Suzanne Ciani Announces ‘Live Quadraphonic’ – The First Quad Vinyl Release In 30 Years

Synthesist Suzanne Ciani has announced LIVE Quadraphonic – a new album that captures a live performance in San Francisco on March 5, 2016.

The performance was her first solo Buchla synthesizer performance in 40 years, and has led to a string of quadraphonic performances around the world, including performances at Ableton Loop, Moogfest, Red Bull Music Academy, Sonar and SXSW. These concerts have been immersive quadraphonic performances, leveraging the true 360° listening format of the original Buchla 200 synthesizer, natively output via the Buchla 227 quad output module.

The album will be available digitally – but also in a limited-edition Quadraphonic vinyl package, produced in conjuntion with Third Man Records. They say it’s the first quadraphonic vinyl release in over 30 years.

Here’s what they have to say about it:

For this experimental release and inspired by the Buchla 227 quad output module, there is a limited edition of only 227 LPs, numbered, 45 rpm, 180g quadraphonic vinyl discs sold, plus a custom quadraphonic hardware decoder made in collaboration with Involve Audio to decode two channels of audio from the vinyl disc back to the four-channel recording- and with stunning results.

The vinyl discs were thoughtfully pressed at Jack White’s Third Man Pressing plant in Detroit, MI and are fully compatible for play with any vinyl playback systems in stereo. Current owners of vintage Regular Matrix quadraphonic receivers may also listen to LIVE Quadraphonic in quad via any format, digital download, streaming, radio broadcast or vinyl.

Roe Peterhans, Oblique Strategist at Third Man’s Cass Corridor location, says “We really enjoyed the opportunity to work on Suzanne’s project. Adventurous projects like this are the kind our plant was designed for.”

LIVE Quadraphonic will be available June 4, 2018 for digital download. The vinyl edition is priced at US $277. See CyKik for details on the vinyl release.

9 thoughts on “Suzanne Ciani Announces ‘Live Quadraphonic’ – The First Quad Vinyl Release In 30 Years

  1. Now i’m curious as to whether anyone will press a first-order ambisonic file to vinyl, and from that thought I wonder how the spatial image would be skewed by the eccentricities of the vinyl format. That could be quite amusing to experiment with.

  2. I thought the price was crazy first, so I think there is a typo here.

    According to the website:
    “The price of these 227 rare, numbered packages is $227 (inspired by the Buchla 227e quad output module that Suzanne uses for spatial control on the record) plus origin-based tax/shipping.”

    Anyway, what a strange way to decide on a pricing.

    1. Yeah, you get the decoder with the vinyl. Still a lot of money to drop regardless unless you really want that quad sound. I cancelled my pre-order when I learnt of the crazy prize. Digital download is good enough for me.

  3. More kitsch for the yuppie crew. The rebirth of analog synthesis was one of my generation’s great accomplishments. The fetishization of it has been irritatingly disappointing. Also Jack White is a shmuck.

  4. I think 227 copies at $227 also represents an opportunity for her greatest admirers and supporters to sponsor her art. Artistic patrons in the traditional sense. And those patrons get a fairly special reward. I can’t afford it but let me use this space to thank those who can. I like the world with a musically productive Suzanne Ciani in it!

Leave a Reply to Rik Pepe Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *