# Suzanne Ciani: electronic musical instruments vs synthesizers (interview)



## creativeforge (Mar 4, 2017)

I heard of Suzanne quite late, I have to say (a radio show I was DJing in the early 2000). She was part of the vanguard of electronic musical instruments, and with this new technology came a new approach to sounds, but not music. New tools don't replace the fundamental nature of creativity, but it can sometimes muddy the waters. Suzanne isn't a purist, but decries the premature disappearance of those early frontiers with electronic musical instruments (from what I gathered).

An informative and enjoyable conversation with a bona fide artist, and a great insight into "electronic music systems"... Enjoy! 

*Suzanne Ciani interviewed by James Gardner 14 May 2010. Edited and corrected by Suzanne Ciani and James Gardner, February 2012.*

*James Gardner: *As someone who started out in electronic music in the 1960s, how do you view its recent “democratization” and its current ubiquity?

*Suzanne Ciani: *When I started out it was a very exciting time, precisely because it was new, and a small world, and we were on the cutting edge. It was the frontier—we were pioneers. That flavour is gone now—the excitement of the unknown—and in my view the way humans are designed, we come in generational groups, and some groups now have never experienced the excitement of what it was like in the late ‘60s, early ‘70s. So my perspective is of somebody who did go through that and finds today...not that exciting. I think that a lot of the potential of electronic music was unfulfilled and that in many ways what we’re doing now in this digital age is replicating a lot of the things that we already discovered in that time.

*James Gardner: *What are your current musical concerns? Are you looking at what the new digital world can offer?

*Suzanne Ciani: *No. I use digital because it’s part of my life, but mostly I use it now to record. And my new albums—I have 15 albums that have been released—are acoustic for the most part, with some electronics also.

*James Gardner: *Essentially piano-based?

*Suzanne Ciani: *Piano-based. I have a jazz group called The Wave, I play with orchestra, and I play solo piano. Those are the interests that I have now. Coming back to acoustic music is something I thought I would never do—and this has taught me over my life never to say never. My ear in those electronic days found acoustic music very lacking because it didn’t have the range that electronic music had: the very high highs and the very low lows, and it wasn’t as malleable as electronic music. But now I’ve come back to it and I have a new ear for it.

*James Gardner: *Is that because you’ve become aware of the limitations of electronic music, or is it that you’ve just become more fascinated with acoustic music?

*Suzanne Ciani: *My fascination with electronic music centred very much around my love affair with the Buchla electronic music system. Don Buchla didn't like the word ‘synthesizer’ because it had misleading connotations. Some people thought of the word ‘synthesizer’ as relating to ‘synthetic’, or that it was imitating existing sounds, whereas he wanted to be clear that this was a completely new domain—this was a new instrument. The instrument that I had did not have a keyboard: it was played by moving knobs and dials and placing patchcords and constructing an internal routing, so that you could design your instrument within the instrument. And sometimes I would spend months coming up with a living, breathing patch that generated the sonic environments and sounds that I wanted to hear. So it wasn’t keyboard. The keyboard was added as a...I think Bob Moog did that in order to lend understanding to the masses as to what this was, because in the early days people really could not understand where the sound was coming from or how it was generated. It was all so unfamiliar that putting the keyboard on it bridged a gap in understanding. But it also short-circuited the potential of those instruments because the keyboard interface came from a mechanical universe. It produced, mechanically, one event for one action. Whereas in electronic music we were used to touching a key, say on a flat plate, and maybe 50 things would happen.

*James Gardner: *Because you were controlling more than one parameter at a time.

*Suzanne Ciani: *Yes, you were transposing something, you were starting something, you were stopping something else. You were giving commands. multi-layered commands—not just “if I hit this note you'll produce one pitch.” (laughs)

http://www.radionz.co.nz/concert/programmes/hopefulmachines/audio/201812321/interview-suzanne-ciani


----------



## Wes Antczak (Mar 4, 2017)

Thank you for posting this, creativeforge, pretty cool! 

In case anyone does not know who Suzanne Ciani is, you can hear some of her music on her you tube channel. If you think you've never heard her, the truth is you probably have and don't even realize it as she's done a LOT of music over the years, including many commercials., etc.


----------



## creativeforge (Mar 4, 2017)

You're welcome, Wes! Beautiful music! 

I found her through this song in 2002 (hopeless romantic I was):


----------



## Wes Antczak (Mar 4, 2017)

That's a great song too! 

Both those videos represent the "new age" romantic side of SC. There is also the techie side as represented by her longstanding association with with synthesizers, including Buchla and Moog. It's all great stuff. 

Maybe this thread will help bring some new folks into the fold.


----------



## creativeforge (Mar 4, 2017)

I'm always grateful to discover talents I never knew about from the good old days...


----------



## synthpunk (Mar 5, 2017)

Some may remember Suzanne made a early living doing commercial and sound effect work in New York as a young musician and technologist. Her contributions to sound design and advertising are quite significant and to anyone growing up in the NY scene inspirational.







The new documentary My Life In Waves is actually premiering this month at SXSW I'll be sure to check it out.
https://thump.vice.com/en_ca/article/suzanne-ciani-a-life-in-waves-documentary-sxsw

And a little piece of memorabilia to share...


----------



## creativeforge (Mar 5, 2017)

Thanks for the videos, in the 3-2-1-Contact video, at 5:00 the sound I'm looking for is almost exactly present.

You met her?


----------



## synthpunk (Mar 5, 2017)

Yes, quite a few times in NY, her lab was not far from the studio where I worked. I'm very jealous of her home in Hawaii now.



creativeforge said:


> Thanks for the videos, in the 3-2-1-Contact video, at 5:00 the sound I'm looking for is almost exactly present.
> 
> You met her?




Lixiviation is a great intro to her early years. WGBH Boston still uses her Sonic jingle when you see their logo on PBS.


----------

