Man Of La Mancha...

Okay, here’s the deal: I’m not a millionaire. Or even a ten-thousandaire. But I was always told “dream big!” And I do have a big dream. I’ve had this dream for a while, but I’ve only told two people about it, because I thought it sounded kind of stupid. They didn’t laugh in my face when I told them, so maybe it’s not a stupid dream after all.

Here’s the thing: I would like to (re)create a late-50s / early-60s tape-based electronic music studio (of the sort used by Stockhausen, Varese, Schaeffer, Dissevelt, Dockstader, et al) that was completely free for interested parties to use. My thinking here is that a facility like that is not a whole lot of use to a single person, but wouldn’t it be interesting if, say, Richard Devine or Alessandro Cortini or other current experimental electronic musicians had access to a vintage electronic music studio? What would they make, bringing today’s musical vernacular to that context? I think that’s music worth hearing, honestly.

I have a firm idea of what equipment such a studio would have, and I have a good working knowledge of how that equipment is used. But I have no idea how to bring it about other than throwing a shit ton of money at it. My dream precludes financial renumeration (it would be fiscally impossible to make such a facility actually turn a profit, of course) so I would operate it on the following basis: if you have musical credibility in our peer group (and since it’s not a terribly large group, that isn’t even really a judgement call) and you can get yourself here and put yourself up and pay the expenses (tape ain’t cheap), schedule permitting, it’s yours to use as you see fit.

Okay, maybe it isn’t silly. It would be tough to pull off, though. Go ahead. Have at it. Laugh and laugh. In the meantime, here’s some vintage e-music studio porn: