Wednesday, June 01, 2005

The Birth of the Synthesizer

Moog (rhymes with vogue) sold his first synthesizer, the Moog, in 1965. In the 40 years since, these musical instruments -- and, Moog will tell you, they are musical instruments -- have changed contemporary music.
Just how that happened is the subject of Moog, a new documentary by Hans Fjellestad being released on DVD this week.
The film holds a number of revelations. For one, the early Moogs were big. And manifestly complicated.
In one scene, Keith Emerson (from Emerson, Lake and Palmer) jams on an original Moog. It looks like a prop from a 1950s sci-fi film -- a bulky cabinet covered with a gnarly mess of wires, tubes and knobs.

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