Sébastien Clara

Technological advances at the end of the 19th century have altered our relationship to sound. The invention of the telephone enabled sound to be transcoded into an electrical signal and to hear that signal from one end of the world to the other. In a similar way, sound recording technology has decontextualised the musical performance from its original listening environment. In former times, to hear music meant playing an instrument or going to a concert whereas today music is available everywhere, wherever you are.

In the 18th century, engineers adopted analogue and then electronic techniques to make instruments. Jean-Baptiste Delaborde, for example, developed an electrical harpsichord in 1759, whereas the first eletromechanical instrument, the Telharmonium (an electronic organ) was made by Thaddeus Cahill in 1897. In 1919, Leon Termen invented the first no-contact instrument, the Theremin, which is still sold today, and in 1957, Max Mathews at the Bell Laboratories made the first digital recording and the first digital sound synthesis. In the 1970s, information and communication technology became standard tools of artistic creation.

The Discovery Corner gives an overview of the evolution in sound in the second half of the 20th century and traces the various ramifications of electronic music in all its diversity.

THE AVANT-GARDE

1950 – Pierre Schaeffer / Pierre Henry – Symphonie pour un homme seul

1952 – John Cage – Williams Mix

1952 – Otto Luening – Fantasy in Space

1954 – RCA produces the first synthesiser.

1954 – Tape recorders are launched onto the market.

1956 – Lejaren A. Hiller and Leonard Isaacson – Illiac Suite String Quartet

1956 – Karlheinz Stockhausen – Gesang der Jünglige

1957 – Working at Bell Labs, Max Mathews wrote MUSIC, the first widely used programme for the digital sound synthesis (the birth of digital audio).

1957 – Newman Guttman – The Silver Scale

1957-58 – Edgar Varèse – Poème électronique

1958 – Vinyl records become stereo.

1958 – Pierre Schaeffer – Étude aux allures

1958 – Bruno Maderna – Musica su due dimensioni

1958 – Luciano Berio – Thema Omaggio a Joyce

1958 – Iannis Xenakis – Concert PH

1960 – Brion Gysin – I AM THAT I AM

1960 – Bell Labs – Music From Mathematics [Full Album]

1961 – Max Mathews & Joan Miller – Bicycle Built for Two

1961 – James Tenney – Analog #1(Noise Study)

1961-63 – Milton Babbitt – Ensembles for Synthesizer

1963 – Luc Ferrari – Hétérozygote

1963 – Pierre Henry – Variations pour une porte et un soupir

1963 – Henri Chopin – Vibrespace

1964 – First voltage-controlled synthesisers (Moog, ARP, Buchla).

1965 – Steve Reich – It´s Gonna Rain

1966 – François Dufrêne – Triptycrirythme

1966 – The Beach Boys – Pet Sounds

1967 – Pink Floyd – The Piper at the Gates of Dawn

1967 – The Jimi Hendrix Experience – Are You Experienced

1967 – Jefferson Airplane – Surrealistic Pillow

1967 – The Doors – Strange Days

1967 – The Beatles – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band

1967 – Morton Subotnick – Silver Apples Of The Moon

1967 – Karlheinz Stockhausen – Mixtur

1967-68 – Bernard Parmegiani – Capture éphémère

1968 – Wendy Carlos – Switched-On Bach

1968 – Bob Cobbing – Chamber Music

1968 – Frank Zappa – We´re Only in It for the Money

1968 – Ivo Malec – Lumina

1968 – Silver Apples – Silver Apples

1969 – Jean-Claude Risset – Mutation

1969 – Alvin Lucier – I Am Sitting in a Room

1969 – The Who – Tommy

1969 – Led Zeppelin – Led Zeppelin II

1969 – Gershon Kingsley – Popcorn

1969 – Amon Düül II – Phallus Dei

1969 – Charles Wuorinen – Time’s Encomium

1969 – White Noise – An Electric Storm

1969 – Kluster – Klopfzeichen

1969 – James Brown – Funky Drummer

1969 – Sly and the Family Stone – Stand!

PUSHING THE BOUNDERIES OF ELECTROACOUSTIC MUSIC

1970 – Karlheinz Stockhausen – Mantra

1970 – Funkadelic – Free Your Mind… and Your Ass Will Follow

1971 – Tangerine Dream – Sunrise in the third system

1971 – Alain Savouret – L´arbre et coetera

1971 – Can – Tago Mago

1971 – Faust – Faust

1972 – Manu Dibango – Soul Makossa

1972 – Barrabás – Woman

1972 – John Chowning – Turenas

1972 – Miles Davis – On The Corner

1973 – Barry White´s Love Unlimited Orchestra – Love´s Theme

1973 – François Bayle – Vibrations composées

1973 – Lee Scratch Perry & King Tubby – Blackboard Jungle Dub

1973 – Stevie Wonder – Innervisions

1973 – Klaus Schulze – Cyborg

1973 – Neu! – Neu! 2

1973 – Michel Chion – Requiem

1973 – Herbie Hancock – Head Hunters

1974 – Jon Appleton and Sydney Alonso develop the Synclavier, the first digital synthesiser.

1974 – Bernard Heidsieck – Vaduz

1974 – Cluster – Zuckerzeit

1974 – George McCrae – Rock you Baby

1974 – Kraftwerk – Autobahn

1975 – Jean-Claude Risset – Dialogues

1975 – Brian Eno – Discreet Music

1975 – KC and the Sunshine Band – Get Down Tonight

1975 – Joel Chadabe – Flowers

1976 – Francis Bebey – Divorce pygmée

1976 – Ash Ra Tempel – New Age Of Earth

1976 – Augustus Pablo and King Tubby – King Tubbys Meets Rockers Uptown

1976 – Jean-Michel Jarre – Oxygène

1976 – Guy Reibel – Granulations Sillages

1977 – UPIC, a computerised musical composition tool that generates sounds according to waveforms and volume envelopes drawn by the user is invented by the composer Iannis Xenakis. Go to see the modern abstraction Iannix.

1977 – Bee Gees – Saturday Night Fever

1977 – David Bowie – Low

1977 – Suicide – Suicide

1977 – Weather Report – Heavy Weather

1977 – Karlheinz Stockhausen – Sirius

1978 – Denis Dufour – Bocalise

1978 – Devo – Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo!

1978 – The Normal – T.V.O.D.

1978 – Throbbing Gristle – D.o.A: The Third and Final Report

1979 – Donna Summer – On the Radio

1979 – Chic – Good Times

1979 – Joy Division – Unknown Pleasures

1979 – Tubeway Army – Replicas

1979 – Public Image Ltd – Metal Box

1979 – The Sugarhill Gang – Rapper´s delight

1979 – Joel Chadabe – Solo

1979 – At IRCAM, researcher Giuseppe di Giugno develops the 4X system, the first real-time digital workstation.

DEMOCRATISATION OF DIGITAL MUSIC

1980 – Fad Gadget – Fireside Favourites

1980 – John Foxx – Metamatic

1980 – Talking Heads – Remain in Light

1981 – The Human League – Dare

1981 – Yellow Magic Orchestra – 1000 Knives

1981 – Daf – Alles ist Gut

1981 – Depeche Mode – Speak & Spell

1981 – Klaus Nomi – Klaus Nomi

1981 – Patrick Cowley – Menergy

1981 – SPK – Information Overload Unit

1981 – Pierre Boulez – Répons

1982 – Philips and Sony launch the compact disc (CD).

1982-84 – Marco Stroppa – Traiettoria

1982 – Grandmaster Flash – The Message

1982 – Afrika Bambaataa & the Soulsonic Force – Planet Rock

1983 – The MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) communication protocol becomes standardised.

1983 – Yamaha launches the DX7, the first FM digital synthesiser to achieve widespread success.

1983 – Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams

1984 – Jesse Saunders – Funk You Up

1985 – Jamie Principle – Waiting On My Angel

1985 – Juan Atkins – No UFO´s

1985 – Juan Atkins, Derrick May, Kevin Saunderson – The Belleville Three

1986 – Tristan Murail – Vision de la cité interdite

1986 – Adonis – No Way Back

1986 – Europe – The Final Countdown

1986 – Farley Jackmaster Funk – Love Can´t Turn Around

1986 – Run–DMC – Raising Hell (Peter Piper)

1986 – Art Of Noise – In Visible Silence

1986 – Steve « Silk » Hurley – Jack Your Body

1987 – Derrick May – Nude Photo

1987 – Laibach – Opus Dei

1987 – New Order – Substance

1987 – Phuture – Acid Tracks

1988 – Fingers Inc – Another Side

1988 – Front 242 – Headhunter

1988 – Maurice – This Is Acid

1988 – Philippe Manoury – Pluton

1988 – Horacio Vaggione – SCIR

1989 – Nine Inch Nails – Terrible lie

1990 – First commercial version of the Max software (Opcode-Ircam). During the 1990s, Miller Puckette developed Pure Data, a free software similar to Max. Both programmes were very popular with those working in the interactive arts.

1990 – Kasper T. Toeplitz – Almantés

1990 – Gérard Grisey – Le noir des étoiles

1990 – Public Enemy – Fear of a Black Planet

1991 – De La Soul – De La Soul Is Dead

1991 – Frankie Knuckles – Beyond The Mix

1991 – Jeff Mills – Punisher

1992 – Drexciya – Deep Sea Dweller

1992 – The Prodigy – Experience

1992 – Dr. Dre – The Chronic

1992 – Ministry – Psalm 69 : The Way to Succeed and the Way to Suck Eggs

1992-94 – Antoine Bonnet – Epitaphe

1993 – John Oswald – Plexure

1993 – Björk – Debut

1993 – Snoop Doggy Dogg – Doggystyle

1993 – Wu-Tang Clan – Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers)

1994 – Development of the MP3 standard (Mpeg1 Audio Layer 3) by the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the introduction of DVD.

1994 – Robert Hood – Minimal Nation

1994 – The Notorious B.I.G. – Ready to Die

1994 – Nas – Illmatic

1994 – Autechre – Amber

1994 – Michael Jarrell – Cassandre

1994 – Tristan Murail – L´esprit des dunes

1995 – Yan Maresz (fr) – Metallics

1995 – Martin Matalon – Metropolis

1995 – The Chemical Brothers – Exit Planet Dust

1995 – Portishead – Dummy

1995 – Tricky – Maxinquaye

1995-96 – Marco Stroppa – Upon a Blade of Grass

1996 – Release of SuperCollider by James McCartney, an environmental and programming language for real-time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition. It was granted GNU status (General Public License) in 2002.

1996 – Steinberg develops the VST (Virtual Studio Technology) standard, the most widespread protocol today for audio plug-in applications.

1996 – Thierry De Mey – Tippeke

1996 – DJ Shadow – The Number Song

1996 – Carl Craig – The Secret Tapes Of Dr. Eich

1997 – Amon Tobin – Bricolage

1997 – Da Hool – Meet her at the love parade

1997 – Aphex Twin – Come to Daddy

1997 – Daft Punk – Homework

1998 – Richie Hawtin – Consumed

1998 – Luc Ferrari – Symphonie dechirée

1998 – Massive Attack – Mezzanine

1998 – Ryoji Ikeda – 0°C