A Short History of Music
A Fascination with Electronica
Thursday, December 2, 1976
A weekly BBC science programme called Horizon screened an episode on time-lapse photography. They used music from a 1976 track from a year or so earlier by French composer Jean-Michel Jarre; Oxygene part II. Jarre really brought electronica into the mainstream with his melodic tracks and his showmanship.
40 years to the day after the release of Oxygene, Jarre released the third album in the Oxygene trilogy. Part 17 is one of his best tracks.
In 1979, German band Tangerine Dreamreleased their 1979 album Force Majeure, containing the track Cloudburst Flight.
The track represents a flight through a storm, and the end is where the sun comes out...
Edgar Froese (1944-2015) formed Tangerine Dream in 1967
Kraftwerk was another German band that released a 1974 album called Autobahn... “Wir fahren, fahren, fahren auf der Autobahn.”
Koven playing ‘Lasting’ live:
Orbital’s track from 2012 called “Where is it Going?”
On stage they still use their old 1980s synthesizers to keep the same sound of their original music.
Their track called “Halcyon” has a pretty surreal video; a track named after the tranquilizer Halcion, to which their mother was addicted. You can imagine her feeling like this doing the dishes in real life.
And last but not least, deadmau5. Warning: You can’t unsee this sh*t... it’s rather surreal.
At the end of the Monophobia video, filmed at his home in Toronto with CGI added later, you get to see his colossal modular synth taking up the wall of his studio, in the background.
