A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC A BRIEF HISTORY OF ELECTRONIC MUSIC Pin It A brief History of Electronic Music from 1876 – 1989. Focusing on Classic Hits and Albums. There is also a clear focus on Classic Synthesizers and Electronic Music Innovation from The Music Telegraph to the Cubase Software Sequencer. 1876 – Elisha Gray by accident creates a single note Oscillator and discovers it creates a Humming Sound. He named this electronic Instrument as The Musical Telegraph. The Music Telegraph 1897 – Thaddeus Cahi a 20th Century Inventor creates Teleharmonium. A very large version of what would become the Hammond Organ. 1920 – The Theremin was invented by Lev Sergeevich Termen. 1929 – RCA Released the Thereminvox the first commercial Theremin. 1930 – Leon Theremin released the Rhythmicon a machine capable of playing simple Rhythms. A very early predecessor to The Drum Machine. 1934 – The Hammond Organ makes its debut as a Commercial Musical Product. 1954 – The Wurlitzer electric piano was launched a String less Instrument.

1957 – The RCA Mark II Sound Synthesizer developed at Columbia University; it was the first to be programmable. 1959 – Harold Bode started developing a Modular Synthesizer, which included multiple Oscillators and Filters. The Wurlitzer Sideman Drum Machine launched to commercial success. 1961 – Bob Moog took Harold Bodes technology and developed the Iconic Moog Synth, which was the first to have a variable Voltage Controller. The Minimoog 1963 – Delia Derbyshire of The BBC’s Radiophonic Workshop using Ron Grains Music Score created the Iconic Dr Who Theme. She was sampling recorded Sounds recorded on Analogue Tape. 1968 – Wendy Carlos the Classical Pianist released the Album Switched-On-Bach. This was the first big selling Electronic Music Album. Most notably wrote on a Moog. 1970 – Kraftwerk Form. Releasing their self titled LP Kraftwerk. The Moog now had become Portable with the development of the Minimoog Model D 1971 – Chicory Tip’s Son Of My Father Single Tops the Charts across Europe this was the first Electronic Led Hit.

The Synthesizer had become the Main Instrument. 1972 – The Arp Odyssey was launched, a popular competitor to the Minimoog. Eko released The ComputeRhythm, the first programmable Drum Machine. The first Digital Sampler the Computer Music Melodian was released. 1973 – Pink Floyd release the Progressive Rock Album Dark Side Of The Moon. An Electronic Fuelled album with Analogue Synthesizers and Tape Effects selling 50 Million Copies. Kraftwerk Autobahn 1974 – Kraftwerk releases the Electronic Album Autobahn, which also had pure Electronic Percussion. The Single Autobahn becomes a Hit across the Globe. 1975 – The Moog Polymoog was Released. 1976 – Jean Michelle Jarre releases the pioneering Album Oxygen. 1977 – Giorgio Moroder releases the Hit Electronic single “From Here To Eternity” David Bowie released the Low Album, which was his first to heavily experiment with Electronic Instruments. Donna Summer releases the first Electronic Dance Hit, I Feel Love. Throbbing Gristle release the first Industrial Album entitled The 2nd Annual Report.

1978 – The Human League forms in Sheffield, UK. They were one of the first Synthpop Bands in the World. Ultravox! Led by the singer John Foxx released Systems Of Romance and album rich with Synthesizers and Electronic Effects. Roland release the CR-78 Drum Machine The first New Romantic Band Visage form. Members include the DJ/Drummer Rusty Egan, Steve Strange and Midge Ure of The Rich Kids. Cabaret Voltaire releases the Extended Play EP. Mute Records is launched by Daniel Miller The Singer Gary Numan then went solo and released The Futurist Electronic The Pleasure Principle Tops The Charts along with the Single Cars. Gary Numan had become the Worlds First Popular Music Synth Star The Polymoog became his trademark sound. The Fairlight CMI was Born with a Wave Editor this was a feature rich Sampling Synth with a Wave Editor.

Throbbing Gristle release the first full Industrial Album 20 Jazz Greats Ryuichi Sakamoto releases the song Riot In Lagos one of the first Electro tracks From Here To Eternity: A Giorgio Moroder Primer : The Record : NPR Giorgio Moroder in 1979, the year his longtime collaborator, the singer Donna Summer, had a hit with "Hot Stuff." Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images hide caption toggle caption Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images Giorgio Moroder in 1979, the year his longtime collaborator, the singer Donna Summer, had a hit with "Hot Stuff." Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images His name is synonymous with a sound defiled in the mainstream almost as much as it's been celebrated, and only once has he reached the U.S. Top 40 with a record released under that moniker. But few have exerted more influence over today's music than the Italian producer/songwriter who put Munich on the '70s musical map, Giorgio Moroder.

Interview: After 30 Years, Giorgio Moroder Returns To The Dance Floor As a major collaborator of Donna Summer and other club-targeted acts, Moroder ranks among disco's key designers, the one most responsible for broadening its stylistic confines beyond danceable R&B into a distinct and international style: "I Feel Love," his 1977 hit with Summer, was the first hugely popular all-electronic club track. And just as disco faded in the mainstream '80s, his dance-rock fusions became even more ubiquitous via Hollywood blockbusters like Flashdance, Scarface and Top Gun. Although Moroder has for decades enjoyed semi-retirement in Los Angeles, he's recently re-emerged as the father of electronic dance music currently permeating nearly every popular genre like disco did 40 years ago. Since telling his life story on Daft Punk's 2013 hit album Random Access Memories, he's found a second career as an EDM DJ; he remixed Coldplay's "Midnight" into a simmering spiritual meditation and has been releasing radio-targeted singles featuring pop stars like Kylie Minogue and Sia.

The latter is now included on Moroder's first American album in 30 years, his unabashedly David Guetta-esque Déjà Vu. Moroder's credits grace hundreds of records, many of them hits, and like most Svengalis whose price tag puts them out of reach for challenging acts, he's made some shameless dreck: Plagued by clunky rhythms and cornball guitar, much of his '80s soundtrack work is clichéd in the extreme: Check Giorgio's joyless soundtrack to his own 1984 reconstruction of Fritz Lang's 1927 sci-fi masterpiece Metropolis, or, if you dare, his arena-rock detritus for '87's Sylvester Stallone vehicle Over the Top. And his subsequent output has often been even worse: Moroder's official song for the 1990 World Cup, " To Be Number One ," is just like Michael Bolton, but more so. Article continues after sponsorship Yet some of his most enduring works are unjustly unknown to all but crate-diggers and underground disco dancers. For all these reasons, we present this chronological guide to Moroder highlights both popular and obscure.

These songs and full albums still shine like mirror balls that have lost none of their luster. 1972 Giorgio, "Son of My Father" (ABC/Dunhill single) YouTube Although his name is synonymous with '70s disco, Moroder launched his career in the '60s as a lowbrow pop producer and solo act. His very first album is actually called That's Bubblegum – That's Giorgio, a 1969 set released outside America to capitalize on his goofy European hit "Looky Looky." Check this clip of Giorgio dancing stiffly to it while flaunting spiffy duds and an enviable mustache. Blatantly bluffing his way through the oft-misheard lyrics of " Bad Moon Rising ," Moroder coasted on that covers-heavy album, then scored internationally with his similarly sugary 1971/'72 single "Son of My Father." Here his sound is honed to a psychedelic sheen: Phasing effects collide with prominent synths that buzz and hum with good vibrations. Although Giorgio's original was only a minor hit here, a less finessed but otherwise faithful version by Chicory Tip became the first U.K.

chart-topper to prominently feature synthesizers. 1975 Donna Summer, "Love to Love You Baby" (from Oasis album Love to Love You Baby) YouTube The second side of Summer's debut U.S. album may be as throwaway as Giorgio's most forgettable early album tracks, but the 17-minute title track remains one of disco's earliest, most extravagant achievements. Originally recorded and released overseas as a conventional single, this Barry White-styled amorous jam became vastly expanded when Casablanca Records head Neil Bogart — himself a former bubblegum promo man — sent Moroder and his singer back into the studio so they could to fill an entire LP side with it like Iron Butterfly's 1968 psych-rock smash "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." A Boston-born actor who starred in Munich's production of Hair, Donna Summer then found herself moaning in orgasmic ecstasy throughout much of the retooled track as Moroder broke down and built up the arrangement while embellishing it with tender harmonies reminiscent of Continental film soundtracks. Both the album and single went pop; their combined success steered Casablanca Records into becoming Los Angeles's reigning disco indie.

1976 Donna Summer, A Love Trilogy (Oasis album) YouTube Although it didn't yield a single as big as "Love to Love," Summer's follow-up set her apart in the quality department: Unlike most early disco albums, which usually padded club-targeted cuts between ballads and filler, this one was both danceable and memorable all the way through, thanks to expansive soul landscapes by Moroder, "Love to Love" co-writer/producer Pete Bellotte, and Icelandic string arranger Thor Baldursson. There are two trilogies here; the first side, "Try Me, I Know We Can Make It" – a side-long medley of three interrelated songs – and the second side's thematically linked trio of tunes that leads with one of disco's best-ever remakes, an uptempo rendition of "Could It Be Magic" that emphasizes the eroticism of Barry Manilow's greatest song while magnifying its hymn-like qualities.

The entire album bridges the sexual/spiritual divide, and although Summer would later claim that as a Christian, she was uncomfortable with the heavy-breathing goddess role that Casablanca and Moroder foisted upon her, she seems utterly at home here – like God herself told Summer to set all the blacks and whites and gays and straights free by setting a sexually liberated example: Come together as one. 1977 Munich Machine, "Get on the Funk Train" (from Casablanca album Munich Machine) YouTube Although Moroder's image is that of an autonomous synth deity, he and Summer wouldn't have triumphed in disco's highly collaborative art without a first-rate band of studio cats behind them. Launched with spoken narration that introduces each musical element one instrument at a time like Sly & the Family Stone's "Dance to the Music," this side-long cut epitomizes the sub-genre Moroder helped invent, Eurodisco. Largely faster than its American counterpart and orchestrated around a thunderous four-to-the-bar bass drum throb, Eurodisco didn't disguise that most old-world musicians of that era couldn't swing as effortlessly as their American and largely black counterparts.

Instead, it turned that stiffness into strength by emphasizing the metronomic qualities of European disco session musicians much like their Krautrock countrymen did in Neu!, Can, and Kraftwerk. The strings get a little giddy at times, but their lightness offsets the heaviness of the groove. Donna Summer, "I Feel Love" (from Casablanca album I Remember Yesterday) YouTube Summer scored hit after hit in discos, but none since "Love to Love" went pop until this similarly sensual but far more synth-y single. Disco had been the last new form of music where acoustic instrumentation — strings, horns, woodwinds, piano, drums, and percussion — was more essential than amplified guitars and keys. Her second international smash didn't change the game overnight; disco would remain an acoustic/electric/synthetic hybrid for the next few years. But "I Feel Love" earns its historical place as the record most responsible for making dance music futuristic largely because it exudes what synths are said to deny — emotion. Summer never claims in the lyrics to be making love to a robot, but her rapture implies this.

Once again, there's a hymn-like quality, one that humanizes the cut and makes it something far deeper than merely sexy. She's embracing mankind's high-tech destiny as if it were the most wonderful and fulfilling dream, not the dystopian nightmare we fear today. Giorgio, From Here to Eternity (Casablanca album) YouTube Donna's disco is grounded by R&B; she's a chameleon, but almost always an exceptionally soulful one. Giorgio's disco is rooted in rock: His previous album, Knights in White Satin, reimagined what the Moody Blues might sound like at 4AM in a men's bathhouse. Here he embraces synths to the exclusion of all else, but the songwriting still suggests testosterone and guitars: The nonstop first side is as butch as "I Feel Love" is femme. Dark and full of desire, Giorgio's own groaning suite went down like a storm in the most progressive gay clubs of its era. Years later, it inspired Chicago house and Detroit techno. But even today, its supple Moogs are still hard to approximate. Their undulations are unstable, in constant flux; buried nuances still bubble to the surface.

The lightest and most fun section to dance to, "Utopia — Me Giorgio," feels like a warm bath in a sensual elixir. A heavenly choir sings "Ahhh" while earthly worries melt away. You can bet this stuff is druggy; listen closely, and you can still smell the poppers. 1977-78 (from Thank God It's Friday soundtrack, Casablanca, 1978) YouTube " MacArthur Park Suite " (from Live and More, Casablanca, 1978) From the very start, Summer and her collaborators had been prolific. But during one extraordinary 10-month period, she released her first double album, '77's Once Upon a Time, three lengthy cuts on the soundtrack of the disco-themed '78 film in which she appeared, Thank God It's Friday and Live and More, a '78 double album featuring three in-concert sides and a continuous studio medley that featured her first U.S. chart-topper, "MacArthur Park," as well as another Top 10 smash, "Heaven Knows." Once Upon a Time didn't produce any major U.S.

hits, but it ruled discos with a canny urban update on a Cinderella theme likely coded for the singer's gay fans: Donna trips out on a "Fairy Tale High" in pursuit of her Prince Charming. In the wake of "I Feel Love," Moroder and Bellotte devote the second of four Time sides to electronic sounds, their particularly bittersweet "Now I Need You/Working the Midnight Shift/Queen for a Day" suite. At its very end, the synths switch off and the sound pointedly segues back into traditional disco, as if to flow with the rest of the album. Even back then, Moroder thought like a DJ. Summer's next hits, the two that established her as a mainstream superstar, were her most symphonic. By "Last Dance," Summer lost the pillow talk that initially defined her: Now she's belting like a gospel-trained Barbra Streisand, and that intensity both suits and cuts through the orchestral chintz. Many laughed when Richard Harris acted his way through Jimmy Webb's florid "MacArthur Park" poetry. Few did that when Summer sang the same words; her elegiac delivery is no joke.

Nowadays, when the mood is right, grown men have been known to cry while dancing to this song, for it reminds them of what life was like before AIDS, before an entire generation's cake got left out in the rain. 1978-80 (from Midnight Express soundtrack, Casablanca, 1978) "Evolution" (from Music from "Battlestar Galactica" and Other Original Compositions, Casablanca, 1978) YouTube " Valley of the Dolls " (from Foxes soundtrack, Casablanca, 1980) Casablanca's Bogart fancied himself an old-fashioned Hollywood mogul; his ego soon brought down the company. But Casablanca's entry into the movie business allowed Moroder to transition from disco to soundtracks; the producer scored an Oscar with his very first score in '79, the same year Paul Jabara, another Casablanca disco wonder, won for writing Summer's "Last Dance." Director Alan Parker instructed Moroder to pick up where "I Feel Love" left off, and that's what this atmospheric U.S. Top 40 entry does, minus the vocal.

Not actually a soundtrack cut but sounding like one, "Evolution" does the same but with a human drummer, some guitars and a tambourine; imagine Pink Floyd teasing a groove for 15 suspense-packed minutes. For decades this has been an underground club anthem: Play it today next to new tracks by acolytes like Lindstrøm and Todd Terje, and the kids might even prefer this. "Valley of the Dolls" pumps up the tempo and drama even further with percussion, strings, and horns. Moroder would have much bigger soundtrack hits, but little of his '80s output would be as audacious or age as well as these three anodyne instrumentals. Their keyboardist, Harold Faltermeyer, would eventually step out on his own smash soundtrack for Beverly Hills Cop and its hit "Axel F" theme. 1979 Sparks, No. 1 in Heaven (Virgin/Elektra album) YouTube Here's where Moroder and a pair of brilliantly peculiar Los Angeles brothers essentially invent the '80s. Ron and Russell Mael started Sparks in their hometown, but soon moved to England, regrouped with U.K. musicians, and became Europe's most unlikely rock stars.

Yet their lack of U.S. success unnerved them; they moved back home, snagged future "Piña Colada" man Rupert Holmes and some soon-to-be Totos, but their Americanized results bombed even worse. So they dropped guitars entirely, cranked up the synths, and took on Moroder's longtime English drummer Keith Forsey, who here hammers his skins like disco's own Keith Moon. Warmth comes from Mael wit; the opening song, "Tryouts for the Human Race," is sung from the perspective of sperm searching for an egg. The relentlessness of the keyboard hooks points the way to synthpop; both "The Number One Song in Heaven" and "Beat the Clock" were U.K. mainstream hits; the latter became a U.S. club staple once DJs found other high-intensity tracks with which to mix it. Donna Summer, Bad Girls (Casablanca album) YouTube On her most successful album, Summer completes her transformation from male fantasy to female empowerment: Feminists applauded how fiercely she asserted herself on "Hot Stuff," her disco-goes-rock answer to rock-goes-disco moves of Rod Stewart and the Stones; they also dug how she stood up for sex workers on the title track.

Unlike most disco producers, Moroder and Bellotte often shared writing credits with their star; she solely wrote the album's third hit, "Dim All the Lights." This is the most American of her '70s albums both aesthetically and in practice; unlike everything through Once Upon a Time, this one was recorded in Los Angeles with ex-Steely Dan/Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter and local session folk supplementing Moroder's international crew. The album's cleaner, sparser sound helped bring about a disco shift toward leaner and meaner arrangements that didn't require as much orchestration as before; this enabled producers to keep making dance records when the majors withdrew their disco dollars. Once again, there's another synth-dominated side, but here it's the final one, as if Moroder & co. were pointing the way to where music would be headed.

1980 (from American Gigolo soundtrack, Polydor) YouTube These worldly New Yorkers were a perfect match for Moroder, who helps them drive their guitars so forcefully on "Call Me" that they veer closer to hard rock than to the New Wave disco they pioneered with "Heart of Glass." Even "Rapture," their subsequent rap smash, is much more disco than this, the biggest single of 1980. Contrast it with his concurrent work with Donna Summer, who directed Moroder to move further away from dance music later that year on her rock 'n' soul Geffen debut The Wanderer. In both cases, Moroder gets gutsy, committed performances from his singers, but "Call Me" triumphs largely because Blondie rampages through it like the proper band they are; only Forsey hits hard enough on The Wanderer's largely substandard material.

Later in the decade, the drummer further proved his rock cred by producing Billy Idol and the Psychedelic Furs, and, like Moroder, scored many of his biggest hits via soundtracks: Forsey co-wrote Simple Minds' "Don't You (Forget About Me)," Glenn Frey's "The Heat Is On" and Irene Cara's "Flashdance ... What a Feeling," another Moroder-produced Oscar-winner. 1984 Phillip Oakey, "Together in Electric Dreams" (Virgin 12-inch single) YouTube When Summer and most major U.S. labels abandoned disco, dance clubs became even more reliant on Moroder's transatlantic output; gay disco DJs made cult favorites out of his work with Suzi Lane, the Three Degrees, Janis Ian, Madleen Kane, Melissa Manchester, and others while radio went crazy for Kenny Loggins ("Danger Zone") and Berlin ("Take My Breath Away"), who together helped turn the Moroder-dominant Top Gun soundtrack into one of 1986's most characteristic mega-hits. Gay DJs also played the best tracks leaked from rightfully aborted '81 Summer/Moroder sessions belatedly released in '96 as I'm a Rainbow.

But they truly got behind these New Wave/Eurodisco anthems, and played them in the wee hours of the morning for years to come. Ex-Kajagoogoo's Limahl and the Human League's Phillip Oakey croon lovingly about cherished bonds they long to retain. "Make believe I'm everywhere," Limahl suggests. "We'll always be together however far it seems," Oakey insists. For dancers losing loved ones to AIDS and fearing their own mortality, these disarmingly sincere songs offered solace. 1986 Sigue Sigue Sputnik, "Love Missile F1-11" (EMI single) YouTube The rock element of Moroder's '80s output often goes no further than dutiful approximations of Eddie Van Halen's "Beat It" solo; that's not the case here. Chock full of film samples, techno-rockabilly no doubt cribbed from Suicide, and hyperactive guitar riffs that careen across the ruckus like shrapnel from a dirty bomb, this unlikely UK smash proved Moroder could still be radical when removed from his Hollywood comfort zone.

Led by Tony James, Billy Idol's former writing partner in his early punk band Generation X, Sigue Sigue Sputnik arrived like Frankie Goes to Hollywood's second coming. It sputtered out even quicker, leaving behind this sonic act of terrorism remembered in the U.S. through its inclusion in Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Even today, its calculated ultraviolence still shocks. 1992 Giorgio Moroder and Donna Summer, "Carry On" (Virgin single) YouTube Themes of survival and reassurance would grow even more overt on this exceptionally heartfelt reunion single, which received limited European release in '92 and eventually won a Grammy following its remixed '97 U.S. issue. Summer belts like nobody's business, Giorgio updates his sound via the Italo-house of Black Box and the lyric stretches out a hand to the fans she abandoned during her born-again phase. "Just don't look back again/Look for the strength that's in you," she wails.

Donna-holics who've pardoned a multitude of sins may beg to differ, but neither the producer nor his protégé did much carrying on without the other: After her '94 single "Melody of Love (Wanna Be Loved)," Summer would never again approach the transcendence of her Moroder output; his Déjà Vu lacks Summer's soul. But this final collaborative effort affirms the pair's uncommon symbiosis. Apart they sometimes floundered, but together Moroder and Summer almost always triumphed; they crossed gender, color, national and cultural boundaries as disco's ultimate emissaries of universal love. Cent Magazine Jo Phillips / 23-06-2015 / .Music Following on from the BLOOM article about FFS (Franz Ferdinand and Sparks), we focus on the career of Giorgio Moroder, a man who produced two Sparks’ albums No.1 in Heaven, Terminal Jive and in turn had a huge impact on their legendary career. On 12th June, Italian record producer Giorgio Moroder released his first full length contribution to the music world in 30 years.

Exclaiming that 74 is the new 24, he aimed to prove that his electronic veins are still pumping with his 17th studio album Deja Vu. The celebration that French house duo Daft Punk gave him in their applauded 2013 album Random Access Memories – which also featured a monologue from the man himself – built the stairway for his complete comeback. We study the blooming of the Italian’s influential career in electronic music, the albums he’s produced and the friends he has made along the shiny disco brick road. Whether you know his name or not, you are guaranteed to have either heard something he’s produced or a track he has greatly influenced. The Se ed Stage: Giorgio Moroder was born in a small Italian town called Urtijëi (a population of circa 5000 people) near The Alps in 1940, which commonly inhabits German-speaking residents and therefore gave him the family nickname “Hansjörg”, at this stage he saw his prospects of being a musician as a limited possibility and almost gave up entirely. In a fairytale-like story, he somehow prevailed.

; According to Daft Punk’s Giorgio by Moroder, his first experience with music was through the guitar (rather than the his infamous synthesizer), which he started to learn intensely between the ages of 15 and 17. In 1969 (at the age of 19), he released a 1950′s influenced album entitled That’s Bubblegum. The biggest hit off that album was the barbershop rock Looky Looky, which featured Moroder on vocals and was so successful that it received a gold disc. Around that time the multi-lingual Moroder would go to discotheques, dress in smart attire and sing for half-an-hour in Italian, English, Spanish and German, most importantly attending Scotch-Club in the German spa town Aachen. Opened in 1959, this was the first ever discotheque and coined the term DJ (disc-jokey), when a local journalist Klaus Quirini started to assuming that role by controlling their already installed record player, playing music games with the audience and commentating on the songs he scheduled. This consequentially lead to the DJ being a registered profession and Giorgio Moroder was influenced by this pioneering venue.

Although his 1972 glam production Son of My Father showed allegiance to the rock genre, it hinted at the electronic swirls and lo-fi oscillations he would later be known for. Despite the subtle nature of that attribute, it is notoriously known for being the first UK number one single (where it stayed for 3 weeks) to feature a synthesizer. In Giorgio by Moroder, he stats: “all I every wanted to do is music but not only play music. But compose music”, hence why that instrument is performed by Chris Thomas and the English singing was undertaken by British pop group Chicory Tip . He was the co-writer of the track but didn’t take control of the whole project. The namesake album it belonged to was the first time he wrote alongside Pete Bellotte, who he would form a strong partnership with, including on Donna Summer’s I Feel Love. Father said to me we gotta have your life run night Off you got to school where you can learn the rules there right Be just like your dad lad Follow in the same tradition Never go astray and stay an honest lovin’ son.

Germination: Giorgio Moroder continued to record in Germany in the case of Giorgio’s Music (1973), which introduced him to German-born Schlager writer Michael Holm. They teamed up together again in the same year on a collection of songs under the project name Spinach, including on the psychedelic folk track (featuring native indian-sounding percussion such as flutes, pan pipes, cabasa) Action Man Part 1. 1975′s Einzelgänger was an important stepping stone in Giorgio Moroder’s career. It allowed the Italian to experiment with sonic effects in electro and disco spheres; a freedom tapestry without the burden of creating a commercial masterpiece. Vocoders that rippled and echoed at will and an environment that sparkled and glimmered in it’s on realm. The name translates as “loner” and continued his association with the Western European country.

Giorgio Moroder added his disco handwriting to the Moody Blues’ 1967 poetic progressive rock classic Nights in White Satin, making it glossy, full of groovy piano, breathy seductive electronically tampered vocals and breaking the standard trend of 120 bpm tempo, slowing this down to 110bpm. It changed the symphonic elements on the original in favour of digitally produced strings. Two years later in 1978, he would sample Nights in White Satin again as part of his Academy Award winning soundtrack to Alan Parker’s Midnight Express, among the Turkish-flavoured keyboards. In particular, the metallic-crash dominated The Chase from the same soundtrack is credited with shaping the hi-RNG genre; a 1980s scene picked upon by Dead or Alive, The Weather Girls and Bananarama but revitalized recently by Daft Punk and Justice. However it’s immediate impact was to force disco-mania across Europe and the Anglophone states. Growth: One of Giorgio Moroder’s most recognized contributions to music and a single artist’s career is Donna Summer’s I Feel Love from 1977.

Recorded with Pete Bellotte, it was fascinating for it’s unique take on the boundaries of disco music. Although 100% electronic music already existed, most music in the disco genre was composed by acoustic orchestras but instead Moroder used only a Moog synthesizer as the bassline – it’s persistent yet alters progressively through the circa eight minute track – and this technique is considered to be the starting point for the evolution of techno. Moroder also broke another hoodoo in formalities, by producing the melody only after the backing track had been finished. Brian Eno called it “the sound of the future” when he heard the track for the first time. Moroder produced the whole of Donna Summer’s album I Remember Yesterday – her fifth release. An ambitious concept album it combined zeitgeist disco with distinctive styles from the previous five decades, most notably in the title track which contained 1920′s Charleston swing. I Feel Love’s role was to finish the album chronologically by travelling into a predicted yet unknown future. House music was the next new genre he would influence because the first half of From Here to Eternity is one long mix and had an upbeat variation to the electronic composition.

Although he continued to use the Moog synthesizer, it’s particular spellbinding for the way he fed bongo drums and kick drums through vocoders, as well as his idiosyncratic alterations of the voice and characterized production paths. Reproduction: German film composer Harold Faltermeyer is perhaps most known for the theme tune to Beverly Hills Cop (Axel F) but he also built a musical friendship with Giorgio Moroder. Not only did he arrange the The Chase from Midnight Express under the direction of Moroder and produced Sparks’ Terminal Jive with him but he also supplied a helping hand for the Italian’s E=MC². This was another groundbreaking adventure, becoming the first ever album to be recorded digitally. A very expensive process at the same time but made possible by a Salt Lake City-based company called Soundstream, who were trying to preserve old classical albums with this methodology.

Pollination: Giorgio Moroder used this technique when composing the soundtrack to Brian De Palma’s 1983 film Scarface; an album which gave him another taste at collaborating with popular singers on Push It To The Limit (Paul Engemann), She’s On Fire (Amy Holland) and Rush Rush (Deborah Harry), as well as reconnecting with the rock music he once belonged to. The latter’s song helped catapult her solo career and the soundtrack as a hole has been becoming a popular sample station for hip hop artists. Moroder produced other popular, commerically-successful and critically-praised film scores in the eighties including Flashdance, The NeverEnding Story, Superman III, Over The Top and American Gigolo. The latter also featured a collaboration with Debbie Harry when she was still with Blondie (Call Me). Whilst teenage drama Foxes included yet another association with Donna Summer on the track On The Radio. He also contributed to Top Gun’s soundtrack with Berlin’s Take My Breath Away and Kenny Loggins’ Danger Zone; another venture with Harold Faltermeyer. One of his major cinematic encounters was with the 1920′s silent film Metropolis.

In 1984, he aimed to restore the German visionary classic with contemporary music and teamed up with Adam Ant, Freddy Mercury and Bonnie Tyler among other acts but also adjusted the visuals by switching the intertitles into subtitles for flowing purposes. If movies were a diverse pollination to Moroder, then how about cars? Prolific designer Claudio Zampolli teamed up with Giorgio Moroder to start a short-lived car manufacturer entitled Cizeta. Moroder designed the logo for the company, whilst Zampolli designed their only model Cizeta-Moroder V1GT (pictured above). Like Moroder’s music it had a forward-thinking attribute; transverse configured sixteen cylinder engine. Only 17 cars were ever made and it is illegal to drive it in the U.S due to failing safety standards. Spreading Seeds: Daft Punk has undoubtedly resurrected Giorgio Moroder to a new generation. The track Giorgio by Moroder from Random Access Memories not only contains a monologue of Giorgio Moroder narrating about his music career in a humble manner and some powerful quotes about freedom within composition, it’s synchronized by his evolution of music techniques.

A versatile quote that can be applied in a range of art, media and philosophy lies within the documentary/interview: Once you want to free your mind about a concept of harmony and music being correct, you can do whatever you want. So nobody told me what to do and there was no preconception of what to do. Daft Punk had previously wanted to work with Giorgio Moroder on their soundtrack to Tron: Legacy (which you can hear the Moroder influence) but the partnership never materialized. Although he had only been familar with the enigmatic duo from One More Time and like their perfectionism attitude. Random Access Memories seemed like a perfect place for them to collaborate considering that the album was created ambitiously without a clear plan; which relates back to Moroder’s theory of music freedom. The social commentary of unlimited electronic space vs limited content quality was also intriguing. Thus placing Daft Punk away from their cult following to a elevated status in music history. Giorgio Moroder’s re-emergence has kept him in the spotlight for the subsequent two years including regular touring around the world. However, he was still performing his back catalogue and the music industry needed to hear fresh new ideas from the maestro.

Music admirers curious wondering how he would foretell his next premonitions welcomed his first new album in 30 years. Worringly and ironically called DéJá Vu, Moroder strikes accord with contemporary singers such as Foxes, Charli XCX, Sia and Mikky Echo but also shakes hands with musicians that have – like him – recently relaunched their careers: Kylie Minogue, Britney Spears and Kelis. The Italian producer takes control of the keyboards, programming and adds his own vocals into the proceedings. 74 is the new 24 is not only a great workout track and possible anthem for aging DJs, it’s a thrilling re-introduction his futuristic fluidity and the surprise passages that his compositions often travel. Surprisingly misplaced and lost in the middle of the album, it would have been stronger at the beginning. Right Here Right Now shows that the collaboration with Daft Punk rubbed off on him, as the funky grooves from Get Lucky and the French house’s robotic burps are utilized within the summer chill.

Tempted (featuring American singer-songwriter Matthew Koma) fits the same bill but to a much more poppy Maroon 5 extent and Wildstar (featuring Southampton’s Foxes) is a return back to disco. The album also features a revamp on Suzanne Vega’s Tom’s Diner, following on from Fall Out Boy’s Centuries – also released this year – with Britney Spears on lead vocals and a bridge with Moroder’s vocoder. The question is…will it last the stand of time like his other releases?

Question: Chicory Tip’s release Son of My Father was the first UK No.1 to feature which instrument?
Answer: Synthesizer