"I Dream of Wires" -- Documentary on the Modular Synth

saw the 93 minute cut last night that's ready for theater distribution, and was very impressed. they managed to make the leap from this being a documentary for modular obsessives to being a wide-appeal film for anyone even remotely interested in synthesizers / music history.

they recut the narration entirely with Patti Schmidt -- as someone who really misses Brave New Waves, I knew it was her two sentences into the film, but she just has one of the most calming yet authoritative voices anywhere and she just makes even the most obscure parts of it go down without seeming pretentious which is no mean trick.

I was worried they'd give the 1950-1980 section of the history short shrift, but they kept almost all of the Moog / Buchla stuff, and the edit has much greater focus, trying less to be a history of all electronic music instruments everywhere than a history of Modular design. The instruments they leave out no longer grate, and the time spent on the RCA Mark II (over, say, the Trautonium) makes a lot more sense as that room-sized beast really was the grandfather of Modulars both in appearance and workflow. Just about the only confusing omission was the Serge; I can see why his stuff didn't fit into the curve of their 70's narrative, but... cutting him out entirely is just about the only problem I can think of in this new cut, because his low-cost systems made a big impact, played into the West Coast aesthetic, and were used in a lot of strange new age & industrial music well into the 80's. (I even forget how much he was in the Hardcore cut, but I seem to remember him getting mentioned at least a little bit).

Buchla was in the audience for last night's screening. The 93 minute cut leaves in almost the entirety of the Moog/Buchla East/West Coast discussion, which in the shorter cut keeps coming back as one of the main organizing structures of the film, especially towards the end as it loops back to cover indie Eurorack designers. Was weirdly emotional watching the film with him even in the audience (Roger Linn, Tom Oberheim and Dave Smith were there too). I asked Don what he thought afterwards and in true laconic form, he said it was fine. "It was well edited," he said.

Weird that he'd be there but not in it. His RBMA interview from a few years back was pretty good.

Didn't know about that one, thanks!

Even the people who've been making the documentary 'Buchla' for the last two years are having trouble getting him to commit to an interview.

One of my favorite lines from the 4.5 hour cut that went missing in the short version was a modular manufacturer saying that he was pretty sure only a tiny fraction of his customers were actually gigging / professional musicians. The long cut definitely gets way inside the fanatical aspects of the subculture, people who are spending five six seven figures easy to assemble these cavernous, largely immobile studios which they then never leave. There is one line remaining in the short cut where someone makes a crack on the order of 'Have fun you guys, but don't forget to press record every once in a while!' The long cut edges right up to some of the implications of the hermetic audienceless nature of the music where people are content to get lost nudging and modifying a music that doesn't like being nailed down or finalized; the short cut ends with a 'triumphant' performance montage of people like Keith Fullerton Whitman and Clark performing out live in concert halls with their Euroracks (or, more often, a laptop with a halfrack carefully mounted alongside).

Watching the long cut I was thinking of the history of self-playing music and characters like Roland Kayn and the League of Automatic Music Composers and how those 50s/60s/70s aesthetics are really incubating on a massive scale, being rediscovered individually in private studios across the world. It points at something very different than the short cut's ending montage of large audiences watching one person on a stage tweaking knobs. Going to have to watch the second half of the long cut again sometime.

Favorite group from the last ten years not in the short cut is Dewanatron. I bought all three of their records after watching, anyone who's favorite Cluster record has ever been 'Curiosum' should just buy 'Semi-Automatic' without even pausing, then the self-titled, then the live one: http://www.dewanatron.com/music.php?page=buy

hey guys what are some cool recent modular synth records

I'm not super into modular but you might want to check out Jamie Stewart's solo record, that Caterina Barbieri record from last year, the most recent Richard Devine, and what Venetian Snares has been up to (actually his record with Daniel Lanois is surprisingly cool)?

not at all new but not knowing my history, i was ignorant of suzannie ciani, but am delighted to know about her now

new caterina barbieri is quality

https://daily.bandcamp.com/2019/07/19/generative-music-guide/

needs a bigger KFW picture imo

Colin Benders modulating live now

https://www.twitch.tv/colinbenders

Been a while since I’ve watched my copy. Who is this?

A dutch hip-hop multi instrumentalist, also known as Kyteman.
Now lost in the modular side of the world.

has it really been 8 years..
i’ve got to watch it one of these days in all its extended glory