The Bob Moog Foundation today announced that it was honoring what would have been the 74th birthday of synth pioneer Bob Moog with the release of a new synth CD, Amin Bhatia’s Virtuality.

The first half of Virtuality is comprised of ten tracks which transport the listener through an orchestral and electronic voyage through the modern day computer with such tracks as “Hymn to the Users”, “Need for Speed”, “Virus Attack” and “In Search of Lost Identities”.

The second half of the album is “Bolero Electronica“, a work based on Maurice Ravel’s 1928 orchestral masterpiece “Bolero”, in which instruments of the orchestra are featured one after the other in growing layers and dynamics over 18 stanzas. In place of orchestral instruments, Amin uses over 75 synthesizers and electronic instruments (which span a 75 year time period) and introduces them chronologically with the shift in each stanza.

The piece begins with a Moog Modular, ARP 2600, Buchla 100 Modular and and EMS Synthi 100 and concludes with Arturia’s Moog Modular V, Spectrasonics Distorted Reality, the Alesis Andromeda A6, the Studer 820 and the Minimoog Model D

You can preview the Bolero Electronica below.

 

 Bolero Electronica clip [2:11m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

To see a “Timeline of Technology Used”, click here.

“Ever since my first Minimoog and a 4-track I’ve witnessed - and been part of - many revolutionary changes in electronic music. From tubes to transistors, tape to MIDI and now to computers and virtual synthesis each change has brought about new and exciting combinations of music and sound,” says Bhatia.

“Bob Moog was going to help on a narration track for “Bolero Electronica“. Sadly that never happened, so I’ve dedicated the album to him and to the Bob Moog Foundation. It’s my way of saying thank you for my very first Minimoog that started it all.”

Amin is donating part of the proceeds from the sale of each CD to the Bob Moog Foundation.