Hi Guys, I sent an email to MoogMusic about the event so we will see if they post it. Otherwise I figured I’d let you guys know before the weekend starts.
Don Preston (Synthesist of Frank Zappa & Mothers of Invention) will be doing a Lecture & Performance at Cornell University & at the Venue “The Rongo” in Trumansburg, NY early next week.
I’m fairly sure that Trevor Pinch (Author of Analog Days & Cornell Professor) and David Borden (from Mother Mallard, one of the first ensemble to use Moog Synths) will also be speaking at the Lecture…but don’t hold me to that.
here is the info:
09/11/2006 - Lecture & performance of Akashic Ensemble @ Cornell University - Cornell website with info - Inconsistent times are listed between the newspaper and Cornell website so i’m not sure when it is.
09/12/2006 - Show @ The Rongo - Rongo’s website with info
The lecture was pretty decent…not the most organized thing I’ve ever had to listen to…but still very interesting…I keep forgetting Don Preston is like almost 70 years old, I think memories tend to get a little fuzzy at that age! (especially with all the drugs he talked about using, i.e. the first time he visited the moog factory he was tripping on shrooms and when he saw the minimoog prototype he said he “cried”…haha!)
He basically did a chronological thing with images projected on a screen behind him. He started in the 50’s and talked about some pre-synthesizer music which was basically made using random oscillators, filters and the occasional slicing of tape machines. He then progressed through the typical breakthroughs in the 60s, 70s and 80s with Modular synthesizers, then compact analog synths and finally ended talking a bit about digital synths. The whole thing was very brief yet it took a really long time to get through because Don is quite a “tangent” man…especially when left alone with a mic he tends to drift off to random subjects with these fairly interesting yet completely irrelevant anecdotes.
I’m glad he didn’t dive into the really uncomfortable subjects that he talked about last time I saw him…lets just say it involved Paul Beaver some dolphins and sex…you can probably imagine how inappropriate and awkward that was!
So after his talk and his attempt at answering some really philosophically deep music questions (which i don’t think he quite understood) he did a little performance with his heavily modded minimoog (which sounded pretty sweet despite being pumped through the cheesy built-in room PA system).
I’ll let you guys know how the show goes tonight…i also have some pictures & a video i can upload to youtube if anyone is interested in seeing them.
It’s too bad you couldn’t make it MC, i was hoping to see you there, well, maybe next time!
oh also, forgot to mention,
I have some awesome closeups of Don’s modfied minimoog that i will post as soon as i get a chance…i even have a short clip of him talking about the modifications…it was exciting to hear about!
I did make it up to the Rongo. The music was… different. Don’s Minimoog is modified to the hilt with the old “RMS” (Riviera Music Services) modifications. He had a pitch ribbon installed on the left side, recessed into the wood. Makes a lot of sense having it there.
As a matter of fact, this pic from Kevin Lightner’s site shows the exact same modifications on Don’s Mini. Very few mini’s have these mods.
Probably the best part was meeting Trevor Pinch, author of “Analog Days”. We had a good chat for a while. Very personable character.
