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Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour | Norient.Com 25 Sep 2021 23:43:40 Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour INTERVIEW by Thomas Burkhalter, Immanuel Brockhaus

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Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour | Norient.Com 25 Sep 2021 23:43:40 Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour INTERVIEW by Thomas Burkhalter, Immanuel Brockhaus Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour | norient.com 25 Sep 2021 23:43:40 Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour INTERVIEW by Thomas Burkhalter, Immanuel Brockhaus Bruno Spoerri (*1935) is a saxophonist, composer, author, and a pioneer of electronic music in Switzerland – he co- founded the «Swiss Society for Computer Music» and was the co-director of the «Swiss Center for Computer Music» between 1985 – 2000 (see CV). For our research project Cult-Sounds we interviewed Spoerri in his studio in Zurich and asked him about his ways of working with synthesizers, virtual instruments and samples. He tells us in detail why he loved the old analog synthesizers, how he «fucked up» a performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival, why he laughed at Kraftwerk first, and much more. In 2015 Spoerri won a lawsuit against rap superstar Jay Z who had sampled from Spoerri’s 1978 piece «On the Way» without asking for permission or giving credit. See also his latest releases on Everest Records. Listen and watch to glimpses of the interview, or read the full interview below. Video (Excerpts from the Interview) Text (Full Interview) Zurich, April 11th, 2015 [Bruno Spoerri]: My name is Bruno Spoerri. I’m a Jazz saxophone player, arranger, composer. I did a lot of film music and ... well ... I’m one of the first ones in switzerland to use electronic instruments. [Norient]: What is or was your favourite synthesizer? https://norient.com/podcasts/spoerri Page 1 of 16 Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour | norient.com 25 Sep 2021 23:43:40 [BS]: Oh, that’s difficult to say because during the years there were many favourite synthesizers. Of course in 1971 I had the huge «Synthi 100» by EMS that was in a way a fantastic thing. I’m happy that I don’t have it anymore, because I constantly had to repair it, update it and so on, it was so big, too, so more and more it was a nuisance to use it. Perhaps the favourite synthesizer was the «Prophet 5» by Sequential Circuits because this really was a flexible instrument that I could really play and that I could really program too and it had so many interesting sounds, so I loved it. Then the third one, I would say, was the «Arp Odyssey». That was one of the very early analog synthesizers, but it was a very flexible instrument, you really could improvise sounds with it, within seconds you could change to another sound, you could make noises and so on, so I really loved it. I think these were the most interesting, the most flexible things I’ve ever had. https://norient.com/podcasts/spoerri Page 2 of 16 Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour | norient.com 25 Sep 2021 23:43:40 [NT]: Behind you we see the old EMS-Synthi VCS-3, what about this one? [BS]: Well, of course, you see I still have it and I wouldn’t give it away, but on the other hand it is a very limited instrument of course. But I still use it and I can do fantastic things with it, because it has some very special sounds, it has some possibilities that many modern synthesizers don’t have and ... another thing is, I changed a lot on this synthesizer. I made sort of presets, sort of special connections that the original instrument didn’t have. So of course it is much more flexible than it was 45 years ago. [NT]: But we don’t see a «Minimoog» in here ... did you ever own one? [BS]: Yeah, yeah I had a «Minimoog», I had a «MicroMoog», but I never had a big Moog because when I was interested in the first synthesizers, it was about 1967, I tried to buy one but it was so expensive then, the dollar was almost five francs then, and the smallest Moog synthesizer was about 10'000 dollars, so I really couldn’t afford it and then, later of course, it was no longer necessary to have a Moog. [NT]: Did you ever use presets working with synthesizers and machines? [BS]: Yeah, of course, I used a lot of presets. The first synthesizers didn’t have any presets, so the only thing I had that was sort of schematic, that was sort of ‹cook book›. They had pictures if you connect this with this you could do this ... but if you did that the second time it didn’t work, because these instruments were not stable. So if it was a little bit hotter, a little bit cooler they reacted in a different way, that was one thing, and so you couldn’t recreate a patch accurately. I even once had the experience that I had made a big patch and the next day I wanted to change little bits in this https://norient.com/podcasts/spoerri Page 3 of 16 Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour | norient.com 25 Sep 2021 23:43:40 patch and I couldn’t recreate the patch, I couldn’t find out what I did the day before. And then, I think it was about 1977 or 78, the first analog synthesizers appeared where you could store the patch digitally. That was the «Oberheim» the first one and the «Sequential Circuits». From then on I used a lot of presets because when you worked commercially in the film music you never had time. You never had time to figure out a new sound. So I used presets but very often. I changed them a little bit or I used them not in the normal way, perhaps not in that octave range that they were meant to be. But also, most of these synthesizers had 100 or more presets and of these 100 perhaps I could use 10, and the rest I thought they were not usable. [NT]: That’s what Brian Eno often said, that you needed synthesizers that only had 6 or 8 sounds, this would be sufficient for everybody. Would you agree on that? [BS]: In a way yes, but of course people don’t have the same 6 sounds that they like, so I think that we need to have this variety, because these are intelligent people who made them and they used it for something. But then you have to find out which ones are the sounds that you can use, that feel right for you. [NT]: The keyword now is «new sounds». How did you develop new sounds if you didn’t use presets? How did you program, how did you get to new sounds? [BS]: In either case not with a system. When I wanted a new sound I think I never tried systematically to find a new sound. Normally, it was like this, that I tried something and then I suddenly discovered this sound could be something that I could use and then I began to change it until it was exactly right. And very often I even found one sound by chance and the sound gave me the idea for a whole composition. So in the beginning it was a strange sound and then I played around with that sound and then it gave me the idea ‚well, I could do this and that tune with that sound. [NT]: Do you have one example where it worked like this? [BS]: I can play you filmmusic that I made, for instance for an experimental film, and then I wanted something very repetitive and a sound that mixes well with a train sound and it should have something a little bit heavy. So I found a preset, I think it was on the «Yamaha Sound Canvas» that was a Chinese sound, a Chinese instrument and I used that two octaves lower than it was meant to be and that gave me exactly the sound that I wanted. So I developed a whole composition out of this one sound. [NT]: The next keyword would be the faultiness of technology. Do you think that coincidence and mistakes are important components of sound innovation? https://norient.com/podcasts/spoerri Page 4 of 16 Swiss Sound Pioneer of the First Hour | norient.com 25 Sep 2021 23:43:40 [BS]: I’m mostly an improviser, I come from Jazz and I think the most important things in improvising are the mistakes. I think, many of the innovations and of the ideas that happen in improvisation come from the things that you didn’t want in the beginning. And when I improvise and I do my computer music things in concert, I hope for mistakes, I hope that something happens that throws me out of the routine. Because I think if it doesn’t do that and I get into a routine it gets boring. I always must have some input from another musician, who does something unexpected or from a machine, who does something unexpected, or from something that happens in the room, somebody whistling or a strange sound coming, that gives me the idea to go on. [NT]: Could you give us an example where one of your machines was broken and out of this you developed a new sound? [BS]: Oh yeah, for instance that was in the early 70s. I was invited to play at the Montreux Jazz Festival in the afternoon. There was an afternoon concert in plain air in the sun and it became so hot that these ARP synthesizers began to produce strange sounds ... it was too hot for the synthesizer ... it made distorted sounds, it made crazy sounds and it was a fantastic performance.
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