59 - The Introduction Of Drum Pads And Brains
25:27 - The Arrival Of Digital Samples And The Linn Drum
30:59 - The Era Of Sampling Drum Machines
37:11 - The Impact Of The Roland TR-808 and TR-909
42:54 - Other Notable 80s Drum Machines
44:41 - The Introduction of MIDI
46:51 - Standardised Layouts And Spec
50:12 - Analogue Circuit Modelling And Software
53:45 - Back To Hardware With Eurorack Modular
54:52 - Drum Pattern Generation With AI

Oli Freke Biog
Oli Freke is a London based musician, artist and author who has had a life-long passion for electronic instruments, synthesizers and electronic music. Currently working for the BBC, he has previously enjoyed success with electro band Cassette Electrik supporting the Human League on tour, written music for television and produced dance music since the 1990s.

His Synth Evolution range of posters, celebrating the synthesizer and electronic music culture, launched in 2017 and led to the definitive, hand-illustrated book, ‘Synth Evolution: From Analogue to Digital (and Back)’, featuring every commercial synth of the 20th century.

www.synthevolution.net
www.linktr.ee/olifreke

CREDITS

1. Chamberlin Rhythmate - audio.com (@Drum Machine)
2. Wurlitzer Sideman - Internet Archive (archive.com)
3. Korg Doncamatic - Korg (Germany)
4. Korg Minipops 3 - Corsynth Modular (Corsynth.com)
5. Ace Tone F-1 - @YouAreTheRobots
6. Roland TR-77 - @vintageaudioinstitute
7. Mattel Bee Gees Rhythm Machine - Thomas P. Heckmann (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn8mxHfY4vM&t=4s)
8. Maestro MRK-2 - @organ61
9. Korg KR-55 - Steve Porter (synthmagic.co.uk)
10. Roland CR-78 - AnalogAudio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0CHoU24Dis&t=129s)
11. Eko CompuRhythm - Hainbach (https://www.youtube.com/@Hainbach)
12. Paia Programmable Drumset - Thomas P. Heckmann (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2afPnOpv4U)
13. Boss DR-55 - Leonard de Leonard (https://www.sound-provider.eu/)
14. Movement Computer System - @Theccrstudio
15. Pollard Syndrum - recording: Joe Bataan, ‘Rap-O, Clap-O’
16. Simmons SDS-V - Alain Levesque
17. Linn LM-1 - John Diligio (@javd007)
18. LinnDrum - @zibbybone
19. Sequential Circuits DrumTraks - AnalogAudio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxhRyEEZCYA)
20. E-Mu Drumulator - @synthmania
21. E-MU SP-12 - AnalogAudio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDpvKBoJjug&t=287s)
22. Oberheim DMX - @synthmania
23. Roland TR-909 - @DoctorMix
24. Roland 707 - AnalogAudio (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eRhSRHFkMA)
25. Yamaha RX-11, Casio RZ-1 - @synthmania

Catch more shows on our other podcast channels: https://www.soundonsound.com/sos-podcasts

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