7: Suzanne Ciani

This time we’re heading to the California coast with electronic visionary Suzanne Ciani. Her home studio overlooks a stunning bay, and has inspired many Grammy-nominated albums of meditative analogue synthesizer and neo-classical piano music. In the 1970s, she pioneered electronic music with her trusty Buchla modular synth, envisioning bold new horizons for where the sound could go, and designed inventive sounds for the advertising world, such as Coca Cola’s infamous “pop, pour and hiss”. She has returned to her Buchla in recent years, and uses the stage like a studio: she performs innovative shows in quadraphonic sound, manipulating and live mixing sound in real time. 

In this episode, Ciani talks to host Kate Hutchinson about the Buchla’s counter cultural beginnings, breaking through as a rare woman in early electronic sound, sleeping on Philip Glass’s floor, why she never became a Warhol Superstar, the importance of risk, the sensual slowness of sine waves and what drives her as an artist and innovator now.

Studio Radicals is a new podcast series that meets the musical visionaries who are shaping the sounds of today, from leading artists and producers to composers and engineers.

For more information and to see portrait photography, videos and playlists from the series, visit dcsaudio.com/studioradicals and instagram.com/dcsonlythemusic. 

CREDITS
Studio Radicals is co-produced by dCS Audio and host Kate Hutchinson.
Audio production, editing and sound design: Holly Fisher. 
Additional recording: Lusen Mendel.
Photography and video: Poppy Lynch.
Video editing: Jess Vincent.
Theme music: Anna Prior. 
With thanks to Rachel Aiello.