Moog Movie - New York Times

[mosc]

The Moog Synthesizer Makes a Comeback

September 29, 2004
By DAVID BERNSTEIN

Robert Moog, the eccentric electronic pioneer whose name is
practically synonymous with the synthesizer - and hence
with rock music's psychedelic era - is back in vogue.

In this decidedly digital age, more and more contemporary
musicians and rockers are rediscovering the space-age,
analog sounds of the Moog synthesizer.

Techno enthusiasts, who generally like to experiment with
sounds and manufacture original noises, have reignited
interest in the Moog (rhymes with rogue), which can
synthesize any sound imaginable. A growing number of
hip-hop musicians and producers have also fueled the
phenomenon, trying to recapture the rich grooves of Stevie
Wonder, Parliament-Funkadelic and other soul and funk
masters. Some of today's critically lauded rock bands, like
Wilco, are also part of this Moog revival.

"The instrument crosses all kinds of music," said Money
Mark, a turntablist who tours with the Beastie Boys.
"There's no color boundary or genre boundary with the
Moog."

So it is timely that a new documentary, "Moog," opened
Friday in New York (at the Cinema Village, 22 East 12th
Street, Greenwich Village) and Seattle. A wider release for
the documentary, which is distributed by Plexifilm, is
scheduled for later this fall, and a soundtrack featuring
new songs by Stereolab and They Might Be Giants, among
other artists, was issued Sept. 14 by Hollywood Records.

Hans Fjellestad, 36, the film's director, said Mr. Moog
helped start a musical revolution. "I'd put him right up
there with Les Paul and Leo Fender, definitely," Mr.
Fjellestad said, referring to the founding fathers of the
electric guitar. "He embodies that sort of visionary,
maverick spirit and that inventor mythology."

Mr. Fjellestad, whose first feature-length documentary,
"Frontier Life" (2002), explored the cultural identity and
electronic dance scene of Tijuana, Mexico, said his new
documentary tracks more than the life and work of Mr. Moog.


"It's not really a biography," he said. "I was more
interested in focusing on Bob's ideas about creativity,
about the interactivity of man and machine, and about his
spiritual beliefs, which may or may not be related to music
specifically."

Mr. Moog started building electronic instruments at the age
of 14. In 1954, Mr. Moog, then 19, and his father, George,
formed their own company, R. A. Moog, and sold mail-order
kits for theremins, the earliest kind of electronic
instruments, out of their bungalow in Flushing, Queens.

"I didn't know what the hell I was doing," Mr. Moog
recalled in an interview. "I was doing this thing to have a
good time, then all of a sudden someone's saying to me,
'I'll take one of those and two of that.' That's how I got
into business."

Mr. Moog introduced his synthesizer in 1964. Though it
quickly caught on with experimental and avant-garde
musicians and makers of science-fiction movies, it was not
until the psychedelic rock movement in the late 1960's that
mainstream musicians embraced it. Then, Mr. Moog was
building instruments for some of the biggest musical acts
of the day, including the Doors, the Grateful Dead, the
Rolling Stones and the Beatles.

Artists and experts said that he understood better than
other electronics pioneers that musicians make emotional
connections with their instruments, and that Mr. Moog
sought out the players' feedback and responded to their
needs.

"Arguably, before the Moog synthesizer, you'd have to go
back to the invention of the saxophone by Adolphe Sax in
the 1840's for an instrument of similar impact," said
Trevor Pinch, co-author of "Analog Days: The Invention and
Impact of the Moog Synthesizer."

"In the psychedelic era, the Moog was just what these
musicians were looking for," Mr. Pinch said. "They were
searching for new forms of sounds, weird effects. They all
had big advances from record companies. They were all
stoned. They all said, 'We've got to have one of these.' "

But it was a classical music recording that brought Mr.
Moog's synthesizer to the masses. Wendy Carlos's 1968 album
"Switched-On Bach," a collection of synthesized
interpretations of Bach classics, was the synthesizer's
first commercial success, selling more than 1 million
copies and spawning a flood of copycat albums.

If Ms. Carlos helped introduce the sounds of circuitry to
listeners' record players, Keith Emerson, the former
keyboardist for the progressive rock band Emerson, Lake and
Palmer, showed musicians and music fans that the
synthesizer was more than an odd studio instrument; it
could be an exciting performance instrument.

Mr. Emerson's towering, 10-foot-tall, 550-pound "Monster
Moog," as he called it, was an indispensable part of the
group's concerts, even though it was often unreliable and
difficult to play. He said he had to tune it repeatedly as
he played and sometimes had to cover it with tinfoil
because it picked up police radio traffic during
performances.

By the early 1970's, interest in exploring electronic sound
waned among mainstream musicians. What's more, a second
generation of more user-friendly synthesizers offered by
ARP Instruments and Electronic Music Studios came to
dominate the market, replacing the classic Moog.

"Suddenly we went from a nine-month or a year backlog to
having no backlog and no orders," Mr. Moog said. "I ran out
of money at the beginning of 1971."

Mr. Moog sold a controlling interest in his struggling
company and, more important, rights to the Moog Music name
to a venture capitalist, who sold it a few years later to
the now-defunct Norlin Music. In 1978, he moved to
Asheville, N.C., and started a new company, Big Briar,
building custom instruments and sound-effect boxes. After a
lengthy legal battle, Mr. Moog reclaimed the rights to the
Moog brand last year and began selling instruments bearing
his name for the first time in more than two decades.

Mr. Moog, who turned 70 this year, is still inventing. The
company, renamed Moog Music, offers a variety of new
products: an anniversary-edition Minimoog Voyager; various
types of analog sound-effect boxes, called Moogerfoogers,
used with guitars, basses or keyboards; and the Piano Bar,
a device that turns ordinary acoustic pianos into
electronic keyboards. And he continues to build theremins,
his "first love."

Sales are strong, Mr. Moog said, adding that revenues have
grown to $3 million from $1 million in the last two years.
Pieces of his new and vintage equipment are fetching large
sums on eBay.

Mr. Moog has even gone digital, sort of. Last year, Moog
Music and Arturia, a French company that specializes in
digital sound software, released software that emulates the
analog sounds of Mr. Moog's synthesizers on computers.

Meanwhile, Mr. Emerson, the musician, says his son Aaron,
34, now plays a vintage synthesizer. "The wheel has turned
full circle," Mr. Emerson said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/29/arts/music/29moog.html?ex=1097497723&ei=1&en=6f17c5dec0e9653a

[elektro80]

Hans Fjellestad?? A norwegian?

[seraph]