Analog Revolutionaries with Theodore Gordon

Theodore Gordon is a musician, musicologist, and scholar of science and technologies studies. He’s interested in the mystery of the black box of audio technology. We know that there are inputs and outputs in this now ubiquitous music technology, but whatever happens in between remains mysterious and unseen. In this episode Ted and I explore how this black box has allowed musicians to imagine synths in revolutionary ways, by discussing three visionary musicians who had very different ideas about technology in the 1960s and '70s: Morton Subotnick, Pauline Oliveros, and Sun Ra. In Phantom Power news, we have just released a new free digital zine! It's called Nothing is Background: Experimental Artists and Thinkers on Sound, Attention, and the Resonant World. It features portraits of 16 guests from past Phantom Power episodes who have shared their ideas an inspirations exclusively for this zine. Whether you’re a musician, sound scholar, or casual listener, I think you'll find a lot of inspiration here to deepen your sensory contact with the world in this era of digital discontent. Subscribers will have already received an email link to download the zine for free, and if you are yet to subscribe, and want to get your hands on a copy, you can pick it up for free Nothing Is Background. And finally, in celebration of the release of Nothing is Background and Phantom Power at Talk Low Festival, we are hosting a limited time giveaway of a hat and shirt of your choosing from our fantastic merch line on the Phantom Power store! You must be subscribed at any level, free or paid, by October the 31st to be automatically entered to win, so if you aren’t already, you can subscribe to Phantom Power here. Cited Media: Music: Lejaren Hiller & Leonard Isaacson - Illiac Suite (1957) Karlheinz Stockhausen - Gesang der Jünglinge (1956) Morton Subotnick - Silver Apples of the Moon (1967) David Behrman - New Sounds in Electronic Music (1967) Wendy Carlos - Switched-On Bach (1968) Roland Kayn - Cybernetics (1969) Gershon Kingsley - Popcorn (1969) Hot Butter - Popcorn (1972) Sun Ra - Atlantis (1969) Sun Ra - My Brother the Wind (1970) Sun Ra - Nuits de la Fondation Maeght / The Cosmic Explorer (1971) Pauline Oliveros - Reverberations: Tape & Electronic Music 1961–1970 (2012) Books: Theodore Gordon - The Composer's Black Box (2025) Norbert Wiener - Cybernetics (1948) Thomas Patteson - Instruments for New Music (2015) Louis Chude-Sokei - The Sound of Culture (2015) Andrew Pickering - The Mangle of Practice (1995) Sun Ra - The Immeasurable Equation (1972) Abraham Moles - Théorie de l'information et perception esthétique (1966) Articles & Papers: Claude Shannon - A Mathematical Theory of Communication (1948) Harald Bode - A New Tool for the Exploration of Unknown Electronic Music Instrument Performances (1961) Film: Sun Ra - Space is the Place (1974) Chapters: 0:00 Intro 2:28 Phantom Power News 6:34 The Composer's Black Box 16:24 The Tape Music Center & Buchla's Box 29:35 Pauline Oliveros: Attention & Sensation 39:08 Sun Ra: The Illegible Instrument 47:03 The Cosmic Explorer 51:25 Outro Click here to read the full transcript Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices