Ciani, Suzanne: Buchla Concerts 1975 LP

Finders Keepers presents these incredible early Buchla synthesizer concerts/demonstrations providing a distinctive feminine alternative to The Silver Apples Of The Moon if they had ever been presented in phonographic form. This record is a triumphant yardstick in the synthesizer space race and the untold story of the first woman on the proverbial moon. If the unfamiliar, modernistic, melodic, pulses, tones and harmonics found on this 1975 live presentation/grant application/educational demonstration had been placed in a phonographic context alongside the promoted work of Morton Subotnick, Walter Carlos, or Tomita then the name Suzanne Ciani and her influence would have already radically changed the shape, sound and gender of record collections. Suzanne was a self-imposed twenty-year-old employee of the Buchla modular synthesizer company, San Francisco's neck and neck contender to New York's Moog. Suzanne Ciani, as one of the very few female composers on the frontline (and also providing the back line) did not lose faith. These "concerts" are the epitome of rare music technology historic documents, performed by a real musician whose skills and academic education in classical composition already outweighed her male synthesizer contemporaries of twice her age. In denouncing her own precocious polymathmatic past in a bid to persuade the world to sing from a new hymn sheet, Suzanne Ciani created a bi-product of never before heard music that would render the pigeon holes "ambient" and "futuristic" utterly inadequate. Providing nothing short of an entirely different feminine take on the experimental "records" of Morton Subotnick and proving to a small, judgmental audience and jury the true versatility of one of the most radical and idiosyncratic musical instruments of the 20th century. These recordings have not been heard since then. The importance of these genuinely lost pieces of electronic music's puzzle almost eclipses the glaring detail of Suzanne's gender as a distinct minority in an almost exclusively male dominated, faceless, coldly scientific landscape. With the light of Buchla and Ciani's initial flame Finders Keepers continues to take a torch through the vaults of this lesser-celebrated music legacy shining a beam on these "non-records" that evaded the limelight for almost half a century.