Suzanne Ciani on Synthesis, Advertising and New Age | Red Bull Music Academy

In her lecture at the 2016 Red Bull Music Academy, pioneering synthesizer artist Suzanne Ciani recounts her lifelong relationship with the Buchla synthesizer and its inventor, and the varied paths she took as an artist over the years. #RBMA #Buchla
TOPICS:
00:57 - Meeting Don Buchla
18:45 - Lincoln Center letdown
21:34 - Art and advertising
34:43 - Female innovators
38:33 - Seven waves
49:19 - Back to the Buchla
A true synthesizer pioneer, Suzanne Ciani’s love of electronic music began in 1968 during a field trip to MIT. However, it was her decade-long adventure mastering the Buchla 200 that would define her career. Unable to secure interest from labels, Ciani worked on commercials, and starting in the late ’80s she redefined herself again as a five-time Grammy-nominated new age artist. Her latest work, in a long career full of fascinating turns, is a collaborative effort with fellow Buchla player Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith.
The Red Bull Music Academy is a global music institution committed to fostering creativity in music. We celebrate music, its culture, and the transformative minds behind it. Begun in 1998, the Academy has taken the core principles that underlie its annual workshop for selected participants and applied this curatorial approach to events, lectures, and city-wide festivals throughout the year.
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[@jimmybuffet4970]

Anyone else think she’s just gorgeous?? Soooooooo brilliant too!

[@Jwdude123]

These kids have no idea how great a person she is. They are in the presence of greatness. She has accomplished so much and is still performing.

[@LindaPelkey-e7u]

The interviewer has a LOT to learn on letting her guest express themselves, especially about someone the Suzanne loved so profoundly. Suzanne is a genius, and has so much to express and teach. She is truly AWESOME.❤❤❤❤❤

[@rhinoskin7550]

I noticed this as well. Don and these instruments are her life, and the interviewer acts as tho Suzanne is removed from it haha

[@Makinthadough]

I'm a good bit younger, but when she's talking about watching a generation die, we've just come through that in my lifetime in West Virginia music. What a beautiful interview.

[@k.c.simonsen2]

Jesus way to start the show with making the legendary guest CRY lol. She's like "first thing's first, I want you to go ahead and take a look to your LEFT and tell me whatcha see, we'll wait."

[@str8upndown856]

Super insensitive

[@asiullopes]

there should definitely be a way for us mortals watching on youtube to also watch the videos mentioned, that really sucks. otherwise it's a great interview, a real honor to watch Suzanne

[@chafomon]

R.I.P. Don Buchla.

[@Nomo_Popo]

"Welcome, here's a picture of your friend who just died."

[@AEMachinas]

Jsn Sdx 😂

[@napatora]

seriously wtf

[@thecholguan]

Como hacen tamaña brutalidad¿ they don’t had respect for her feelings

[@PedroMiguel-if3ll]

She asked who's that, not "who is dead"

[@Ori0n1975]

Buchla's name was going to come up repeatedly. Best to get to it right away.

[@ANTheWhizkid]

To me she´s one of most awesome musicians ever. She´s really cool.

[@ejfogleman]

Red Bull: please use your financial resources to secure the necessary permissions to show these videos in full with music and video clips included. The abrupt omissions spoil this otherwise excellent video.

[@Threecreation]

great gal. the album Seven Waves proved to me that love was real.

[@josephwright5921]

That album is very warm, majestic synth album

[@cliftoncameron5632]

The Amazing Artist that you speak of in terms of the approach to the plants is Mileece. I have had the opportunity to meet her at Jega's Variance album launch years ago and just recently at the 2016 NAMM show at the Haken Continuum booth. Suzanne is exceptionally passionate and full of Life, I have had the opportunity to meet her at the 2012 NAMM show where she and Morton had their talks regarding the Buchla System. Suzanne was engaging, funny, excited, and sported an awesome black coat with a flare that is connected to her wonderful persona. Great crowd and Hanna was superb as a moderator. Red Bull you continue to Inspire . . . Thank you for sharing.

[@shantrannyduck]

you need to have the videos included OR link them otherwise it makes no sense and TOTALLY spoils this great exposé

[@gfunkk]

Learned so much cool history from this. Thanks for the story Suzanne and Red Bull!

[@napndash]

Great start to an interview

[@MelonSprout]

so sad that they cut the actual tracks out

[@justinkinter8651]

Dude, is it just me or is that such a fucked up move to put someone on the spot like that when their friend just died, and then basically imply that they’re going to talk about it whether she likes it or not? I suppose thats why she’s there so its not like she didn’t know they were going to bring it up, but I dont know, it just seemed kind of aggressive how it was brought up

[@toslinked]

I am sure they talked about it before the interview.

[@m.g.kroger]

With videos and music inserts this could have been a great documentary on electronic music. Red Bull Music might still get a chance to do something great. Are those inserts copyrights so expensive for such a huge company like Red Bull?

[@toslinked]

redbull is just a terrible company.

[@Makinthadough]

These are amazing people with amazing stories. What they are not and should not be is the voice of the lesser than. This art is not the art of the minority and never will be as much as culture tries to push it that way. In this interview there is a push towards Suzanne being female as being minority and she handles it well. It's so similar to what she has to say about the price of digital memory. This being minority economically is a fallacy and this music being the face of a political movement is equally fake. Awesome to see an interview with an expert in her field and so refreshing to watch the elegance of her responses to these questions.

[@djangosfire]

Thank you - wonderful lecture - inspiring :)

[@iriniapid]

legend! I had read an interview with her at anp quarterly magazine a while ago

[@koure94]

Don't cut audio/video!!!!!

[@Makinthadough]

I would have the question, how do you feel about the fact that the way that your interview is made available to someone who would never have access to you personally is as a native advertisement?

[@brucebaldy]

Personally, I would've liked to hear her play and some of the film presentation sounded interesting to see in relation to the talk.

[@napatora]

there's another video of her at this talk explaining her setup and messing around with the buchla

[@garethbramley1]

Surely You Tube would allow a few seconds of these pieces of music???? Crazy. Red Bull should at least insert some sort of picture so we can see what's what!!

[@henryalfaro9125]

It is just useless !!! if you keep cutting the interview of this incredible woman.

[@napatora]

it's a copyright thing, red bull does that for all these vids

[@RobertPearson777]

Is that L. Sadier of Stereolab interviewing her?

[@CS-sf1rz]

Robert Pearson no

[@woolight_]

Very nice!

[@deadregister1285]

Link to the whole interview or it didn't happen.

[@LarsBjerregaard]

This was great!

[@bas1cbas1c]

Is that Marie Davidson talking about New Age at about 46:00?

[@NOWtheband]

Yes.

[@agfagaevart]

How was she able to afford a Buchla in the first place??

[@RBMA]

She did some soundtrack work via a friend, you can hear more about that particular part of the story in a recent KCRW podcast series called Lost Ones.

[@TheTeddingtonBoy]

People shared time on these instruments back in those days

[@elecsoul8309]

She worked for it by building Buchla modules...

[@deemarr9151]

Really!!..

[@GorilieVR]

59:00 wow they predicted the Ai revolution 6 years ago 😅

[@Moskalus]

hell yeah

[@CMTHAKING]

Is that Marie Davidson asking her a question halfway through? Amazing

[@antoineq3350]

it seems so yes

[@ImplosiveCatt]

Special lady.

[@Lofuckyou]

At the end she says" you understand me" yet she is on a level that a handful will ever be. None of her audience.

[@napatora]

oh you know all of them personally? you don't know who's in that room or what they do or don't understand.

[@AEMachinas]

Why they don’t show the clips is lame.

[@ckeilah]

Andrew Mcinnis Because KZbin is a steaming pile of horse shit that will copyright claim your video in five seconds if you use any audio or video that “belongs” to someone else, fair use be damned. They could at least tell us what the audio and video clips are, so we could go seek them out and re-insert them ourselves.

[@2112jonr]

See the first reply.

[@mami1455]

46:27 🎹🧘‍♀️✍

[@deemarr9151]

No tear tissues 😢..wow

[@deemarr9151]

Who is the interviewer...

[@gerryarty8342]

Cool 良 乾杯

[@moozycla6]

wtf, she's 70 there. Lookin good, ms. Ciani, looking goood..

[@r-omega]

Solid interviewer 👍

[@Mistralincessant]

I don’t quite get the reason why she was nearly fired. Sometimes my English listening skills leave much to be desired. I would appreciate if someone let me know.

[@mortalvortex]

she wasn't good at soldering

[@Mistralincessant]

James Greenaway thank you

[@dorian_delorean]

That’s not what she said, she said after work that first day there was a cold solder discovered and so they said it must be the new girl that did it. She doesn’t say it was in fact her work and seems in my opinion to allude that it was not her work, rather she was an easy scapegoat

[@AEMachinas]

Advertising was the beast that assimilated the art into shit and hell.

[@xtra8dj]

Who is the moderator?

[@jokaliify]

Hanna Bacher, she's done some really great 'fireside chats' but hopefully she's doing more of these interviews too.

[@xtra8dj]

Hi Jo-anna, thanks I'll check her work. Have a nice day (evening).

[@toslinked]

that audience looks like they don’t understand a single thing that she is talking about.

[@panacea.palace]

Oh yeah, you know all those people and what they each internally understand?

[@JayJay-_]

how cheap are redbull just cutting and not paying royalties?

[@AEMachinas]

This is some Wizard of Oz shit

[@Makinthadough]

i'm sorry i love this woman but how is i moved to new york with a 30k+ cutting edge instrument a minority story?

[@dorian_delorean]

You seem confused; minority doesn’t equal poor

[@nickherman5662]

Suzanne is great and thoughtful. Audience seems almost comically trend-chasing hipster demographic who seems to not know the first thing about electronics (not that this is a fatal mark in and of itself it's just so...*face plant*)

[@marctronixx]

have to agree 1010%. when she played the buchla, the audience were zombies...

[@TheTrancemaster90]

ahahah you're so right, hipsters just need to wear the intellectual dress at all costs, cringe

[@Ori0n1975]

Exactly. These people over-intellectualize their questions to the nth degree.

[@spdycar13]

I know this is an older post but seriously, why would you show a picture and start an interview with her long time friend who had recently passed? How insensitive! Perhaps they should have asked her ahead of time if she was ok with this?

[@deemarr9151]

Oh that was wrong 😳..I felt for you..no reason to say sorry at all.

[@EdZissou]

Thanks for not showing the entire track she presented… 👎🏼

[@beluv]

SWITCH TOPICS HERE

[@marctronixx]

No disrespect but the young lady doing the interview is gorgeous. Articulate. iIntriguing. No disrespect to her man if he's reading this.. :)

[@AllenSmithe]

You could simply complete the woman for who she is, without mentioning her dating life.

[@agfagaevart]

Ciana is much more attractive IMO.

[@napatora]

you're more worried about offending her "man" than her if they were to read this.. says everything right there.

[@Ori0n1975]

Simpin' ain't easy.

[@WearySisyphus]

Great composer Weak interviewer imho

[@subs4794]

Sad they stopped these talks...

[@DrRodion]

Wheres the video

[@tmengucor]

I actually dislike this kind of emotional pornography currently ruling the west world. Why people so desperately need to see other people crying? Suzanne Ciani didnt deserve this treatment.