3. George HarrisonElectronic Sound
At exactly the same time as Buchla and Subotnick collaborated, Bob Moog was thinking the same things over on the east coast of America, and was about to launch his own huge version of the modular synth.
Check this album out for a sideways step for the Beatles guitarist. A whole record of completely abstract machine noises without reference to any kind of melodic or rhythmic idea. I think what happened in the late 1960s was that very rich pop musicians became intoxicated with the new sound-making potential of modular systems. They bought them and tried to use them before they really knew what they were doing. I think this album was mainly done by a Moog demonstration technician (Bernie Krause) who was showing George what it could do while he was running a tape recorder in the background. Luckily for us he decided to release it (with a great cover painting by a small child) before any of the other Beatles (or Bernie) found out about it. While my Synth gently beeps.
