2. Wendy CarlosSwitched-on Bach
This record came out I think about ’69, I was about 15. It was transformative for me, inculcated in classical music. I read about it in Gramophone, the classical music record magazine that my dad subscribed to. He loved his records, my dad. I thought, ‘That sounds interesting. Synthesizers, what are they?’ I vaguely knew about Joe Meek, ‘Telstar.’ This sort of synthetic sound, the Doctor Who theme. I certainly didn’t know what a Moog Series 3 was. But it was Bach, and it seemed cool. Obviously, I was spending my own money at this point, so it moved me to go out there and spend whatever it was on a record. It blew me away, really.
I knew a little bit of the music of Bach. I would not say I knew every piece on that record, but I knew what Bach sounded like. This was clearly the same notes and rhythms, but a very different realization. I particularly loved the ‘Two-Part Inventions’ on Side A of that record, super-minimal pieces with just two lines in them. It seemed like it was a door to another world. A lot of these records for me, encountering them was a transformative experience, like the artist invites you into another room and you go, "Wow. There’s another room there." The presence of the synthesizer’s so bold and so alone really, on that record. It tied into later discoveries of the work of Pink Floyd, which is such a wonderful combination of rock instrumentation with synths, synthetics. Especially Dark Side of the Moon, which is conspicuous by its absence on my list. Not because I don’t love it, but anyway.
