Suzanne Ciani’s The Diva of the

Diode rekindles
her passion for
Marvelous Journey synthesizers
BY GEARY YELTON

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elm0617_Feature_SuzanneCiani_f_prod.indd 24 4/20/17 4:02 PM


Almost any musician would envy Suzanne Ciani’s
career trajectory. Now considered one of the
world’s foremost synthesists, Ciani’s interest in
electronic instruments hit a new level when she
was introduced to synth pioneer Don Buchla in the
late ’60s, and she soon became the Buchla modu-
lar’s most accomplished and devoted evangelist.
Ciani’s move to New York in the ’70s led to a
successful career producing music and sound ef-
fects for Fortune 500 advertising clients, includ-
ing futuristic sounds that powered Bally’s Xenon
pinball machines and the iconic Coca-Cola “pop-
and-pour.” But it was in the ’80s that she helped
define a musical style that eventually earned her
five Grammy Award nominations for Best New
Age Album. Between 1982 and 2005, she wrote
elm0617_Feature_SuzanneCiani_f_prod.indd 25
and recorded a dozen New Age albums, gradually
turning her attention away from synthesizers and
toward piano performance and neo-classical com-
position. Remarkably, she was also the first wom-
an to compose a score for a major Hollywood film.
After years away from the Buchla, Ciani has re-
turned to her electronic roots and again embraced
the instrument that once launched her lucrative
career in television commercials. Two retrospec-
tive albums of her electronic music—Lixiviation
and Buchla Concerts 1975—and a documentary
film about her career, A Life in Waves, which pre-
miered at this year’s SXSW Film Festival, have in-
troduced her work to new audiences.
Ciani was about to resume touring with her Bu-
chla 200e when she spoke to me from her home,
just north of San Francisco.
I understand that you returned to electronic
music after giving it up for quite some time.
What motivated that?
My reconnection with Don Buchla. We reconnected
socially when I moved back to the West Coast in
1992. At that point, I did make an attempt to repair
what was left of my original [Buchla] 200 system.
Half of it was stolen, and half of it I still had, and I
tried to get it repaired. I was told that it was impos-
sible to repair the MARF—the 248, Multiple Arbi-
trary Function Generator—and since that was the
heart and soul of the system for me, I then accepted
an offer from somebody in Canada to put the system
into a museum. As it turns out, though, I just found
out that it actually didn’t make it into the museum.
After years of being socially connected to Don, we
played tennis frequently. He was a very good tennis
player, and we shared that passion. At a certain point
about five years ago, he said, “Look, if you are ever
thinking of going back to the instrument, now is the
time, because I’m about to sell the company.”
And so I thought, well, okay, why not? So, I put
together a list of the modules that I would like and
purchased a small system, which I then expanded
a little bit almost immediately.
How did you meet Don, and how did your re-
lationship evolve over the years?
I met Don when I came out to the University of Cali-
fornia Berkeley in 1968 to go to graduate school in mu-
sic composition. A friend of mine at the time knew an
artist, Harold Paris, who had the building right next
store to Don. I had been searching for this electronic
music phenomenon, and I didn’t really know what it
was. Harold Paris said, “I’ll introduce you.”
So, I went down there and met Don, and of
course it was an epiphany. Here was this ware-
house full of blinking modular systems, and I de-
cided that I would go to work there when I fin-
ished graduate school; so that’s what I did. I did
spend a bit of time there—a year, two years—and
cobbled together the beginnings of this system. I
started doing work in commercials and advertis-
ing to make money, and I bought a system. And
then I went on to Los Angeles and New York.
Once I moved to New York in 1974, things be-
came difficult for me because the Buchla would
break down. It’s a fragile system, and at that time,
it was my life. I lived with it, I had it on all day,
and when it broke, it was very hard on me. I looked
desperately for somebody who could repair it: I
wasn’t able to repair it myself. Apparently, nobody
else could learn to do it, either. So, I would ship
a broken part back to Don, he would ship it back,
and frequently it would be damaged in transit.
Things went downhill from there. Because of the
emotional difficulties, I had to wean myself from
the Buchla and start looking in other directions. Of
course, electronics was taking off then. Other man-
ufacturers were coming in, and I ended up working
with all of them. At first I was hesitant. I remember
when Korg asked me to work with them, I was still
a Buchla person, and I said no, because I had such
allegiance. But as the Buchla failed me, I started to
look in other directions, and I did work with Yama-
ha and Roland and Eventide and on and on. So, my
electronic interactions multiplied, and my studio
grew until I had the major electronic production
studio for television in New York.
J UNE 201 7 | EMU SICIAN .COM 25
4/20/17 4:02 PM
 From your perspective, what makes the Bu-
chla so different from other synthesizers?
The early version of the system, when Mort Sub-
otnick was involved with Buchla, was not a vision
of a live performance instrument. Mort wanted
something that could make interesting sounds,
and then you could record those interesting
sounds and overdub them and make a composi-
tion that way. By the time I came along five years
later, he had already evolved his own vision of the
instrument as a live performance instrument.
The Moog was a very big, non-compact system.
You couldn’t readily take it around, and it was rel-
egated to the studio for the most part. Buchla’s
system was compact. My case weighs about 38
pounds, so Don’s system was portable.
It was also designed with a lot of feedback, and
that, to me, made it more human, because when you
played it, you knew what was going on inside. It was
like a living being. The pulses were telling you where
they were, where the control voltages were. It was
filled with LEDs that gave you information, and so
it was very interactive. I honestly don’t know how
people perform on live modular systems that don’t
have feedback. You just don’t know what’s going on.
Besides the Buchla, what other instruments
do you most rely on?
Well, right now I’m using just the Buchla. Don
passed away last year, and that motivated me even
more to get out there while I can and represent
that vision.
Before all this happened, I was about to record
a new album that I had written in Venice, Italy.
I have a tradition of studio albums that I record
with various digital instruments and synths. I’ve
always had that side. This particular Buchla fasci-
nation is separate from that.
I did record one piece, because the Bob Moog
Foundation was coming out with a new sound li-
brary from MOTU. They asked me to do a piece
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elm0617_Feature_SuzanneCiani_f_prod.indd 26
demonstrating that library, so I took one of the
pieces that I wrote in Venice, and I had so much
fun recording that. It came out great!
How do you feel about Eurorack modules?
A year ago, I thought, okay, I’m back in this world.
Let’s find out who’s doing what. Let’s see if may-
be there are some great new designs. Maybe it’s
changed, and Buchla’s not the only one. I was play-
ing at a lot of events where there were a lot of Euro-
rack designers, and I started looking at the format.
The Buchla world doesn’t really integrate eas-
ily. It uses a different voltage system. It uses a dif-
ferent-size module. And I like its approach. I like
when I’m performing that I can see quickly what
I’m reaching for. I can see, oh, that’s audio, this is
control voltage, this is timing pulse, and I like that.
When my Buchla is crushed into bits, and if I
have to move over to a Eurorack system, I’ll contin-
ue exploring that, but I haven’t seen anything yet.
What about clones of Buchla modules?
The heart of my system right now is a clone of the
248 [module]. I also have a clone of the 291 [filter]
from the 200 series, the original one. There’s a healthy
clone business out there, which is kind of open now.
When Buchla was alive, it wasn’t cool, but now clones
are okay. I am open to exploring the idea of integrating
Eurorack with the Buchla, but right now, I don’t really
have any real estate available. When you’re touring,
you can’t carry that much stuff around.
Do you do most of your recording in your
home studio?
Yes. My studio is tiny now. I’m in a cottage on
the ocean, so I don’t have oodles of space. I could
bring stuff in, I guess, for the recording.
Is that by design? Did you want a small space?
Yes. I wanted to simplify my life, because I moved
out here from New York City, and I had a very big
studio. My number one requirement out here was
that I not have to have a patch bay, so I don’t have
a patch bay in this studio. I work in a very limited,
uncomplicated environment.
What platform do you use for recording?
I use Digital Performer. I love it, and you develop
reflexes. When I first started in New York, we used
PCs. I used a [sequencer] program called Texture.
Then I came out to California to produce History
of My Heart, my fourth album. I was working up
here near San Francisco, and I could not find a soul
who could assist on a PC here on the West Coast.
I found a guy, and he said, “We all use Apple out
here, so you’re going to have to transfer all your
sequences to a Macintosh.”
And I said, “Nooo!” But that was what hap-
pened. I was forced by West Coast standards to
go into the Apple, and, of course, that was the best
thing to ever happen to me.
Do you record with the same Buchla system you
take on tour, or do have extra modules there?
I don’t really use the Buchla in my studio recording.
Really? What do you use?
On the next album, I’ll be using software synths—
Omnisphere, Native Instruments, and whatever
else I can find. When I come to that point, I’ll start
really exploring what’s out there.
And I am a huge fan of Dave Smith. He was
part of my first album, Seven Waves. Who knows
what magic produces a particular sound, but the
sound of the Prophet in an orchestrated environ-
ment—it’s transparent, and it’s not a space hog. It
allows the positioning of a lot of different layers
and timbres at the same time. That’s why I could
never use, in the old days, the Synclavier.
You had a Synclavier, didn’t you? I’ve seen a
photos of you with one.
4/20/17 4:02 PM
 Yeah, I did have a Synclavier, and I rarely used
it on my studio recordings, because the sound
just ate up the whole track.
What can you tell us about your new docu-
mentary film, A Life in Waves?
It just premiered, so that was a breakthrough.
The filmmakers are from Texas. They came
to me, and they were intrigued by something.
Their previous film was about lady wrestlers.
STUDIO FURNITURE That’s an odd transition, from lady wres-
tlers to lady synthesist.
I looked at the film, and it was well done. It was
a cult film. I just liked these filmmakers. There
was something about them that I just felt open
to, and so I said yes. It was low budget, because
they did a Kickstarter. We started by going into
the archives. I have a vault filled with old tapes
and old videos. I made a list of some of the
things that were in there. They made a list of
what they wanted and transferred them.
MIZA LINE When they came up here, I thought they
were coming up here to talk to me about the
film and the direction, to get to know each
other, because all we’d had was lunch in Aus-
tin. They came up here with their cameras
and started shooting. It was really kind of fast.
Then they came to Moogfest. They didn’t do a
lot of different locations. They came to Welles-
ley [College] because I got an award, and that
YESK LINE
was quite a time because there was nine feet of
snow on the ground. They did some live shoot-
ing interviews, and I think they did a fabulous
job on the arc of the story.
When they started, I wasn’t in total agree-
ment about the direction, because I thought it
was very tech-oriented.
What would you have preferred?
CLASSIC LINE
I’ve spent the last 20 years plus with my in-
dependent label, Seventh Wave, which has re-
leased my recordings of studio albums, often
involving piano or orchestra or jazz group or
FOR HOME any combination of things, and that’s really
& PROFESSIONAL been my living, selling that work. That’s what I
identified with. I was just starting to make this
STUDIOS
comeback.
DESKS
You’ve been focusing on the music rather
WORKSTATIONS
than the technology.
TABLES
Right. I said, don’t put so much emphasis on
RACKS
the technology. Couldn’t we have some foot-
MONITOR STANDS
age of the orchestra and the piano? But what
ACCESSORIES
happened was that over the few years that they
www.zaorstudiofurniture.com were making the film, the direction of my ca-
reer did change back to technology. So, in the
USA — Distribution by www.audioplusservices.com end, their approach is not so out of sync. I said,
CANADA — Distribution by www.plurison.com
“Couldn’t you, please, just put in the albums,
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those 15 albums that I made?”
Are you helping to promote the film?
That’s why I went to South by Southwest. My
attitude at first was, you know, it’s your film.
And then I thought, gee, they worked so hard
on this, and they did such a nice job, you really
should participate more. So, I did go to South
by Southwest, and I worked. I did a perfor-
mance for Moog, and I did a performance for
South by Southwest. Now they’re screening it
in Boston this coming Sunday, and I’m going
to that. Boston’s my hometown, so I have 18
people from my family coming, and that’s re-
ally sweet for me.
Did the film motivate the tour you’re doing
now?
No, people just invite me to play.
They just happened to invite you, one after
the other, so you could arrange a tour?
It’s not the most accommodating schedule. I go
from Philadelphia to New York to Amsterdam
to Detroit. Just the same way I don’t want a
patch bay, I want to keep my life simple. I don’t
want an agent. I’m not the best organizer. We’ll
see how it goes. I’ll be in Durham for Moogfest,
but that’s a one-off. In June, I have two festivals
in Europe—one that is sponsored by Red Bull,
and the other one’s in Italy, where my family is.
After that, I want to stop.
So, you can finish your album?
Right.
In the ’70s, when you were doing advertis-
ing music and such, what was your rela-
tionship with the piano?
For the years that I played the Buchla, for al-
most ten years, I didn’t touch the piano. I
didn’t want to confuse things. [Don] Buchla’s
one overriding concept was that a mechanical
keyboard was an inappropriate interface, so I
just hated a mechanical keyboard of any kind.
And then on my second album, The Velocity of
Love—that was in ’86—that was the first time
that I had used a piano in all those years.
Your albums helped define the sound of
New Age music. How do you feel about
having been part of that?
It was a double-edge thing. I had a Number
One radio song, and at the moment that I had
licensed that to RCA, RCA was sold to BMG.
And I was just crossed off the list. I had a Num-
ber One radio song with no distribution and no
rights, because I had licensed it for whatever
it was, three years or five years. Fortunately,
4/20/17 4:02 PM
 eventually I got it back, but that was an eclipse of
major proportions.

As this New Age category opened, it did allow

better marketing for my stuff from then on, be-
cause there was a place to put it. When Seven
Waves came out, no record store knew where
to put it. Was it instrumental? Was it electron-
ic? Was it jazz? Was it classical? What was it?
New age—I never identified with it. It kind of came
after the fact for me. I didn’t even know what it meant.

But it was good for you that New Age became

popular.
Yeah, it was, in terms of distribution. Then there
was a category for the Grammy Awards. You could
get nominated because there was a category.

How did your soundtrack for Lily Tomlin’s

1981 film, The Incredible Shrinking Woman,
come about?
That was funny, actually. One day the phone rang
and a guy with a British accent said, “This is Bren-
dan Cahill from Universal Pictures, and we would
like you to send over some materials right away, be-
cause we’re interested in having you score the Lily
Tomlin movie.” And I hung up on him. I thought
that was a joke. And then the phone rang again.
I said, “Who is this?” And then I realized, I’d
better get some tapes out there fast. I did, and the
only reason I was hired was that Lily is a woman.
Otherwise, forget it.
There wasn’t another woman hired to score
a major Hollywood feature until 1994. That was
Shirley Walker. When she died, her memorial said
Shirley Walker was the first woman to be hired
to score a major Hollywood feature, in 1994. I
was hired in 1980. I realized not only that I was
the first, but there wouldn’t be another one for 14
years! Do you realize what that says?

Yes, unfortunately, I do. When you started

doing music for advertising, did you encoun-
ter resistance because you were a woman?
I was lucky, because I was doing a field that no-
body was doing. I was pioneering sound design.
They had to go to me.

What direction would you like your music to

go in the future?
All my electronic music now has been released on
third-party labels, because my indie label doesn’t
do that kind of music. I would like to release live
performances of the Buchla, because I think that’s
my message now. And then I’m going to do the
studio album, the Venice album. Those are my
plans. When I go to Philadelphia, I’m doing two
nights, one Buchla and one piano, so I’m keeping
my hands in the piano universe. n

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