Coming next week: Questlove’s Electronium: The Future Was Then at BAM

An homage to pioneers of electronic music

October 15, 2013 Brooklyn Daily Eagle
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Following the success of Shuffle Culture (2012 Spring Season), BAM welcomes back Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson on Oct. 25 and 26 at 8 p.m. at the BAM Howard Gilman Opera House with Electronium: The Future Was Then, a freely-associative and impressionistic musical homage to pioneers in the electronic music scene between 1948 and 1979. Questlove will be joined on stage by artists including Jeremy Ellis, Kirk Douglas, How To Dress Well, Rahzel, Sonnymoon and the Metropolis Ensemble conducted by Andrew Cyr. (Due to unforeseen circumstances, Dan Deacon—previously announced—will not perform). In Electroniumseminal electronic and archival recordings will be paired with modern riffs on classic electronic music models such as Busoni’s New Esthetic in Music and Pierre Schaffer’s Cinq Etudes—in addition to music from technological innovators such as Bob Moog, Stevie Wonder and George Clinton.

The production’s title references the first electronic synthesizer created exclusively for the composition and performance of music. Initially created for Motown by composer-technologist Raymond Scott, the electronium was designed but never released for distribution; the one remaining machine is undergoing restoration. Complemented by interactive lighting and aural mash-ups, the music ofElectronium: The Future Was Then honors the legacy of the electronium in a production that celebrates both digital and live music interplay.

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