Tuesday, June 10, 2008
The Moog Movie
Hans Fjellestad's 2004 film Moog reveals that Robert Moog was involved with electronics and music for the majority of his life. He began with the theramin, the electronic instrument that allows one to create sound and music by moving their hands in space. Moog built his first theramin when he was fourteen and sold the first one he produced for money in 1954. His current company still makes theramins. The last shot of this film shows Moog outdoors, likely in his backyard playing Old Man River on a theramin.
This film starts with Bob Moog talking about how he has the ability to feel a piece of electronic equipment. He maintains that ideas come to him in a process that is something in between discovering and witnessing. Fjellestad's portrait of Moog reveals his sensitivity to spirituality. This is evident in a tour of his garden. He talks about how gardening and inventing are somehow linked, an ecosystem is like a machine.
The film was released in 2004, a year before Bob Moog died. This portrait documentary is a most important time capsule with its combination of interview footage of the inventor discussing his life and work and studio interviews with a range of artists who have been impacted by his inventions.
How did he get to be interacting with the likes of DJ Spooky, Keith Emerson, Bernie Worrell, Money Mark, and Rick Wakeman, some of which are performing at an event, Moogfest, in his honor at BB King's Blues Club in New York City. He described his journey into the world of electronic music "like slipping backwards on a banana peel." His work with theremin kits put him in touch with Herb Deutsch which turned him on to the world of electronic music. The New York Times published a short article about the Moog/Deutsch era about a year ago.
The Moog Synthesizer and its modular electronic sound creation system created interest among the cutting edge of the musical and compositional community, was sought after by those interested in experimental sound and music. The instruments became popular in the world of advertising and commercials, and then to popular musicians.
In the film, Rick Wakeman talks about how the Mini Moog allowed rock keyboard players to compete onstage with guitarists. This sequence also leads to a hysterical segment where Wakeman, the great Bernie Worrell and Moog are backstage at Moogfest, acting and sounding like three regular guys talking about, what else, sex and women, (but also music and synthesizers) Regardless, Fjellestad has captured one of those moments of truth that is hard to forget here.
Fjellestad's director's notes in the DVD extras reveals that Moog was filmed in Super 16:such a seventies medium for a seventies topic! It allows for a kind of seamlessness between archival footage of Moog or Gershon Kingsley's concert of the first Moog quartet. And this choice helps give the film a timeless quality that fits it well. Afterall, this film will likely become the most important future record for folks to get an introduction on Moog, his character and his accomplishments.
The Moog can create space sounds and "the language of aliens" as Money Mark calls it in the film. Wakeman calls it the "instrument with an x factor" Moog's hope was that it would create new sounds and he comments on the practice of the Moog and other electronic instruments replacing traditional musicians and instruments, He voices concern that "music has becoming something that producers do by themselves for solitary listeners." feeling that live music is the most basic. And there is a kind of poignancy when he says "I hope we don't forget how important it is for live performance where musicians interact with players and form a community right there on the spot." And in a way, he seems to form a kind of community with nature in that aforementioned last shot of playing Old Man River on his theremin.
posted by well-executed buffet at 10:08 PM
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