Wendy Carlos

It’s the birthday of Wendy Carlos, who’s 70 today.

It’s hard to imagine how different the world of electronic music would be without Wendy Carlos, who switched on the world with her Switched On Bach, scored Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and The Shining, created the sound of the digital world Tron and explored alternate tunings in several influential albums.

Before Brian Eno brought ambient music to a mass audience in the mid to late 70s, Carlos released 1972’s Sonic Seasonings, which combined ambient environmental sounds with synthesized ones.

Carlos has created some of the most influential electronic works of the last 40 years.

If you haven’t heard much of the work of Wendy Carlos, some good places to start are her Switched-On Brandenburgs, Switched On Bach 2000 and her soundtrack to A Clockwork Orange.

via Sabine

This video demonstrates recreating the classic Walter/Wendy Carlos synth sounds of A Clockwork Orange, with Propellerhead Reason’s Subtractor software synthesizer. Read more…

This is a jazz reinterpretation of Wendy Carlos’ Tron Scherzo:

• Michael Pinto _ Vibraphone
• Chris Tordini _ Bass
• Garrett Brown _ Drums

(Bach) Switched Off Bach / Invention #4 / SH-1000 vs SH-2000 Read more…

This video marries the audio from a 1967 Moog 900 Series modular synthesizer demo record, which featured Walter/Wendy Carlos, with video of a Moog modular synthesizer. Read more…