Sunday Synth Jam: This video captures a live performance, by Wilfried Thierry, using a Max/MSP patch (inspired by Instant Reich patch by Dan Reid), driving six analog synths:
- Macbeth M3X
- Moog Little Phatty
- ARP Odyssey Rev2
- Oberheim TVS
- Roland Juno-60
- DSI Mopho X4
Recorded live in Le Chabada (Angers, France).
via ikkini
Very nice.
The comparisons to Jean -Michel Jarre are inevitable.
Jarre?
If your not familiar with Steve Reich’s work, check him out. His music from the late 60s and early 70s was hugely influential on synthesists.
Jarre’s inflluential work came much later and doesn’t really have much in common with Reich.
This doesn’t sond like anything to me.
Cool setup, but geezus this was boring as fuck.
30 minutes of basically the same arp pattern.
IMO what a waste of 6 awesome synths.
Sorry, but todays electronic music lacks in the melody department. How long can you find sequencer lines interesting? JMJ and Tangerine Dream were way better then nearly anything produced today.
But maybe it’s just me? I prefer Trance and old style electronic music and progressive rock.
Lol have you listened to Four Organs?
The problem with “instant Steve Reich” and instant coffee are about the same: compared to the real, fresh source, it’s awful. On their own, with no reference to the source, they may be just fine.
There are YouTube videos of Reich doing his thing, live. Piano, fingers, other performers, etc. “Pulse” is really neat to listen and watch it.
Electronic music needs to be more than just running a sequence and playing with the knobs.
The local radio station is playing Steve Reich’s “Different Trains.” It’s a mix of sampling and orchestra. Samples from interviews are used for their inherent musicality, and reinforced by the orchestra. There is a constant rhythm motif of a train on tracks, or of a steam engine. I highly recommend listening to it.
Different Trains is absolutely amazing. From Mr. Steve via https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/Steve-Reich-Different-Trains/2699:
> In order to combine the taped speech with the string instruments I selected small speech samples that are more or less clearly pitched and then notated them as accurately as possible in musical notation.
>
> The strings then literally imitate that speech melody. The speech samples as well as the train sounds were transferred to tape with the use of sampling keyboards and a computer. Three separate string quartets are also added to the pre-recorded tape and the final live quartet part is added in performance.
Synthtopia synthnerd bonus: the “B side” of Different Trains is “Electric Counterpoint” performed by Pat Metheny. Seemed like no one paid attention to it… *except* for Alex Patterson who made a bit from it famous as the guitar sample in the Orb’s Little Fluffy Clouds.
About 30 seconds in: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TKVpUSWCug
Try John Bowen’s Solaris synth. It is a great platform!!!
Love love love this. If you think this sounds like “one arpeggio for 30 minutes” you’re missing the magic of minimalism. Many many said the same about Philip Glass, Steve Reich, Terry Riley… (they were missing it too!)
where can i find more music like this? i searched Wilfried Thierry and looks like he has no official releases available to stream. can you recommend any other artists who make similarly lengthy hypnotic, synth-based pieces like this? (i mean current artists, I’ve already explored the Jarre and Tangerine Dream records)