We’ve updated our Terms of Use to reflect our new entity name and address. You can review the changes here.
We’ve updated our Terms of Use. You can review the changes here.

Rick Reger - VCS3 Improv

from Modulisme Session 059 by VA. Synthisis Sonoris III

/

  • Streaming + Download

    Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.
    Purchasable with gift card

      name your price

     

  • Buy the Full Digital Album

about

I live in the Chicago area and make music using vintage-based keyboards and synthesizers: Arp 2600, VCS3, Hohner D6 Clavinet, Fender Rhodes, Mellotron Mk. VI, Mellotron M4000D Mini, Moog Voyager, Hammond organ.
From 2012-2015, I was a member of The Margots, with Ken Vandermark and Tim Daisy.
I've been playing keyboards since was 12 years old.

lyrics

I had known about the VCS3 since the 1970s, from listening to music by Pink Floyd and Roxy Music. When I began buying gear for my music studio in 2005, I was interested in the VCS3, but prices in the re-sale market were too high, and I basically forgot about it.
Around 2010, I somehow heard that EMS was making a limited run of new Synthi and VCS3 synths. I contacted Robin Wood at EMS and added my name to a waiting list. I heard nothing for years and assumed that I would not get one. Then, suddenly in 2016, Robin contacted me to ask if I was still interested. I was, and in 2017 the VCS3 arrived at my house.
Although I couldn't afford to buy one of the new Cricklewood keyboards Robin offered, I knew that the VCS3 could be controlled using a midi keyboard with a CV-Midi converter box. I actually bought a converter box because I fully expected to use a keyboard with the VCS3 in the same way I used a keyboard with my Arp 2600.
But once it arrived, I began exploring the VCS3 without a keyboard and quickly saw that it could add a new dimension to my music simply by doing what it does best: creating interesting textures, colors, sounds and effects.
The VCS3 has encouraged me to take my music further into spaces outside of standard and non-standard harmony, which is something that has interested me since I began avidly listening to music by Xenakis, Penderecki, Partch, Stockhausen and others in the 1970s.
I love exploring the VCS3 even though aspects of it still slightly baffle me. But I've heard others who've used it for decades say the same thing. It's helped me approach composition from new and different angles. And it's created opportunities in my music for unexpected, purely intuitive things to happen that add wonderful colors to pieces.
It's a beautifully constructed and elegant instrument, and I'm grateful to have it.

credits

from Modulisme Session 059, released February 4, 2022

license

all rights reserved

tags

about

Modulisme image

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

contact / help

Contact Modulisme

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this track or account

If you like VCS3 Improv, you may also like:

Bandcamp Daily  your guide to the world of Bandcamp

On Bandcamp Radio

Featuring Riley Pinkerton (aka The Rat Queen) from the theatrical NYC rockers, Castle Rat.
listen now