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 In
the mid-1980s, after his
Roots of Madness
days, Geoff
wrote and recorded several avant-garde compositions for
the Farfisa VIP 500 electronic organ.
They appeared on two cassette
albums, Canódromo, and San José Confidential,
along with compositions written for other instruments. The organ
pieces,
New Visions for Farfisa Organ,
were originally released on CD, and will soon be available for
listening on the internet. 'Terre Inconnue', a piece which
appears on the CD, has extensive
notes
regarding its playing and composition, which, due to their length, are
not printed on the CD. Geoff's performances on the Farfisa were noted
in the January, 1987 Keyboard magazine special issue
dedicated to Experimental Music, which also included pieces on John
Cage, Conlon Nancarrow, and Sun Ra. From that issue, Bob Doerschuk, in
"Unchained Minds" noted:
On the
other end of the techno scale, we have people like Geoff
Alexander, whose chosen instrument is the long-defunct Farfisa
VIP-500. Alexander gives performances around California's
Silicon Valley, America's high-tech hotbed, entirely on this
artifact; his squealing, dissonant Farfisa improvisations leave
the die-hard digital synthesists in the audience shaking their
heads in wonder.
"I play a musical anachronism," he
admits. "You can do so much more with, say, a [Yamaha] DX7. So
why do I play this? Well, it's got a personality. 1 like the
sound. The problem with instruments like the DX7 is that they've
opened up so many possibilities that people are losing a certain
amount of musicality in exchange for new gimmicks. With the
increasing emphasis on technology in music, people sometimes
say, 'I want to get the newest gadget. Meanwhile, I'll throw out
this old piece of trash.' Literally! I picked up my Farfisa in a
junk store; it was covered with dust. But I learned to
appreciate the beauty of this really strange instrument. In ten
years, when the history of music is written, it will be divided
into two volumes: pre- and post-electric organ."
Another perspective on Alexander's
point is that experimental musicians are just as capable of
under-utilizing the available technology as the normal folks you
hear in copy bands across America.
Find out more
about the 'New Visions for Farfisa Organ'
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