Tom Johnson: “Most of the electronic music we hear is produced on the many brands of no-fuss-no-muss music synthesizers. They are available now for as little as $1000 or $1500, so composers everywhere have access to them and, in many cases, own their own units. With such wide availability, one might expect the synthesizers to be the lingua franca of new music, but instead, they seem to me to have become the bane of new music. It’s getting hard to tell one synthesizer composer from another, because they all tend to make use of the same convenient automatic devices supplied by the manufacturers. I’m not suggesting that the synthesizers are bad. They are excellent for teaching purposes, and they often work extremely well in combination with voices or instruments, particularly when the synthesizer itself is played live, rather than recorded on tape. What I am suggesting is that, as far as pure electronic music is concerned, much of the most interesting and original work is coming not from the fancy synthesizers but from homemade gadgets designed by specific composers for specific purposes. David Behrman is one of the best examples of these do-it-yourself electronic music composers. A while back he did a piece called ‘Runthrough,’ which is actually just a complicated set of cheap circuitry. Several participants are allowed to improvise by activating photo cells with flashlights and manipulating a few switches. It must be great fun to play this musical game, and judging from the Mainstream recording of the piece, the raucous music which results is remarkably interesting just to listen to at the same time. Now Behrman has designed a more sophisticated set of electronic equipment and written a score to go with it. The equipment is rather limited in many ways, but it is much better suited to his current concerns than any ready-made synthesizer would be. …”
Tom Johnson (February 1973)
David Behrman – Wave Train (Audio)
Disogs (Video)
Bill Davis
Tags
- 1968 DNC
- Agent Orange
- Alan Watts
- Allen Ginsberg
- Angela Davis
- ARVN
- Berlin Wall
- Bill Ayers
- Bill Graham
- Black Power
- Bob Dylan
- Books
- Burroughs
- Cambodia
- Che
- Chicago Eight
- Chicano
- CIA
- Civil Rights Mov.
- Computing
- CORE
- Counterculture
- Cronkite
- Cuban Revolution
- Czech
- Dick Gregory
- Documentary
- Draft board
- Ed Sanders
- Eldridge Cleaver
- Environmental
- Feminist
- Freedom Summer
- Free Speech Mov.
- Gonzo journalism
- Grateful Dead
- Haight-Ashbury
- Hanoi
- Happenings
- Harlem
- Henry Kissinger
- Hippie
- Ho Chi Minh
- Ho Chi Minh Trail
- Huey P. Newton
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Italy
- Jack Kerouac
- James Baldwin
- Jazz
- Jerry Rubin
- Jesse Jackson
- John Kennedy
- Ken Kesey
- LA Boom
- Laos
- LSD
- Lyn. Johnson
- Malcolm X
- Marijuana
- Merry Pranksters
- Mexico
- Michael Herr
- MLKJr.
- Movie
- Music
- My Lai
- Napalm
- Newspaper
- Nixon
- Noam Chomsky
- No Nukes
- NVA
- Pacifist
- Paris
- Philip Berrigan
- Phil Ochs
- Poetry
- Poverty
- Project Mercury
- R. McNamara
- Race Riots
- Religion
- Rob. Kennedy
- Rolling Stones
- Saigon
- SCLC
- SDS
- SNCC
- Sports
- Street theater
- Tet 1968
- The Beatles
- The Fugs
- Timothy Leary
- Tom Hayden
- TV
- Viet Cong
- Vietnam War
- Weather Underground
-
Recent Posts
- Paul Krassner
- The Crying of Lot 49 – Thomas Pynchon (1966)
- Shame – Ingmar Bergman (1968)
- “You Are Sometimes in the Trance of What Is Beyond You”: Upheaval, Incantation and Ed Dorn in the Summer of 1968
- Ken Kesey Kisses No Ass
- Every Picture Tells a Story – Rod Stewart (1971)
- How Postwar Italian Cinema Created La Dolce Vita and Then the Paparazzi
- Locus Solus (journal)
- At the Existentialist Café – Sarah Bakewell
- Patsy Cline
Categories
- 1968 DNC
- Agent Orange
- Alan Watts
- Allen Ginsberg
- Angela Davis
- ARVN
- Beach Boys
- Berlin Wall
- Bill Ayers
- Bill Graham
- Bill Moyers
- Black Power
- Bob Dylan
- Bobby Seale
- Books
- Burroughs
- Cambodia
- Che
- Chicago Eight
- Chicano
- CIA
- Civil Rights Mov.
- Computing
- CORE
- Counterculture
- Cronkite
- Cuban Revolution
- Czech
- Dick Gregory
- Documentary
- Draft board
- Ed Sanders
- Eldridge Cleaver
- Environmental
- Feminist
- Free Speech Mov.
- Freedom Summer
- Gonzo journalism
- Grateful Dead
- Haight-Ashbury
- Hanoi
- Happenings
- Harlem
- Henry Kissinger
- Hippie
- Ho Chi Minh
- Ho Chi Minh Trail
- Huey P. Newton
- Hunter S. Thompson
- Italy
- Jack Kerouac
- James Baldwin
- Jazz
- Jerry Rubin
- Jesse Jackson
- John Kennedy
- Ken Kesey
- LA Boom
- Laos
- LSD
- Lyn. Johnson
- Malcolm X
- Mao
- Marijuana
- Merry Pranksters
- Mexico
- Michael Herr
- MLKJr.
- Movie
- Music
- My Lai
- Napalm
- Newspaper
- Nixon
- No Nukes
- Noam Chomsky
- NVA
- Pacifist
- Paris
- Paris Peace Accords
- Paul Goodman
- Peace talks
- Phil Ochs
- Philip Berrigan
- Poetry
- Poverty
- Project Mercury
- R. McNamara
- Race Riots
- Religion
- Richard Brautigan
- Rob. Kennedy
- Rolling Stones
- Saigon
- SCLC
- SDS
- SNCC
- Sports
- Street theater
- Tet 1968
- The Beatles
- The Fugs
- Timothy Leary
- Tom Hayden
- TV
- Uncategorized
- United Nations
- Ursula K. Le Guin
- Viet Cong
- Vietnam War
- Weather Underground
Archives
- May 2022
- April 2022
- March 2022
- February 2022
- January 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- March 2021
- February 2021
- January 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- Follow 1960s: Days of Rage on WordPress.com
Categories
Allen Ginsberg Black Power Books Burroughs CIA Civil Rights Mov. Counterculture Cuban Revolution Documentary Draft board Feminist Happenings Henry Kissinger Hippie Jazz John Kennedy LSD Lyn. Johnson Marijuana MLKJr. Movie Music Newspaper Nixon Pacifist Paris Poetry R. McNamara Religion Rob. Kennedy SDS Street theater The Beatles Viet Cong Vietnam WarGravatar