Transcript for the Piece Audio version of Memories of Moog

sonar sound] + This is an Echo Location: Soundings for New Music.

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IN THE FRONT ROOM OF HIS LONDON HOME, MARK SHREEVE OF THE ENGLISH SPACE BAND, REDSHIFT, HAS A MASSIVE MODULAR MOOG SYSTEM FULL OF PATCH CORDS AND BLINKING LIGHTS. SHREEVE IS FROM A GENERATION WHO GREW UP ON THE SOUNDS OF THE MOOG.

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3:29
mark Shreeve: I mean nothing sounds like that big Moog. Nothing in the synthesizer world can put out bass like that machine can, I mean it’s a real pain to use, it’s a pain to maintain, it’s difficult to operate, it’s always going out of tune, but in the end it’s driven by the sound.

MUSIK

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Robert Moog created the Moog synthesizer nearly 45 years ago. When the inventor died in 2005, the press coverage would have had you thinging his creation was an instrument of the past, trapped in cheesey pop songs and classical recreations.

Musik

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But as we celebrate Moog's 75 birthday on May 23, his instruments and the sounds they made have never been more widely embraced. Among a generation that wasn't even born when Switched-On Bach was released, the Moog is cherished. Jimmy Lavalle of the ambient rock band, The Album Leaf, started using the Moog Voyager, an updated mini-moog, after recording a tune for the Moog documentary film.

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Jimmy Lavalle: I’d always like in whatever studio wherever I recorded I always used one. No matter what. Just, just, there’s that sound that I need in my, you know, in my songs and that’s basically how it was.

Musik bite

German synthesist Klaus Schulze, Jimmy Lavalle's elder by 2 generations, discovered that 3 decades ago. Despite being a new technology junkie, the Moog remains part of his electronic arsenal.

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2A 457
Schulze '88: "I have a personal thing with the Mini-MOOG
For example. For me it sounds for me like a violin in terms of
synthesizers. I can close my eyes and turn the knobs and
play the key and get exactly the sound I wanted without even looking at it, you know?

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Roger O'Donnell, former keyboardist with the Cure, records his music exclusively on the Moog voyager, and his sentiments are echoed by many Moog devotees.

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RO: They'd given me a voice, something I really felt represented me, my personality and my emotion and that I'm so comfortable controlling it, being able to mold it and make it my own.

Musik

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ROBERT MOOG would have turned 75 on May 23. His invention remains part of our musical vocabulary. I'm John Diliberto and this has been an Echo Location, Soundings for New Music.