Since becoming interested in using computers to make noises at Princeton University in 1969, Paul Lansky has never looked back. His music is intensely distracting and able to evoke the strongest imagery with only the most basic ingredients. electronicmusic.com: How long do you think it will be before the three minute song element currently prevailant in popular music will be replaced by soundtracks that don't neccesarily need to end at all? Paul Lansky: There has been a trend in recent years for people to produce music which has neither a logical beginning nor end. Some of the most i...

If you have ever witnessed the spectacle called the Jim Rose Circus you will most certainly have noticed the synthonic musicalities of The Enigma, he's the one whose skin is a blue jigsaw puzzle who eats grubs and other lowly lifeforms and produces the music, live, for each and every show. The circus had recently completed the Australian leg of a world tour and was preparing to leave for Europe when we managed to contact The Enigma, who is usually unreachable by telephone because he lives in a sewer, but thanks to fellow circus member Mr. Lifto we managed to track him down and find out a ...

Regarded by many as one of the most innovative and talented artists in Europe today Jochem Paap is rapidly becoming a favourite with electronic music fans in the US and worldwide. Since the release of Ginger in 1994, which was Jochem's attempt to move away from the rave scene, he has produced music that challenges the listener to expect more from a genre that is capable of limitless expression, culminating in the brilliant G Spot album, released in 1995, and Public Energy No.1, released in the US in 1997. We spoke with Jochem while he was on a brief promotional visit to New York. ele...

Jeff Greinke is a musician, composer, performer, sound sculptor, and visual artist who is known world-wide for his unique sound. Through a highly developed process of layering, Jeff composes and performs music rich in texture, depth, mood and subtle detail. Using various acoustic and electronic instruments, found sounds and extended studio techniques, Jeff sculpts soundworlds that conjure a strong sense of place, hovering somewhere between the exotic and the familiar. electronicmusic.com: In the beginning, how did it all start? What made you take up music? Jeff Greinke: I became in...

Best known for his series of pioneering electronic music albums recorded under the project name Synergy, Larry Fast is also known for his work with Peter Gabriel. He has composed music for film and television including Carl Sagan's Cosmos (PBS) and the film Birdy, among others. Larry has also been awarded patents for developments related to audio transmission systems used by the hearing impaired. The following interview was conducted via email shortly after playing as a member of Wendy Carlos' Switched On Bach Live All-Synthesizer Ensemble which had its premier performance at the Bach At ...

electronicmusic.com: Who does what in the band? Scott Kirkland: We both do a little bit of everything, Ken's more of the engineer producer and I do more of the musician songwriter thing or I engineer he writes. We both dabble in everything. It's not like you do all the percussion tracks and hand them over to Ken for him to eventually hand it back? No, we work together. It may start out something like in Busy Child were I came up with a part or something or the initial rhythm or whatever, then we work together on it forever and ever and ever to get all the drums sou...

electronicmusic.com: How heavily does science fiction influence the way you see the world? Gary Numan: Science Fiction has no influence on the music, especially lyrically, and especially now. To be honest I only ever wrote a handful of songs that were remotely connected to Science Fiction and they were all nearly 20 years ago. The 'Replicas' album, or bits of it, one or two things on 'The Pleasure Principle' and one or two things on 'Telekon'. I would say about 15 songs, maybe 20, out of a total of well over 300 to date have anything to do with Sci Fi. I think because I became succ...

Shortly before a concert at Seattle's Paramount Theatre we managed to spend some time with Chumbawamba's principal programmer and drummer Harry Hamer, finding out what it takes to make a best selling album. electronicmusic.com: What do you do in the band? Harry Hamer: Well when we play live I play drums, but when we did the record and the writing of the songs I do all the loops and programming and all that sort of stuff y'know sampling. I noticed when I listened to the album for the first time a few weeks ago that there are a lot of synthetic drums in there, how much of that is ...