Sean Albiez

Yamaha YS200 synthesizer

Right then - next job is to fit a new internal battery in this synth - my Yamaha YS200, bought in July 1989 (A1 Music in Manchester £454) - my first proper synth, including an 8 track sequencer. Then am going to install the Steem Atari emulator for PC so I can run YSEditor and get sound designing 😎

Korg Electribe EM1 Music Production Station

So how have I spent the ghost elektron 'The Romance of Modern Mechanism' release day? Mainly playing around and reacquainting myself with this - and reading up on how to fix the effect selector potentiometer that barely works (apparently many EM1s have this exact same problem) ...

The Romance of Modern Mechanism, by ghost elektron 12 track album

My new ghost elektron album is out today on streaming platforms and CD - ambient-instrumental-experimental - CD available to order via Bandcamp. Good to see this in the world 😎

Finalised CD digipak artwork for my 2nd ghost elektron album - The Romance of Modern Mechanism - out this Friday (3rd October) - with thanks to Louise Morell for putting this together using some of my photographs 😎 ghost-elektron@bandcamp.com

My new ghost elektron album 'The Romance of Modern Mechanism' is out next Friday 3rd October. Now available for pre-order on CD or Digital via Bandcamp - the first release on the State of Bass ambient-instrumental-experimental sister label Stateless Bass.

ghost-elektron.bandcamp.com/album/the-ro...

After our Nostalgia Deathstar album release, had almost forgotten that my 2nd ghost elektron album will be out on Friday 3rd October via Bandcamp (digital and CD) and the usual stealing platforms - it's ambient-instrumental-experimental. Cinematic, dark and light ... more details soon ...

Electronic Music Comes to Manchester Maurice Martenot and the ondes musicales: April - June 1928

Just reposted this from January 2025 as something odd going on with my original Substack post ...

Wow - very nice review of our new Nostalgia Deathstar album in Electronic Sound magazine - 'Savage and prescient' - that'll do 😎

Out next week 😎

YouTube video by Nostalgia Deathstar - Topic ZU (feat. Tara Brabazon) (They Kill The Flame)

Our new single - a stomping EBM quality review of the creeping death of the university, anti-intellectualism, the cowardice and conniving of university senior management and more - on all streaming platforms - album follows soon ...

September and October releases from Nostalgia Deathstar and @ghost-elektron.bsky.social

They Kill The Flame, by Nostalgia Deathstar 11 track album

Out September 5th

Nostalgia Deathstar's new venture

Manchester Museum named European museum of the year ‘Gobsmacked’ director says 138-year-old museum aims to ‘build empathy for other people and the natural world’

I've not been there for about 40 years but have fond memories of bunking off here when I was in sixth form 😎

Music From the Air is Old, He Says Frank E. Miller, the Theremin Controversy and the Audion Electric Organ 1915-1932

I was sorting some research files over the weekend and realised I had enough to get a Song of the Atom post together on the forgotten electronic music innovator, Frank E. Miller ... so I put this together today ... songoftheatom.substack.com/p/music-from...

Phonomanipulation [1] Patrick Feaster and the Early Manipulation of Recorded Sound

Here's my last Substack post for a while - introducing the topic that will be the focus of the following few posts - phonomanipulation techniques - and a brief overview of Patrick Feaster's excellent article on the origins of the transformation of sound recordings on phonographs/gramophones.

My VE Day was nothing like our image of it today. I hope we can honour what it really meant | Sheila Hancock Our street party tea was a muted celebration, full of uncertainty. Then, as now, we faced a long struggle towards a better world, says actor and writer Sheila Hancock

A gentle reminder

Music of the Spheres Johanna Magdalena Beyer [1888-1944]

My latest 'Song of the Atom' Substack post - on German-American composer Johanna Magdalena Beyer's 'electronic' composition 'Music of the Spheres' [1938]. I 'may' have discovered previously unknown information of her time in Germany as well a a previously unknown composition, 'Song of New York' ...

Painting Sound and Music [2] Soviet Graphical Sound in the Press 1935-1936

Here's Part 2 of my Substack article on German and Russian graphical sound in the English language press in the 1930s - this time focusing on Russian innovators who had their moment in the sun from 1935-36

Painting Sound and Music [1] Eric A. Humphriss, Rudolf Pfenninger and Graphical Sound in the Press 1931-1935

Here's my latest Substack post - prompted by a key theme concerning drawn film sound in my last post on the 1935 John Mills book 'A Fugue in Cycles and Bels', Part 1 focuses on Eric A. Humphriss and Rudolf Pfenninger [1931-35]

An Electrical Future for Music John Mills and A Fugue in Cycles and Bels [1935]

This week's Substack post - on John Mills's 1935 book 'A Fugue in Cycles and Bels' that was another key source for John Cage's research in the late 1930s

The Ethereal Orchestra André Coeuroy on Electric Music [1932]

Wasn't really planning on doing this this afternoon, but this 1932 article has been on my mind ... a shortish post looking at French critic André Coeuroy's ‘L'orchestre éthéré / The Ethereal Orchestra’ article.

Toward a New Music Carlos Chavez on Music and Electricity [1932-1937]

This week's Substack post - on Mexican composer Carlos Chavez's book 'Toward a New Music' that heavily influenced John Cage's thoughts of new and future musics.

The Symphony of Mechanical Forces Carol-Bérard and the organization of noise 1908-1928

Here's my latest Substack post - on Carol-Bérard’s 1908 (?) La Symphonie des forces mécaniques [The Symphony of Mechanical Forces], and his thoughts on the 'organization of noise' in a 1928 article that preempts much of John Cage's 'The Future of Music: Credo' by 10 years ...

Music and the Laboratory From John Redfield to John Cage

Got a feeling I still might have to tidy this up a little, but here's my latest Substack post - 'Music and the Laboratory: from John Redfield to John Cage'

Organized Sound: Before and After Varèse Edgard Varèse, John Cage and the origins of 'organized sound'

Here's my second Substack post examining John Cage's 'The Future of Music: Credo' - focusing on the term 'organized sound', Edgard Varèse and John Cage's usage of the term, and the longer history of 'organized sound' as a formulation for understanding of music - before and after 1940-1941 ...

John Cage and the Past, Present and Future of Music 'The Future of Music: Credo' as scenius, not genius

Here's this week's short introductory article to further writing I'm going to be doing on issues surrounding Cage's 'The Future of Music: Credo' [18 February 1940]

Hugo Gernsback and Electronic Music [3] Postscript - Super Music, Micromusic and the Brussels World's Fair 1958

I thought I'd best put together a final short article so that I'd covered what I'd initially intended to on Hugo Gernsback and Electronic Music - so here it is - Part 3 ...

Hugo Gernsback and Electronic Music [2] Part 2 - Radio Craft in the 1930s

Think I bit off a bit more than I could chew on this one, so had to leave out a few things ... might mean Hugo Gernsback Part 3 at some point ... anyway, here's this week's 'Song of the Atom' Substack post 🙂