Suzanne Ciani Buchla Concert At Galeria Bonino New York April 1974 Vinyl LP 2024
1. Buchla Concert At GaleriaBonino New York April 1974 Part One
2. Buchla Concert At GaleriaBonino New York April 1974 Part Two
The very first Buchla synthesiser performance by revolutionary
composer Suzanne Ciani finally makes its fifty-year journey from its
switched-on New York art gallery to its long deserved and discerning
global phonographic audience.
With this previously unheard vinyl pressing, Finders Keepers Records
are proud to present an archival project of ‘art music’ that not only
redefines musical history but lays genuine claim to the overused
buzzwords such as pioneering, maverick, experimental,
groundbreaking and esoteric, while questioning social politics and the
evolution of music technology as we have come to understand it.
To describe Italian-American composer Suzanne Ciani’s resurrected
Buchla concert records as genuine gamechangers would be a gross
understatement. These records represent a musical revolution, an
artistic revelation, a scientific benchmark and a trophy in the cabinet
of counterculture creativity.
This sonic installation album, alongside her recently liberated (and
available on vinyl again along with this release) WBAI / Phill Niblock
1975 sessions, are triumphant yardsticks in the synthesiser space
race and the untold story of the first woman on the proverbial musical
moon. While pondering the early accolades attached to these golden
era New York recordings it’s daunting to learn that these records
were in fact not even records at all.
What exists on this disc now was a manifesto and a one-time
gateway to a new world, which somehow was only partially pushed
ajar. Captured here is a genuine live act exploring new territories with
a fully performable music instrument. If the unfamiliar, modernistic,
melodic pulses, tones and harmonics found on these 1970’s artistic
gallery collaborations / live presentations (then soon to be followed by
academic grant applications and educational demonstrations) had
been placed in a phonographic context alongside the widely
marketed work of Morton Subotnick, Walter Carlos or Tomita, then
the name Suzanne Ciani and her infectious influence would have
already radically changed the shape, sound and gender of our record.
With the light of Buchla and Ciani’s initial flame, Finders Keepers
continue the journey through the vaults of this increasingly celebrated
music legacy, illuminating these ‘non-records’ that evaded the
limelight for almost half a century. You can’t write history when you
are too busy making it. With fresh ink in the bottomless well, let’s start
at the beginning. Again.