solipsistic NATION No. 65: Mad Scientist

Electronic music has become so common place that no one bats an eye when you hear it. Nearly all of Madonna‘s music, for example, is electronic, but she’s about as mainstream as you can get. But electronic music wasn’t always that way. Long before the early days of hip hop and long before the day’s of Kraftwerk, electronic music was the domain of avant-garde composers such as Edgard Varèse.

With Poème Électronique”, Varèse experimented with electronic sounds, natural instrumentation and recorded sounds. But even Varèse owes a debt to the Dadaism, Surrealism and Futurism, all of which were trying to go beyond the constraints of what music was supposed to be. And in time, these experimental approaches were incorporated and adopted into the mainstream.

On today’s show, we’re going to pay homage to the trailblazers in sound. I hope you enjoy the journey.