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330: Clara Rockmore // Theremin
Theremin Clara Rockmore 1977, Delos (Bandcamp)
100 years since its invention, the theremin remains an oddity. It is in every respect an antiquated piece of technology, and yet like the Tesla coil and the plasma globe it still provokes the primal wonder of science-as-magic. The advancements of a modern synthesizer unit are hidden from the eye—if you presented it to an unthawed person from the 19th century, they would at least be able to infer that the device is controlled using the buttons and keys. But the theremin player creates sound by coaxing an invisible magnetic field with their bare hands, as though they are pulling its warbling voice from the air itself—and indeed, inventor Léon Theremin’s artful original name for his instrument was the ætherphone.
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To watch a performance by Clara Rockmore, the instrument’s foremost practitioner, is to see something that resembles a scene from a séance or a German Expressionist film. A petite, dark-haired woman with the eyes of an Orthodox Virgin Mary, she would stand ramrod straight behind the lectern-like theremin, nearly motionless save for the almost palsied-looking convulsions of her knotted hands and the tensing of her eyebrows, the only sign on her otherwise slack features of the intensity of her concentration. She looks as though she is forcing down the song attempting to leap from her throat until it screams through her fingertips like steam from a kettle. As synth pioneer Robert Moog explains in his liner notes to Rockmore’s 1977 LP Theremin, her absolute stillness was not a theatrical device but a requirement of playing the instrument: the theremin’s magnetic field encompasses not only the performers hands but their entire upper body, meaning that even a minor motion of the head will influence the instrument’s pitch. But the austere figure she cut no doubt contributed to her allure, the sense that she was herself as unearthly as the instrument she played.
Rockmore, a violin prodigy since age 5, took to Theremin’s invention sometime in the late 1920s. Her concerts popularized and legitimated the instrument, but it would be nearly a half-century before the Theremin LP, her first, was finally released. Produced by Shirleigh Moog and engineered by her husband Robert, one gets the sense that the Moogs are fans trying to correct an oversight, to record the album as it would’ve sounded if it had been made her during her prime. The results are captivating, even haunting. At times you may be fooled into thinking you’re listening to a recording of a human soprano from some decayed shellac disc; in other moments, you will be moved by how world-weary an electronic tone can sound. Rockmore is accompanied, as she had been since the beginning, by her sister Nadia Reisenberg on piano, and her selections focus on 19th and early 20th century compositions, with a heavy emphasis on the Romantics. A majority of the pieces here come from her fellow Russians, including Tchaikovsky, Glazunov, Rachmaninoff, and Stravinsky. My personal favourite of these is her take on Joseph Achron’s “Hebrew Melody.” Inspired by traditional laments, Rockmore’s theremin evokes the sobbing characteristic (krekhts) of Jewish vocal music, while her sister thunders and pirouettes on her piano in a classically Romantic style.
Theremin stands apart from other electronic classical records like Wendy Carlos’ Switched-On Bach because it never sounds wholly like a novelty despite the theremin’s high camp potential (and, for that matter, Rockmore’s). It is peculiar, and my fascination with it definitely originated in a perverse nostalgia for esoteric junk—but the somber beauty of the sisters’ performance wiped the smirk from my face from virtually the moment I dropped the needle.
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#clara rockmore#theremin#leon theremin#robert moog#moog#shirleigh moog#electronic music#early electronic#romantic music#'30s music#'70s music#classical music#nadia reisenberg#music review#vinyl record#mississippi records#joseph achron#tchaikovsky#rachmaninoff#glazunov#achron#stravinsky
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Ann Southam - Boat, Moon, River from: Ann Southam, Violet Archer, Robert Daigneault – Electronic Music By Canadian Composers - Volume I (Melbourne, 1974)
#1970s#canada#Ann Southam#electronic#experimental#electroacoustic#early electronic#women in electronic music#Melbourne (records)#1974
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Region: Germany / Style: Musique concrète / Year: 1962
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recent listening
#musique concrete#early electronic#electronic music#experimental music#ambient#persian#persian classical#avant garde#Youtube
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Amy Winehouse playing with the decks Photo by Daniel Lismore
#art#photography#amy winehouse#dj#portrait#contemporary art#music#electronic music#2010s nostalgia#early 2010s#nostalgia#aesthetic#painting#britain#00s#RIP#curators#curators on tumblr#💕
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「QUMARION(クーマリオン」は、「CLIP STUDIO PAINT」 2013-08-03
#electronics#old tech#this is such a good case study of a product releasing too early#there are tons of people who are already drawing from 3d models of their OCs#but likee vr chat ppl#vtubers etc#..#released in 2013 and never got the kind of traction it could've had#and the company moved on to other things#the price point was high as well but would've come down with volume#oh garage kit makers too#also with the current technology it would be waaaaay cheaper to produce and less bulky#you could probably even make something similar with phone camera image recognition alone
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୨ৎ
#tech#web finds#2000s#00s#cybercore#techcore#retro tech#old tech#aesthetic#y2k#y2k aesthetic#nostalgia#tech aesthetic#technology#old phones#early 2000s#frutiger aero#webcore#cutecore#kawaiicore#electronics#cyber y2k#cyber#objects#y2k futurism#y2k design#y2kcore#2000s aesthetic#nostalgiacore#vintage
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Nintendo Pokemon Mini (2001-2)
#2000s aesthetic#2000s#2000s nostalgia#2000s style#00s#00s aesthetic#00s core#00s nostalgia#blue#console#cybercore#cyber y2k#design#early 2000s#early 00s#electronic#future#futuristic#futurism#games#gaming#handheld#kaybug#nintendo#photography#pokemon#tech#technology#video games#y2kcore
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190: White Noise // An Electric Storm
An Electric Storm White Noise 1969, Island
I’ve read a decent amount on how White Noise’s An Electric Storm was made over the course of a year of painstakingly splicing tape by hand in a London flat, but not why they decided to make their pioneering electronic music opus so ooky-spooky. I guess when you coop up folks whose day job is making Dalek noises, you’re going to get something a bit deranged. The opening side’s psych pop is jaunty enough, though there’s often something vacant-eyed in its whimsy, like a carnival in a Stephen King story: your ear is drawn to the incongruous details that hint at some darker working behind the cutesiness. It prepares you well for the flip, where across its 11-minute runtime “The Visitation” opens multiple echo chambers full of sobs, previews the next decade of horror film title themes, and digs pits of gurgling electronic unease that spored whole genres of dark ambient music still evolving to this day. The album ends on a literal (well, fake literal) Satanic ritual in the form of “Black Mass: An Electric Storm in Hell,” which turns jazz drummer Paul Lytton into the Jacob’s Ladder poster. Leader David Vorhaus likes to wryly shake his head recalling how the A&R people at Island Records didn’t “get it” when he turned in the LP, but even as someone who does “get it” I uh get why they didn’t!
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An Electric Storm is chiefly discussed for the means of its production, and that’s fair: despite digital advances in recording technology that make the most advanced techniques found here (phasing, flanging, looping) virtually effortless, it is uncanny hearing them deployed so extensively on music of this vintage. It’s the equivalent of watching a film from the ��60s and seeing effects that look like The Terminator. The music rarely goes more than a few bars before melting into some other shape (a melodic phrase begun on one instrument is spliced so it resolves on another; the music drops out entirely, replaced by a collage of ratcheting noises, electronic bloops and choking cries somewhere between anguish and laughter). By turning over a third of “My Game of Loving” to cringey orgasm sounds, they even initiate the nascent electronic pop genre into the elite fraternity of styles that are a little too eager to prove they fuck.
The lyrics won’t win any prizes, but I do take issue with how dismissive some writers have been of these songs as songs. An Electric Storm is steeped in the psychedelic tropes of the day, but it doesn’t sound like the work of avid fans of like the Electric Prunes or whatever. One senses that Vorhaus and BBC Radiophonic Workshop regulars Delia Derbyshire and Hodgson have a general but disinterested notion of what the kids are into, and they feed it back to us through the filter of their own predilections. Derbyshire’s two co-writes in particular are anything but generic. The rippling transformations of “Love Without Sound” are as wondrous and eerie as a Winsor McCay Little Nemo strip, but it’s the opiated vocal by the otherwise unknown John Whitman and the strolling melody that ebbs in and out of the collage that give it a dreamy logic. “Firebird” has a Beach Boys-y bounce and gorgeously arranged harmonies to go with an array of synth tones so solid and colourful I want to play with them like toy blocks.
Though it didn’t set the charts ablaze, An Electric Storm developed a reputation as a tripper classic, and I was pretty psyched to find a copy in not too battered condition for a reasonable price at a shop this summer. I’m glad to have it on the shelf, and with the exception of the 45 seconds that makes my neighbours think I’m listening to weird and bad porn, I always enjoy the adventure when I get it on the table.
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#white noise#david vorhaus#delia derbyshire#bbc radiophonic workshop#dr who#bbc#'60s music#psychedelic pop#tape music#early electronic#electronic music#analog synth#horror music#halloweek
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BRING BACK 2000’s GADGETS. 😤
like im so over the boring no creativity basic lookin ass devices they be giving us in 2024
I don’t care if the tech is convenient , I’ll deal with busted head phone wires, scratched cd’s & keyboard buttons getting stuck for fun creative gadgets like these. Right? 💿 💻 📹
#pintrest#moodboard aesthetic#shuffles app#this is a girlblog#discopvnk#colorful#electronics#gadgets#2000s nostalgia#2000s tech#cybercore#hello kitty#y2kcore#cyber y2k#2000s aesthetic#early 2000s#macintosh#techcore#it girl#girly aesthetic#flip phone#walkman#music cds
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Bernard Parmegiani - Capture Éphémère (1967, 1988 version) from: Bernard Parmegiani - Violostries (Recollection GRM, 2020)
#1960s#france#Bernard Parmegiani#electronic#experimental#musique concrète#acousmatic#electroacoustic#progressive electronic#Recollection GRM#2020#1988#early electronic#masters of electronic music
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🇺🇸 Back in the early 2000s, the America Online (AOL) Mobile Communicator was a groundbreaking device.
📲 Housed in its distinct pink bag, the device boasted a battery that expired in 2004 and came with those iconic AOL CDs offering 700 free hours of internet – a true blast from the past!
📟 Opening the device revealed the exceptional build quality typical of RIM products. It featured a built-in AOL Instant Messenger (AIM), allowing users to stay connected with friends and family through instant messaging.
📧 AIM was a key player in the messaging scene back then, making this device not just a communicator but a social hub.
#techtime chronicles#old technology#old tech#tech#technology#companies#electronics#information technology#technews#corporations#blackberry#rim#aim messenger#instant messenger#america online#aol#save icq#icq museum#icq new#icqforever#icq#early web#old internet#old web#old computers#y2k aesthetic#y2k style#y2k#portable devices#gadgets
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#nine inch nails#trent reznor#industrial#dark alternative#2000s#alt#webcore#web finds#nostalgia#industrial music#electronic#dark electronic#dark industrial#00s#00s nostalgia#early internet#old web#early web#old internet#digital camera#concert merchandise#industrial rock
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My new song 'Nectaria' is Out Now!!💿 (。˃ ᵕ ˂ )⸝‧₊˚ ⋅✧ ▶︎၊၊||၊|။||||||။၊|။
#natsumi pocket#natsumipocket#my music#my art#dnb#drum and bass#liquid dnb#bandcamp#Nectaria#electronic music#music#y2k#2000s#early 2000s#90s#Bandcamp#natsumipocketmusic#natsumimusic
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