The “diva of the diode” and “America’s first female synth hero” Suzanne Ciani should need little introduction. Ahead of her special Buchla synth performance at Rewire 2020, get to know one of the most important women in the history of electronic music – in six videos.
Best known for her pioneering work with the Buchla synth (the instrument she discovered in the late ’60s) Ciani has massed an impressive body of romantic, evocative music over the last 40 years. In addition to releasing 16 solo albums, she’s received five Grammy Award nominations, a Golden Globe and a Moog Innovation Award. Ciani was also the first woman to score a major Hollywood film (Lily Tomlin’s‘The Incredible Shrinking Woman’in 1981). Alongside a successful artistic career, she was also responsible for scoring TV spots and crafting iconic sound bites for some of America’s largest corporations throughout the ‘70s and ‘80s.
In recent year’s she’s returned to playing and recording on the Buchla 200e –a 21st century reboot of the classic ’70s synth Ciani first fell in love with, releasing the ‘LIVE Quadraphonic’ album in 2018 documenting a concert performance inSan Francisco in 2016.Ciani will perform a special quadraphonic Buchla set at Rewire 2020.
On the Buchla synth, Ciani says:
“…These machines are responsive. They communicate. They’re warm. They talk back. It seems to have a brain. It can do things without you. It’s a little bit independent. It’s on right now. It’s in my studio buzzing away, making music…”
Get to know the “diva of the diode” in six videos.
WatchSuzanne Ciani perform live for Resident Advisor:
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/NCLbC06XcfE
Watch Ciani guest on the David Letterman Show in 1980:
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/fZscRHkLMt0
WatchCiani’s Buchla synth lecture for RBMA:
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/CFD72PXOmxA
Listen to Ciani’s iconic Columbia Pictures sound logo:
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/CchYT2lUR6o
Watch the trailer to ‘A Life in Waves’, the Suzanne Ciani documentary:
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/puLTePqBlQI
Listen to ‘LIVE Quadraphonic’ in full:
→ https://www.youtube.com/embed/aDFXID1MnVo