Jeff Rona was a pretty smart guy. We were both “founding” members of the MIDI Manufacturer’s Association. Some of those folks were annoying idiots, but Jeff was always reasonable.
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Can “watching” include some “reading” as well?
Being Dutch (from the Netherlands)…
I was pretty surprised and impressed with the role the Dutch electronics company Philips played in research & development of electronic music in the early 1950’s and 60’s.
Philips? Yes, the guys that also brought you the Compact Cassette and the Compact Disc (amongst loads of other stuff). More specific: the Philips physics R&D laboratory: NATLAB.
In this case: walls of analog equipment, tone generators, tape machines that sort of stuff. All given tot a handfull of guys to play with. Lots of it used in unintended and creative ways. In an attempt to see if all this could lead to marketable products.
A general article with some video links within…
How electronic music began in 1950s Netherlands
How electronic music began in 1950s Netherlands.
Some of information is in (untranslated) Dutch language. Maybe use Google translate or similar service for text translation if needed.
The main characters in this story are:
- Dick Raaijmakers (Kid Baltan),
- Henk Badings
- Tom Dissevelt
Examples on Youtube
Some “behind the scenes”… (Dutch voice over)
Kid Baltan and Tom Dissevelt (1959)
An album…
Tom Dissevelt & Kid Baltan - Song Of The Second Moon (Full Album, 1956)
BTW, 1956 is the same year that Bebe and Louis Barron created the first fully electronic score to a movie: Forbidden Planet. But that’s another story.
To continue the Philips Natlab story;
There is also a (rare) 4 CD set with these early works. With booklets full of background info.
Popular Electronics. Early Dutch electronic music from Philips Research Laboratories, 1956-1963 Popular Electronics - Wikipedia (dutch)
Maybe also checkout Hainbach (Youtube), who is (musically) travelling back to this period of analog experimentation.
Here’s an example of him visiting the Dutch Willem Twee Studios, where they maintain and use a huge collection of this sort of early analog electronic gear.
Visiting Willem Twee Studios - a modern early electronic music studio
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Interresting, and from Wikipedia:
A bucket brigade or bucket-brigade device (BBD ) is a discrete-time analogue delay line,[1] developed in 1969 by F. Sangster and K. Teer of the Philips Research Labs in the Netherlands.
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And over 50 years later:
The BBD is still very much alive
As a Delay effect
But also in the much sought after Roland “Juno” Chorus with BBD delaylines
Much less as a Shift Register. Since digital copying is much more precise and reliable. Although the fact that an analogue “copy” is imperfect and degenerates with every copy that is passed to the next link in the chain is still very relevant and usefull for certain applications.
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A purely digital shift register in fact.
Which is where the Lindenberg BBD gets its name
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Always great to see the pioneers and inventors recognized and respected…
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Very cool that 1956 album! Never heard of it. The Ductch and Philips have always been very inventive, great to see a little credit here.
for the microtonalists
This looks like a strange, self-made MIDI controller:
Robert Fripp & Frippertronics (tape loops) (from another thread)
Robert Fripp Frippertronics Demonstration 79
Brian Eno interview from 2020, about music for film and tv.
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Brian is a true intellectual amongst musicians. It’s one of the things I really like about him.
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He did chang in appearance…since working with David Bowie on the classic Berlin albums Low and Heroes.
(you have to watch this in your mind’s eye…its a audio only) .
Bowie on Eno on Bowie - 1977 interviews of Bowie and Eno talking about each other - Radio Broadcast
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Yeah, thank god he did 
Eno has had so many successful, fantastic collaborations with so many musicians; it’s another thing I admire about him. My absolute favorite piece coming out of the Bowie/Eno collaboration is the song “Subterraneans”, the last track on “Low”. I find it so hauntingly beautiful, although thoroughly depressing:
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Music is generally about ordering sounds in time, aiming to evoke emotions. My fascination with sound is how basically some vibrating air particles can effect emotion in profound ways.
Somehow the more ‘sad’, ‘depressing’ and ‘dark’ tracks are often the most intriguing and effective at stirring up deeper emotions and thoughts.
Example…David Sylvian
Thank goodies music allows you to change context at any point. You can just switch tracks to change the mood. Which sadly you can’t do with true feelings of sadness or depression…
BTW, the ‘instrumental’ tracks on Bowie/Eno’s Heroes album are sublime as well.
Moss Garden
Sense of Doubt
Neukoln
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The King Crimson documentary is getting some good press. Hopefully it will be widely available soon.
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This series on guitar effects, while focused on hardware, has made me think of a variety of ideas for vcv modules:
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Triggered by a discussion on the DX7 and FM in another thread:
madFame’s great mini documentary on the origin of the DX7 and FM Synthesis. John Chowning (et al) and Yamaha’s journey towards one of the most succesful and infuential synthesizers ever (that more or less single handedly ended the (first) analog synthesizer era).
ORIGIN OF THE DX7 & FM SYNTHESIS
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