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Waveshaper Media: "Electronic Voyages: Early Moog Recordings 1964-1969"... Various Artists!


Waveshaper Media, the Toronto-based production company behind the pivotal electronic music documentary I Dream Of Wires, comes Electronic Voyager. Electronic Voyageris a new feature-length documentary on electronic music pioneer Bob Moog – his story recounted through the eyes of his daughter, Michelle Moog-Koussa. The film follows Michelle on an emotional road trip journey across North America and Europe, retracing her father’s groundbreaking footsteps. Michelle’s voyage is an effort to reconcile the father she knew, with the world-famous icon Dr. Robert Arthur Moog (1934 - 2005), inventor of the iconic Moog synthesizer. Moog’s archetypal synthesizers defined electronic music in popular culture, and revolutionized the sound of music across genres. Iconic photos of a young Bob, looking confident, determined, and surrounded by his own inventions, loom large in contemporary Moog Music marketing materials, and at Moogfest, one of North America’s biggest music festivals, dedicated to Bob’s legacy.

Electronic Voyager is slated for release in 2020. Now in the final stages of post-production, the film is raising finishing funds via Indiegogo. Check out the advance trailer for the film. 

Additionally, in support of the forthcoming documentary, Waveshaper Media have produced a compilation LP of Moog recordings from the 1960s called Electronic Voyages: Early Moog recordings 1964-1969. It contains tracks by Robert Arthur Moog, Herbert Deutsch, Joel Chadabe, Lothar and the Hand People, Intersystems, Ruth White, Max Brand, and Paul Earls. All of these tracks, set for a vinyl release of 1000 copies on June 14th, have been scarcely heard and difficult to track down, with all but three of them previously unreleased on vinyl. The album, including a white vinyl edition limited to 300 copies, is available via pre-order through Waveshaper's Indiegogo campaign for the film.

Bypassing the Moog synthesizer’s backseat appearance on key pop recordings by the likes of the Beatles, the Doors, and the Beach Boys, Electronic Voyages aims to highlight the diverse approach of 1960s musicians and composers who adopted the Moog as their primary instrument; these recordings all feature the Moog synthesizer front and centre. Beginning with an “audio letter” (The Abominatron) from Bob Moog to his musician-muse Herbert Deutsch, demonstrating some of the first Moog synthesizer prototype’s capabilities, Electronic Voyages veers from avant-garde and electronic soundscapes, to psychedelic madness and summer-of-love pop. In the 1960s, the Moog synthesizer was a new, groundbreaking instrument, and its use was completely uncharted territory. The pioneering use of the Moog on all of these recordings sounds fresh today - you can sense the wide-eyed exploratory delight unfolding, and the disparate results range from endearingly naive (Lothar and the Hand People, Paul Earls) to downright eerie (Ruth White, Intersystems).

The musicians and composers behind these Electronic Voyages may have been among the first to adopt Moog synthesizers, but the fact that they so readily found within them expressivity, heart, and a means to translate their wondrous sense of discovery, speaks far more to Bob Moog’s visionary invention and enduring legacy.
 
Jeremy [Six Strings]

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