Lost Analog by Barry Schrader

I’ve chosen to call this album "Lost Analog" not only with reference to my previous release, "Lost Atlantis", but also because all of the works are analog electronic music, and parts of them are, indeed, lost. All of this music was created from 1972 through 1983, using the Buchla 200 analog modular synthesizer, also known as “The Electric Music Box.” The music contained in this "Lost Analog" album was originally created in 4 channels, sometimes referred to as quadraphonic sound.

REVIEWS

The first piece is “Death of the Red Planet Suite,” recorded in 1973, and constructed from parts of a score for the film Death of the Red Planet, a 20-minute film that was the first to be created from images made with lasers. The music is dark, mysterious, and visceral, much like the arrival of Discovery 1 at Jupiter in Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Soaring electronics fry your brain as you careen through alien planetscapes. bursting through the atmosphere into deep space. Following this excellent piece is the five-movement work “Bestiary,” recorded from 1972-74. This is true experimental electronic music like early Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, way before the advent of digital synths. This music is not even remotely academic, showcasing what could be done without synth presets and Schrader carefully crafting wonderful sonic textures from slithery metallic sea serpents, tinkling meditative and wary atmospheres, to harsh crystalline sounds raising the hair on your neck. "Lost Analog" is truly a treasure trove of analog electronic music, the likes of which you do not hear today. Highly recommended.
Henry Schneider - Exposé

What techniques and theories could be of any help to sing the creation or destruction of a world? The potential for this sound in the existence of a Buchla or Moog electronic music machine has seldom been approached with such fierce, unfettered and fearless imagination. To witness this music — because it is visual beyond any sound I have known or feared — changes a person. After the first listen to Lost Analog, my thoughts abandoned my mind completely for some time. If you can imagine witnessing the creation of a world from a safe distance with a few friends, who would speak first after that? In another earlier time, this music would have been banned, and Barry excommunicated for attempting to depict a power equal to God. - Billy Sheppard - Billy's Music Without Borders

Of all the works on the album, the 'Moon-Whales Suite' seems to be the most fully realized. It is elegant and sublime with an aura of mystery, yet not so abstract as to alienate the listener. The thrilling and trilling conclusion actually does give "Moon Wings" to Whales, if you can imagine that. This is an album for those who appreciate modern experiemental electronic music and the Buchla 200 analog modular synthesizer. Well done! - Steve Mecca, Chain D.L.K.

Schrader's recent release "Lost Analog" is a collection of archival recordings created between 1972 and 1983, all based on his extensive explorations with the Buchla 200. Those familiar with the pieces "Lost Atlantis" and "Trinity" will feel immediately familiar with the styles at work on "Lost Analog." From the terrifying and engrossing "Death of the Red Planet Suite" and the brutally dynamic "Bestiary" to the brief-yet-animated "Classical Studies" and the patiently-unfolding "Moon Whales Suite", this collection is a spectacular sampling of not only Schrader's style, but of some of the most cutting-edge approaches to electronic music-making in the 1970s altogether. If you're looking to dive deeper into the life's work of a spectacular and underappreciated electronic composer, I can't think of a better listen. - Ryan Gaston - Perfect Circuit

After hearing this album one is left with the sense that the works represent the composer’s successful ability to make subtle electronic music on a modular machine that was built to encourage its users to think “outside the box.” Each work has been carefully crafted, sounding poignant and suggestive of various landscapes and environments from the natural world, without the assistance of sampling technology. - Ross Feller, Computer Music Journal

Schrader's music has fascinatingly subtle shifts of color and volume. The listener could wrap himself in a development of metallic sounds seamlessly transformed from speaker to speaker, a delicate but penetrating pulsation of notes woven with a music-box effect, or a melange of dizzying, sliding, wind rushing patterns that make the revving-up of a jet plane seem demure. - Melody Peterson, Los Angeles Times review of "Bestiary"

…the music outsynthesized Tangerine Dream in its hypnotic electronic coloration. - John Rockwell, New York Times review of "Death of the Red Planet"

Schrader's compositions for electronics, dance, film, video, mixed media, live/electro-acoustic music combinations, and real-time computer performance have been presented throughout the world. In 2014, he was given the SEAMUS Lifetime Achievement Award. He was a member of the Composition Faculty of the CalArts School of Music from 1971 to 2016. His web site is <barryschrader.com>.

barryschrader.com