An Electronic Evening with Morton Subotnick

Driving home on a Friday evening after work, listening to my favorite radio station,  a concert announcement caught my attention instantly. I was quite surprised when I heard the names Morton Subotnick and Alec Empire were going to be in town Saturday night for a concert. First I thought it was going to be a tribute concert or something like that because I knew Morton Subotnick was not so young anymore and I did not know he was still touring. Immediately I checked on the web to see what was the real deal and there it was, the guy who is 85 years old was indeed coming to Istanbul and with another great and interesting artist, Alec Empire (you might know him from Atari Teenage Riot). I pulled the car over to check if there were still tickets available. My wife is abroad for a short holiday as well as my synth-head friend (a big thanks to him since he is bringing some modular synths for my setup). So I was looking for someone to accompany me to the concert. Anyhow I bought two tickets thinking maybe my 17 years old son would join me. Of course I did not tell him anything about the music.
Next morning I was again in the car as I received a message from the ticketing company. I could not read the message properly but caught the words "due to health problems" within the message. My first reaction was to think that Mr. Subotnick was sick and not going to manage to be on the stage. After a careful reading I understood that it was Alec Empire who had actually been sick and would not be able to participate his colleague tonight on stage. It was disappointing because I was really wondering what an incredible duo they would make but I am sure there will be other shows to watch somewhere in the world one day. In the meantime I must say that Morton Subotnick looks and performs like he is 60 years old max...

A short interview with Morton Subotnick

For those of you who are not familiar with Morton Subotnick or his works, here is some background info.
I can easily claim that he is one of the founding fathers and still a living legend of electronic music. Before that he was playing the clarinet and being trained to become a classical music composer. At some point of his younger years, he was a student of Darius Milhaud, one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. I do not know if he had such a huge impact on Subotnick, but after his studies with him, Subotnick began to search new sounds that could not be achieved with conventional instruments, at least through their usual playing techniques. That is how he met the great synth designer Don Buchla, in order to create one of the first analogue synthesizers in the world, Buchla Series 100.

Subotnick always viewed his musical expressionism similar to a painter or a sculptor. He always searched opportunities to use musical sounds as a canvas. In recent years he also developed an Ipad app for kids that teach music via drawing and colors.

Subotnick

He has led the way to many firsts in his own genre. He was one of the co-founders of the California Institute of Arts which is a very important school for its visual and performing arts departments. Subotnick is also known for his album "Silver Apples of the Moon" that celebrates its 50th anniversary. The album is the first electronic music album commissioned by a record company, Nonesuch Records.  He co-founded the San Francisco Tape Music Center with Pauline Oliveros (tape music is a  technique that artists use tapes and a tape recorder to capture sounds and making collages and creating new sounds via various different playback methods).
Attracted to the "other" sounds maybe caused him quit his classical clarinetist and composer career but in exchange he became a true pioneer of electronic music.

And about tonight's concert. As I mentioned above, Alec Empire was absent due to a severe allergic reaction as told by the visual artist of the night, Lillevan. Most probably this caused a slight change in the program but whatever the change was, the music and the ambiance was terrific.

Subotnick's setup for the night

One can notice some major traits in Subotnick's live performance. First of all, I am quite surprised how he is able to use all this technology. Even though his setup for tonight was relatively minimal but still you can understand that a lot is going on even with this minimal setup. On the other hand, his collaboration with Lillevan, the visual artist, was extraordinary. The visual creations were so linked with the music as it made me think of Subotnick's passion of using sounds as a canvas for an abstract picture.

After the performance

I guess for such concerts the visual performance helps a lot for the average listener to be able to identify himself/herself with the live music.

For me, it was really an experience, an experience that the artists beamed the audience up to another galaxy. The stereo effects were so well designed one could easily argue that the performance was plugged at least to 5 channels. The sounds designed by Subotnick on his Buchla modular were ethereal and sensory. It was more like a trip guided by the sounds and visuals.
The performance allowed me to forget the outside world and really took me in for a brief journey to somewhere mystique.

First, Subotnick played his masterpiece Silver Apples of the Moon from 1967 and then another composition of his, which he told was still in progress and he did not know if he was going to be able to finish it. Regarding the "Silver Apples" piece, he told the audience that it was never intended to be played live on stage and it was only meant to be a commissioned recording for people to enjoy on their stereo systems, but since it was the 50th year of the recording he decided to go on tour and perform it for one last time.

Here is a video clip of the duo's performance from 2010 in Austria.

And yes my son is still talking to me, but I am not sure if he had wished to have stayed at home and studied for his exams...If you ask me, he is happy inside to have experienced such a beautiful inter-galactic journey but he just doesn't know it yet. Don't forget that introducing new things to kids always pays back in one way or the other...

Let's finish with a short clip from tonight's performance.