book – Harvard University Press – ISBN 0674008898
Even if these years there’s a sort of mythology of analog instruments, which are seen as a passage towards the radical digital transformations, one can say that the historical period when the synthesizers were introduced could be compared to the creation of the first personal computers to communicate. What the authors describe as ‘analog revival’, happens nowadays for several disparate technologies. It’s a phenomenon made of nostalgia and curiosity, which can recreate perfectly the enthusiasm and courage of the early adopters. By analyzing the historical context which saw the development of the synthesizers, the authors communicate to the new generations an important message of freedom and research which must be applied systematically to continue a positive collective progress. This text tells the story of the people who brought the analog synthesis to the musical market, but does it by collecting and filtering the personal stories to ultimately draw a map, leaving the protagonists free to tell the story from their own pespective. One of the qualities of this book, even if it’s mostly centered on the story of Robert Moog and his entourage, is that it tells the story of many often forgotten female musicians and of the famous ‘Buchla box’, an instrument which had open interface, not identified with the keyboard. The noise and uncertainty which so often accompanied the live performances of those musicians is considered an enriching quality, as opposed to the fake perfectionism and cold determination of computers.