I DREAM OF WIRES
USA 2014
"I Dream of Wires" is one of those
specials about a part of the history of electronic music, that is rarely
discussed and looked at. Essentially, there are two parts to that history, and a
part of this thread has mentioned it. In most cases, the synthesizer became
nothing but a replacement instrument within the rock, jazz, or some other style
of band.
But, since the early days of the synthesizer growth, not many folks stuck to the
essence of the instrument itself, and its sounds, and what could be done with
them. Essentially, "I Dream of Wires" is about those people and some of their
thoughts and design, and how some folks got this far into what today is looked
at as "modular synthesizers", which is a bunch of modules connected individually
so someone can create their own ideas in regards to the sound.
To this effect, the special interviews many folks that were involved, and the
ones that anyone might be interested in hearing, would be the ones in SF and NY,
the two completely different ideas that helped generate the ideas that these
sounds could be used for more than just ... sounds.
However, here is where the whole thing splits ... Mr. Subotnick explains it as
well as anyone else, that Mr. Moog went in that direction, to see what musicians
could do with the whole thing, while the other "purists" were looking to play
with the sounds themselves, and see where and how far they could take this.
This "experimental" school did not lose its traction. Through out Europe there
were many other folks that took this design and went with them, and creating a
"song" or "music' was not what they were looking for, and the early electronic
music folks in Germany, and then the likes of Richard Pinhas with Heldon in
France, showed that they had ideas (specially Pinhas with massive articles and
discussions published on Eurock issues, that showed there was an interest in
taking this electronic design into another area.
Later, there some popular musicians that discussed their work and use of the
synthesizer and how they wrapped their work around the "noise" and its design.
It made for different things, and help usher a lot of music, and we get to hear
some of the names that were known to play with these things, but the real fun in
this special, is not some of these better known folks like Gary Numan, Vince
Clark and a few others, but the folks that stuck to the original parts of the
"analog" synthesizer (which is the name of the conglomeration of these
modules!!!), and all of a sudden you get to see a bunch of crazy looking things,
and people being totally nutz with their creations and sounds ... and this part
is fun to watch.
The special throws out an idea that today's social gatherings with a live DJ,
are helping define and create many of these sounds, to help entertain their
audience, and in some ways, their work is fine, and I would not criticize,
although many "musicians" think this is bad for music in general, as it makes
them un-necessary.
All in all, this is a nice special, although for my tastes, i would have liked
to hear/see a bit of Tomita, Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream and Ryuichi
Sakamoto, folks that were massive as well in the growth of these things, but in
the end, with the exception of Klaus Schulze, all of them went into melody and
the more accessible sounding music with these instruments, and in many ways,
this is a special about the parts that kep this not accessible, so to speak.
Interesting to watch and listen to if you love historical moments, and this one
is full and will help you see major differences between the East and West Coast
in America ... which also happened in rock and other musics.
Directed by Robert Fantinatto
4 GIBLOONS
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