Wendy Carlos, Moog and A Clockwork Orange
Channel: British Library
Date: 2022-04-25

Wendy Carlos has been called the most important living figure in the history of electronic music.

In 1964, as a young music and physics graduate, she met Robert Moog and contributed to the development of his early synthesisers. Her million-selling 1968 album Switched-On Bach made the Moog internationally famous and became the second classical album ever to go platinum in the US.

Then came her remarkable soundtracks for Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange and The Shining and also for Tron.

Carlos’s many other recordings span analogue and digital, field recordings and ambient albums that predate the work of Brian Eno and Tangerine Dream, At the same time she continued her pioneering work in technology, advising the likes of Apple on music software.

Born Walter Carlos, she was one of the first visible transgender artists, but remains a very private person.

Our event explores the extraordinary career and legacy of Wendy Carlos on the 50th anniversary of A Clockwork Orange and ahead of a live show at the British Library by The Will Gregory Moog Ensemble (23 April) that will feature tributes to Carlos.

Hosted by DJ and radio host Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy, speakers include composers Will Gregory (Goldfrapp) and Adrian Utley (Portishead), music writer Jude Rogers and producer, DJ and cultural critic Terre Thaemlitz.

Will Gregory and Alison Goldfrapp formed Goldfrapp in 1999 and released their Mercury Prize nominated debut album Felt Mountain in 2000. Since that time, they have released a further five studio albums, most recently Silver Eye in 2017, and scored a string of hits including ‘Strict Machine’, ‘Ooh La La’, ‘Lovely Head’ and ‘A&E’. 

Colleen ‘Cosmo’ Murphy is the founder of Classic Album Sundays, a broadcaster on BBC 6 Music and Worldwide FM, an international DJ, journalist and a pioneer of the vinyl revival and audiophile culture.

Jude Rogers is a writer, especially on music, who has written for the Guardian, the Observer, the Sunday Times, the Times Saturday Review, Daily Telegraph, New Statesman, MOJO, Q, NME, The Quietus and The Gentlewoman. Jude’s favourite anecdotes include Chrissie Hynde spontaneously painting her portrait; sharing a Pret fish salad in New York with Björk; Robert Plant making her a cup of PG Tips in Nashville while singing a Welsh hymn, and Lady Gaga feeding her whisky backstage at the O2,. Her new book, The Sound of Being Human: How Music Shapes our Lives is due out in April 2022.

Terre Thaemlitz, also known as DJ Sprinkles, is an award winning multi-media producer, writer, public speaker, educator, audio remixer, DJ and owner of the Comatonse Recordings record label. Her work combines a critical look at identity politics - including gender, sexuality, class, linguistics, ethnicity and race - with an ongoing analysis of the socio-economics of commercial media production. He has released over 25 solo albums as well as numerous 12-inch singles and video works. Her writings on music and culture have been published internationally in a number of books, academic journals and magazines.

Adrian Utley is a guitarist and producer who is best known as a member of Portishead. In 1991 he met producer/engineer/musician Geoff Barrow and singer Beth Gibbons, and the three began writing together and became Portishead. The group's debut album, Dummy, appeared in 1994 followed by two others. He has produced Perfume Genius, Marry Waterson, Sorry, The Coral, Algiers and Flit and has recorded/played with Goldfrapp and Will Gregory, Patti Smith, Jeff Beck, Jarvis Cocker, Chuck D, Sparklehorse, John Parish, Marianne Faithfull and more. In 2010 he composed a new soundtrack for silent film The Passion of Joan of Arc with Will Gregory, performed by a 23 piece orchestra conducted by Charles Hazlewood. In 2012 he was commissioned by the National Trust to produce “Sonic Journey”, a piece of music inspired by walking among the trees at Croft Castle. In 2013 he performed and recorded Terry Riley's “In C” with a guitar ensemble including a bass clarinet, four organs (played by Hazlewood), and 19 guitars. Film soundtracks include The Sound of Claudia Schiffer with Nicolas Roeg and Arcadia with Will Gregory.

Image of Wendy Carlos – courtesy of Len DeLessio/Corbis/Getty Images