Laurie Anderson performed a pair of songs off her trailblazing 1982 album Big Science for the latest installment of NPR’s Tiny Desk (Home) Concerts.
For the 20-minute set from New York’s Canal Street Communications, Anderson delivered “Let x=x” and her classic “O, Superman,” with the musician accompanied on keyboards by Roma Baran, who performed on and co-produced Big Science.
“We put this out a very long time ago… just yesterday,” Anderson said of Big Science, which was remastered and reissued on red vinyl in April, the first vinyl...
For the 20-minute set from New York’s Canal Street Communications, Anderson delivered “Let x=x” and her classic “O, Superman,” with the musician accompanied on keyboards by Roma Baran, who performed on and co-produced Big Science.
“We put this out a very long time ago… just yesterday,” Anderson said of Big Science, which was remastered and reissued on red vinyl in April, the first vinyl...
- 5/20/2021
- by Daniel Kreps
- Rollingstone.com
Shania Twain, Chuck D, Abba’s Benny Andersson, T-Pain, Brandi Carlile, Boyz II Men, and more artists, producers, and songwriters delve into the historical resonance of pop music in Banger Films’ This Is Pop. The eight-part docuseries hits Netflix on June 22nd.
Each episode explores pop music beyond its musical aspects, examining its societal impact as well. Racism, sexism, classism, queer politics, and social injustice are addressed, according to a statement.
Episodes are grouped by style, era, and/or genre. The Boyz II Men Effect features Boyz II Men’s Nate Morris,...
Each episode explores pop music beyond its musical aspects, examining its societal impact as well. Racism, sexism, classism, queer politics, and social injustice are addressed, according to a statement.
Episodes are grouped by style, era, and/or genre. The Boyz II Men Effect features Boyz II Men’s Nate Morris,...
- 5/19/2021
- by Althea Legaspi
- Rollingstone.com
Electronic music — or, as we think of it today, most popular music — is so taken for granted that it’s easy to forget its original pioneers were iconoclasts of their time. Lisa Rovner’s new documentary Sisters With Transistors, about the women who expanded the technological and artistic possibilities of the form during the 20th century, presents those forebears with grace, accessibility, and a touch of the avant-garde.
Beginning with Clara Rockmore, the violin prodigy who dazzled audiences in the 1920s with her theremin (an electronic instrument played via hand movements through the air,...
Beginning with Clara Rockmore, the violin prodigy who dazzled audiences in the 1920s with her theremin (an electronic instrument played via hand movements through the air,...
- 4/29/2021
- by Claire Shaffer
- Rollingstone.com
Let’s get this out the way early – yes, you are correct, “Sisters with Transistors” is the best title for a documentary you have seen so far this year. Doing exactly what it says on the tin, Lisa Rovner’s debut feature is a secret history of electronic music, told via the women that made it happen. No Kraftwerk, no Robert Moog, and only the most cursory mention of Leon Theremin. Instead we hear – and hear from – ten unsung (or rather un-bzzzzzzzed. There’s little singing going on) geniuses of electronic art, drawn from across continents and musical styles, dating back to classical violinist Clara Rockmore’s adoption of the Theremin in the 1920s, and passing through avant-garde art pieces, movies, TV scores and commercials.
Laurie Anderson provides the narration – herself a pioneer of the form – as Rovner stitches her film together from archive audio and footage, with the odd...
Laurie Anderson provides the narration – herself a pioneer of the form – as Rovner stitches her film together from archive audio and footage, with the odd...
- 4/29/2021
- by Marc Burrows
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Laurie Anderson narrates this fascinating film about the female pioneers of electronic music
What a joy is a documentary that neither talks down to its audience nor diminishes its subject. Lisa Rovner’s Sisters With Transistors is an unapologetically geeky look at the female pioneers of early electronic music which veers fearlessly into the experimental end of the knob-twiddling spectrum. Laurie Anderson narrates a fascinating film that takes in, among others, theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore; a beatifically smiling Suzanne Ciani sensually stroking a suitcase full of wires; Éliane Radigue, engrossed in her minimal tonal experiments; and the great Delia Derbyshire, with the mathematical precision of her diction and her demure slingback tapping to a throbbing loop of noise.
Related: Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers...
What a joy is a documentary that neither talks down to its audience nor diminishes its subject. Lisa Rovner’s Sisters With Transistors is an unapologetically geeky look at the female pioneers of early electronic music which veers fearlessly into the experimental end of the knob-twiddling spectrum. Laurie Anderson narrates a fascinating film that takes in, among others, theremin virtuoso Clara Rockmore; a beatifically smiling Suzanne Ciani sensually stroking a suitcase full of wires; Éliane Radigue, engrossed in her minimal tonal experiments; and the great Delia Derbyshire, with the mathematical precision of her diction and her demure slingback tapping to a throbbing loop of noise.
Related: Sisters With Transistors: inside the fascinating film about electronic music’s forgotten pioneers...
- 4/25/2021
- by Wendy Ide
- The Guardian - Film News
The unsung trailblazers behind electronic music are paid harmonic homage in Lisa Rovner’s enchanting documentary
Lisa Rovner’s superb documentary pays a deeply deserved, seldom-expressed tribute to the female composers, musicians and inventors from the brief history of electronic music. The focus falls on about nine or 10 women in the field, from experimental music pioneer Clara Rockmore, a Theremin maestro in bias-cut evening dress, through to the British composer and mathematician Delia Derbyshire (probably best known for co-creating the Doctor Who theme), up to Suzanne Ciani, the first woman to score a major Hollywood movie (The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981) and her contemporary, composer and early software designer Laurie Spiegel.
Related: The 20 best music documentaries – ranked!
Lisa Rovner’s superb documentary pays a deeply deserved, seldom-expressed tribute to the female composers, musicians and inventors from the brief history of electronic music. The focus falls on about nine or 10 women in the field, from experimental music pioneer Clara Rockmore, a Theremin maestro in bias-cut evening dress, through to the British composer and mathematician Delia Derbyshire (probably best known for co-creating the Doctor Who theme), up to Suzanne Ciani, the first woman to score a major Hollywood movie (The Incredible Shrinking Woman in 1981) and her contemporary, composer and early software designer Laurie Spiegel.
Related: The 20 best music documentaries – ranked!
- 4/23/2021
- by Leslie Felperin
- The Guardian - Film News
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSAbove: Monte Hellman and his dog Kona. Monte Hellman, cult director of The Shooting (1966), Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) and Road to Nowhere (2010) has died. Hellman spoke with Notebook on several occasions about his films, decrying the committee-designed quality of new films while staying true to his own long-held principles: "I am aware of continually breaking rules." Léos Carax's first English-language film, the musical Annette, will be opening the 74th Cannes Film Festival on July 6th. The film will simultaneously be released in French cinemas. Two other Cannes titles have also been announced, having been selected for last year's postponed edition of the festival: Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch and Paul Verhoeven's Benedetta. Steven Soderbergh is undertaking the overwhelming creative task of staging this year's Oscars ceremony. As Soderbergh says, the project is "the walking...
- 4/21/2021
- MUBI
When it first emerged, birthed by the likes of Suzanne Ciani, Clara Rockmore and Delian Derbyshire, whose most famous creation issued forth from half the TV sets in the UK from 1963 onwards, electronic music seemed particularly suited to women. Composers could work alone without having to rely on musicians - who at the time were mostly male - during the early creative stages of their work. They could play their music in alternative spaces inhabited by artists and minority communities rather than having to rely on a concert circuit dominated by men or on clubs and pubs that were often unsafe for them. Over time, as more women moved into those spaces anyway and attitudes began to change, it ought t have becomes easier still; but at the same time, white men were swiftly coming to control and dominate the scene they had built, using existing power structures in...
- 2/27/2021
- by Jennie Kermode
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Metrograph Pictures has acquired U.S. rights to “Sisters With Transistors,” a documentary about the women who were the pioneers of electronic music. The film will debut virtually on Metrograph’s website on April 23.
Directed by Lisa Rovner, “Sisters With Transistors” had its world premiere at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival and later played at AFI Fest.
“‘Sisters With Transistors’ was a true revelation to us,” said Metrograph Pictures’s head of distribution George Schmalz. “The untold story of the groundbreaking women who brought us some of the most revealing music ever created, ‘Sisters With Transistors’ is an impeccably crafted film that we’re thrilled to bring to audiences nationwide.”
The doc spotlights critical but little-known female leaders of electronic music, including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos, Maryanne Amacher, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Spiegel. “Sisters With Transistors” was narrated by Laurie Anderson.
Directed by Lisa Rovner, “Sisters With Transistors” had its world premiere at the 2020 South by Southwest Film Festival and later played at AFI Fest.
“‘Sisters With Transistors’ was a true revelation to us,” said Metrograph Pictures’s head of distribution George Schmalz. “The untold story of the groundbreaking women who brought us some of the most revealing music ever created, ‘Sisters With Transistors’ is an impeccably crafted film that we’re thrilled to bring to audiences nationwide.”
The doc spotlights critical but little-known female leaders of electronic music, including Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Pauline Oliveros, Delia Derbyshire, Wendy Carlos, Maryanne Amacher, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani and Laurie Spiegel. “Sisters With Transistors” was narrated by Laurie Anderson.
- 2/8/2021
- by Rebecca Rubin
- Variety Film + TV
Like every industry built under the watchful eye of a global patriarchy, the Edm scene is grossly tilted in favor of its male artists. And like many of those same industries, this fact exists despite the presence of women pioneers at the inception of electronic sound as a medium. For every Robert Moog that acknowledged their genius (he enlisted Clara Rockmore’s expertise to better the advancement of his synthesizer), there were unfortunately countless others like Don Buchla, who agreed to sponsor a class for recent grads like Suzanne Ciani before declaring it closed to women—of which she was to be the only one. So gatekeeping manifests at the level of education, the level of access, and ultimately the level of success.
The numbers don’t lie. Less than three percent of the field’s production and technical roles are women. Less than three-tenths of a percent are women of color.
The numbers don’t lie. Less than three percent of the field’s production and technical roles are women. Less than three-tenths of a percent are women of color.
- 9/20/2020
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
Among the documentaries premiering at this year’s TriBeCa Film Festival is Stacey Lee’s debut feature-length project, “Underplayed,” about the gender inequality in electronic music. No stranger to the festival, Lee’s documentary short, “Live Fast, Draw Yung,” about a seven-year-old rap portrait artist and his relationship with his father, premiered at TriBeCa in 2015.
“Underplayed” was initiated by Bud Light Canada and presented to Toronto native and music video veteran Director X, who put Lee’s name forward. Shot over a period of six months, Lee brings viewers into the professional and personal worlds of established superstars like TOKiMONSTA and Alison Wonderland, newcomers like Sherelle and hardworking underground artists like Tigerpaw. Beautifully shot and creatively edited, “Underplayed” was made with an all-female crew.
“I’m a female filmmaker in an industry that is also underrepresented,” says Lee. “My own trajectory to being taken seriously was long and hard.”
While...
“Underplayed” was initiated by Bud Light Canada and presented to Toronto native and music video veteran Director X, who put Lee’s name forward. Shot over a period of six months, Lee brings viewers into the professional and personal worlds of established superstars like TOKiMONSTA and Alison Wonderland, newcomers like Sherelle and hardworking underground artists like Tigerpaw. Beautifully shot and creatively edited, “Underplayed” was made with an all-female crew.
“I’m a female filmmaker in an industry that is also underrepresented,” says Lee. “My own trajectory to being taken seriously was long and hard.”
While...
- 3/4/2020
- by Lily Moayeri
- Variety Film + TV
Have a look at the first teaser trailer for Jasper Mall, the new doc from Bradford Thomason and Brett Whitcomb. We've written of the directors before and their recent film A Life in Waves, a film about electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani. Jasper Mall follows a year in the life of a dying shopping mall and it just had its world premiere at Slamdance over the weekend. The first teaser trailer was released to mark the occasion. Have a look below. Jasper Mall chronicles a year in the life of a dying shopping mall, its patrons, and its tenants. There’s no denying retro malls are having a moment. Between the setting of the new season of “Stranger Things” and the countless videos of...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 1/30/2020
- Screen Anarchy
"What I'm going to do with this instrument is something you've never heard!" 606 Distribution has just released the first official UK trailer for a French indie film titled The Shock of the Future, the feature directorial debut of musician Marc Collin. Collin is best known as the founder, with Olivier Libaux, of the project Nouvelle Vague, and has composed music for a few other films, too. Set in Paris in the late 70s, the film is about a woman named Ana who develops the "sound of the future" - some of the very first electronic music. Featuring the songs of Cerrone, Throbbing Gristle, Suicide, "Collin crafts a heartfelt tribute to the forgotten female electronic musical pioneers such a Delia Derbyshire, Laurie Spiegel and Suzanne Ciani told through the eyes of Ana, played with a ferocious charm by newcomer Alma Jodorowsky." Alma is the granddaughter of Alejandro Jodorowsky, and she...
- 8/15/2019
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
M83 have announced a new album, Dsvii. The sequel to 2007’s ambient album, Digital Shades Vol. 1, the new LP will be released on September 20th via Mute and is available for pre-order.
The album, which follows 2016’s Junk, is primarily influenced by video game music. “It felt so refreshing to play all of these old school games again,” frontman Anthony Gonzalez wrote on the band’s website. “There is something so naïve and touching about them. It’s simple and imperfect. And this is exactly what I tried to achieve with Dsvii.
The album, which follows 2016’s Junk, is primarily influenced by video game music. “It felt so refreshing to play all of these old school games again,” frontman Anthony Gonzalez wrote on the band’s website. “There is something so naïve and touching about them. It’s simple and imperfect. And this is exactly what I tried to achieve with Dsvii.
- 7/12/2019
- by Althea Legaspi
- Rollingstone.com
Out today on VOD is Brett Whitcomb's SXSW documentary A Life in Waves, a film about electronic music pioneer Suzanne Ciani. The film is being released by Gunpowder & Sky and we have been asked to share a clip with you where Ciani talks about some commercial work she did for Merrill Lynch and Atari. Unfortunately, I am now old enough to remember seeing the Bull in a China Shop commercial for Merrill Lynch on television. I do not recall that Atari commercial, though I swear to goodness, that looks like Ted Danson in it. We have also included the trailer below. Find A Life in Waves on VOD today! A Life in Waves explores the life and innovations of composer and...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 8/4/2017
- Screen Anarchy
Electronic music is an undeniably, overwhelmingly male-dominated field, with The Chicago Tribune reporting as recently as last summer that Lollapalooza’s “Perry’s Stage” featuring electronic acts only had one female DJ/producer booked for the entire weekend. And when Suzanne Ciani first became infatuated with synthesizers in the early 1970s, there were few people working in the medium, let alone women. The new documentary A Life In Waves tracks the 2017 Moog Innovation Award recipient’s career, from her beginnings composing scores and creating sound effects for film, TV, and video games—the pinball game Xenon features her work, as does Meco’s infamous Star Wars disco soundtrack—to her advertising work and later transformation into a successful New Age, jazz, and solo piano artist with 15 albums under her belt.
In the exclusive clip form A Life In Waves below, Ciani describes how she created one of advertising ...
In the exclusive clip form A Life In Waves below, Ciani describes how she created one of advertising ...
- 8/3/2017
- by Katie Rife
- avclub.com
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSTwo legends lost this week: actress Jeanne Moreau at 89 and playwright, screenwriter and actor Sam Shepard at 73. That's Moreau, above, with director Michelangelo Antonioni on the set of the great La notte (1961).Recommended Viewing"What brings you to us?" Good question—we know next to nothing about Darren Aronofsky's new film mother! other than that it stars Jennifer Lawrence. The first teaser trailer doesn't help much, but we wish we were attending the Venice Film Festival to catch the premiere.We're intoxicated by the punk-noir trailer for F.J. Ossang's new film, 9 Doigts (9 Fingers), which is premiering later this week at the Locarno Film Festival.Fun of a different kind can be found in the trailer the Coen brothers-scripted, George Clooney-directed Suburbicon. It's headed to Venice as well.If you enjoyed Mubi's...
- 8/1/2017
- MUBI
If you grew up during the 1980s and the 1990s like myself, you gotta check out this video created by Smash TV called Megaplex. It’s the ultimate audio and visual nostalgia trip: a mashup of over 80 movies, fake trailers, and more edited together with some retro music from the era. This thing is absolutely ridiculous in the greatest of ways and it made me miss the good ol’ days. Here’s the note that came along with the video:
Megaplex is the most insane double feature the world has ever seen. With a running time of 80 minutes and thousands of cuts from more than 80 movies, Smash TV has spent the past year and a half cramming the most entertainment possible into every second. It's dense enough to pressurize these diamonds in the rough into gleaming treasures.Megaplex is the long awaited followup to the critically acclaimed Skinemax, much more fully realized,...
Megaplex is the most insane double feature the world has ever seen. With a running time of 80 minutes and thousands of cuts from more than 80 movies, Smash TV has spent the past year and a half cramming the most entertainment possible into every second. It's dense enough to pressurize these diamonds in the rough into gleaming treasures.Megaplex is the long awaited followup to the critically acclaimed Skinemax, much more fully realized,...
- 6/18/2016
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
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