Ciani, Suzanne
Buchla Concerts 1975 (2024 Version)
Finders Keepers presents these incredible early Buchla synthesizer concerts/demonstrations providing a distinctive
feminine alternative to The Silver Apples Of The Moon if they had ever been presented in phonographic form. This record
is a triumphant yardstick in the synthesizer space race and the untold story of the first woman on the proverbial moon.
If the unfamiliar, modernistic, melodic, pulses, tones and harmonics found on this 1975 live presentation/grant
application/educational demonstration had been placed in a phonographic context alongside the promoted work of Morton
Subotnick, Walter Carlos, or Tomita then the name Suzanne Ciani and her influence would have already radically changed
the shape, sound and gender of record collections. Suzanne was a self-imposed twenty-year-old employee of the Buchla
modular synthesizer company, San Francisco's neck and neck contender to New York's Moog. Suzanne Ciani, as one of the
very few female composers on the frontline (and also providing the back line) did not lose faith. These "concerts" are
the epitome of rare music technology historic documents, performed by a real musician whose skills and academic
education in classical composition already outweighed her male synthesizer contemporaries of twice her age. In
denouncing her own precocious polymathmatic past in a bid to persuade the world to sing from a new hymn sheet, Suzanne
Ciani created a bi-product of never before heard music that would render the pigeon holes "ambient" and "futuristic"
utterly inadequate. Providing nothing short of an entirely different feminine take on the experimental "records" of
Morton Subotnick and proving to a small, judgmental audience and jury the true versatility of one of the most radical
and idiosyncratic musical instruments of the 20th century. These recordings have not been heard since then. The
importance of these genuinely lost pieces of electronic music's puzzle almost eclipses the glaring detail of Suzanne's
gender as a distinct minority in an almost exclusively male dominated, faceless, coldly scientific landscape. With the
light of Buchla and Ciani's initial flame Finders Keepers continues to take a torch through the vaults of this
lesser-celebrated music legacy shining a beam on these "non-records" that evaded the limelight for almost half a
century.
Price
Genre
Format
LP - 1 disk
Release
02-08-2024
Label
Item-nr
1311190
EAN
0000000000000
Availability
Exp. 02-08-2024