Erik Norlander

Tonight, August 29 at 6 PM, the new Museum of Making Music exhibition Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog will be getting its grand opening:

Visitors can enjoy the music of The Volt Per Octaves during a wine & cheese reception. Following the reception, the museum presents a demonstration with Keith Emerson and music by Erik Norlander. Emerson, the personification of the Moog legacy and maverick of the Moog synthesizer, will demonstrate his “Monster Moog” modular system. Norlander is a prolific artist who pushes the Moog tradition into the future with an evocative synthesizer technique. His perpetual live use of vintage instruments—Moog synthesizers in particular—give his performances a depth of sound seldom seen. Don’t miss this memorable evening!

The exhibit runs through April 30th. Details at the Museum of Making Music site.

If you make it to the exhibit, leave a comment with your thoughts, links to photos, videos, etc!

The Museum of Making Music and The Bob Moog Foundation have announced Waves of Inspiration: The Legacy of Moog, a special exhibition set to run from August 29, 2009 – April 30, 2010 at the Museum’s facilities in Carlsbad, California. The exhibit is the first of its kind, marking the first public display of the artifacts from Bob Moog’s archives.

The exhibition, which highlights the inventor’s career and the impact that it had on the world of music, will feature rare vintage synthesizers and other related Moog instruments and memorabilia from the Bob Moog Archives and from various private collections.

A custom video presentation created by Moog historian and exhibit consultant Brian Kehew will form a central part of the exhibit. The exhibit will explore the numerous musicians, engineers and colleagues who played a vital role in the evolution of the Moog sound and the relationship between and the inventor/toolmaker and the musician, as well as the genesis of a variety of musical interfaces.

The instruments featured in the exhibit will trace the history of Moog’s work. The exhibit begins with vintage theremins and a prototype of the first modular synthesizer, which originally belonged to Herb Deutsch, an experimental music composer from Long Island whose 1963 meeting with Dr. Bob Moog would help define the synthesizer as a musical instrument, and set a course for the future of electronic music. Other excellent examples of modular instruments from the late 1960s and early 1970s will be on exhibit, most notably Keith Emerson’s famous “Monster Moog” will be featured for the first time as a part of the museum display. Read more…

Progressive keyboardist and Moogaholic Erik Norlander will be performing at Moogfest, the annual festival commemorating and celebrating the groundbreaking achievements of maverick inventor Robert Moog and his namesake synthesizer.

Norlander’s known for carrying the torch for progressive keyboard playing, with a style that recalls the prog gods Rick Wakeman, Keith Emerson and Jon Lord. Erik’s newest releases is Hommage Symphonique, an album of classic progressive rock cover songs produced and arranged in Norlander’s signature style. Previous solo albums are Threshold (1997), an instrumental progressive effort and Into the Sunset (2000), a prog metal vocal album with a more traditional rock band sound. Erik’s third album is a 2 CD rock opera concept album, Music Machine, about the dramatic rise and fall of genetically engineered rock star.

That’s right – a 2 CD rock opera concept album! If that ain’t prog, I don’t know what is.

The fourth annual Moogfest, being held 7:30PM on Saturday, September 22nd, boasts some of the most renowned keyboardists in the world. Along with Norlander, other performers include Thomas Dolby, Jordan Rudess, Adam Holzman, Spiraling, Don Preston, Gershon Kingsley, Nail, and Herb Deutsch.

If there’s still any doubt in your mind that Norlander’s monster modular synth humbles those of mere mortals, check out this breakdown of his studio setup:

You can find out more about Norlander, and find more size freak gear pr0n at his site.

Erik Norlander “Take Two”

Description:

Erik Norlander reflects on the impact of the Moog Synthesizer and the Moog Legacy. His 1967 Moog modular synthesizer graces the background.

Erik made this video to be shown at NEARfest ‘08, prior to Michelle Moog-Koussa and Larry Fast addressing the crowd about the Bob Moog Foundation’s efforts to preserve Bob’s archives.