The American Electronic Revolution
ECHOES PRESENTS THE AMERICAN ELECTRONIC REVOLUTION
25 ELECTRONIC ARTISTS FOR THE 250TH SEMIQUINCENTENNIAL
Electronic music has been the leading edge of an American music since the 1960s. Selecting one artist for each of the 25 decades of American independence, we plug into American pioneers of electronic sound—from Morton Subotnick and Wendy Carlos through Steve Roach and Patrick O’Hearn, and into the 21st century with Derrick May, Moby and Bluetech.
When the history of American music is written, electronic music will stand as one of the defining movements of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Many of its essential instruments were created here: Moog, Buchla, ARP and Oberheim. And some of its most transformative sounds emerged in America. Bebe and Louis Barron’s score for Forbidden Planet, Wendy Carlos’s Switched-On Bach, Terry Riley’s looping-keyboard opus A Rainbow in Curved Air, Moby’s Play, Laurie Anderson’s “O Superman,” and BT’s This Binary Universe were landmark works that influenced new directions in American music. It isn’t country, pop, rap or disco. It is something new—still evolving. We cycle through 25 works from 25 artists in The American Electronic Revolution.
John Diliberto is leading the American Electronic Revolution on Echoes from PRX.