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The Canadian Electronic Ensemble - October 4, 1974

from Modulisme Session 059 by VA. Synthisis Sonoris III

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Recorded on October 4, 1974. Live studio session.
Musicians: David Grimes, David Jaeger, Larry Lake, Jim Montgomery (the four founding members of the Ensemble).
The recording took place in the Ensemble’s own studio, then located on Queen Street West in Toronto. The instrumentation included three EMS Synth As, two EMS DK2 keyboards and a self-built instrument the Dyna-soar, which was a Dynaco preamp with the outputs plugged into the inputs and level controls on both, and a mixer.
 
Grimes, Jaeger, Lake and Montgomery, were all grad students at the University of Toronto, working at UTEMS under Gus Ciamaga. The earliest work at UTEMS was essentially modular (as in patching modules together) so it was the foundation of all of our training in electronic music. We acquired the Synthi A’s and the Dk 2’s in 1972 from Otto Joachim, a composer and visionary who was the EMS rep in Montreal. Live concerts would have been pretty much impossible without them, given our lack of interest in presenting concerts of tape music. Not a knock on tape music, just not where we wanted to go.
 
 As David Sutherland, a current member, says: “the VCS-3 was the first synthesizer I ever saw.  It was part of Stockhausen's Canadian tour in 1970/71 so it had street cred in spite of the terrible review Wendy Carlos gave it in the Whole Earth Catalogue. In ‘76 I bought my own Synthi.  The Canadian distributor for EMS, Otto Joachim, was in Montreal so it was an easy choice among what was available. Plus, the Synthi had a Ring Mod”.

In the intervening 49 years, people and instruments have come and gone, but the Synthi abides. The current iteration of the CEE features an A and an AKS; long may they wave (pun intended).

credits

from Modulisme Session 059, released February 4, 2022

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Modulisme Marseille, France

Modulisme (translates Modularism) is a media supporting leftfield Electronic music (giving priority to Modular Synthesis but not only). Providing ressources/interviews, a radio program aired via 7 antennas, and above all label-like streaming music for you to listen to… ... more

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