Showing posts with label Kepa Lehtinen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kepa Lehtinen. Show all posts

[S08E01] April 2026 - The Hissy Kits


In the April 2026 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast, host Rick Reid plays theremin music from Spain, Finland, Italy, New Zealand, and the USA. Rick's guests are the Milwaukee jazz duo, The Hissy Kits.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA & NEWS LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2026 Rick Reid 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT
(auto-generated, may contain errors)


0:04 David Brower

This is Theremin 30. Thirty minutes of theremin music, news, events and interviews, with a new episode about every 30 days. Now here's your host, Rick Reid.

0:22 Rick Reid

Welcome to the April 2026 edition of the Theremin 30 podcast. This episode is actually the 7th anniversary show and the first episode of Season 8. I started this podcast back in April of 2019, so if you're a new listener, be sure to catch up with some of the great music and interviews over the past seven years. And I'm actually on vacation right now in Panama, so I'm recording myself outside among the palm trees and by the swimming pool at my hotel in Panama City. So that's why you may hear some background noise. In this episode, I'll be interviewing the Hissy Kits, a Milwaukee based music duo who sort of take that theremin playing cat meme to its extreme. I've also got new and new ish theremin music from around the world. So let's get started, shall we? Because I'm lounging in the tropics right now, the first song I'll spin up is some tropical lounge music from the Madrid based band L'Exotighost. This song only has a theremin line in the very first few seconds, but I like it so much I want you to hear the whole thing. After that I've got new cinematic music from Kepa Lehtinen. I'll give you more details about both of these tracks on the other side.

7:23 Rick Reid

We took a trip to the tropics with the Spanish band Lexotic Ghost to start the show. That track is called. Hanalei Dawn, featuring thereminist Javier Diaz Ena, he also wrote the song. It's from their most recent album, Hawaii On Your Mind, which came out in limited release last October but is now more widely available. You can order the album on vinyl from Band Camp. Click on the band's name in this episode's show notes at theremin30.com. After that, I played moody new music from Finnish thereminist and composer Kepa Lehtinen with that track called Poison Garden Part 1. It's available for streaming now on Spotify, or you can watch the music video on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. It's time now for the Theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events. Carolina Eyck will hold a series of online Theremin workshops beginning April 23rd. On April 25th and 26th, Karen Cecilia brings her Doorway to Perception show to London, England. On May 7th About Aphrodite plays a show in Dortmund, Germany to benefit Iranian war victims. And on May 11th, the Human Toys take their Theremin infused punk to the stage for the first of a series of shows in Paris. For details about these events and more, click on the Calendar tab at theremin30.com. Up next, I have a pair of tracks from Italy and New Zealand. First up is a track called Hands by Timeless Sonic Factory. After that, it's a soundscape from Norman Freund, inspired by the recent Artemis 2 space mission called Return.

15:43 Rick Reid

I started that set with hands by Timeless Sonic Factory from Rome, Italy. You can see a fascinating AI video for that track on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. Then you heard Return, the final part of a three movement soundscape from Christchurch, New Zealand recording artist Norman Freund. Click on his name in this episode's show notes to listen to the full composition on Band Camp. My special guests for this episode are The Hissy Kits, a rather mysterious duo based in Milwaukee, WI, USA. They're sort of like Daft Punk if you swap the helmets for cat faced masks and the electronic pulses for old fashioned American jazz. Honestly, I don't know exactly who they are, but I do know they can really captivate an audience with both their talent and their sense of humor. I caught up with the Hissy Kits earlier this month to learn about their joyful music and the current state of their nine lives.Whiskie and Scotch, thank you so much for being on the Theremin 30 podcast.

Whiskie

We're happy to be here. Thanks for asking us.

Scotch 

We're looking forward to it.

16:57 Rick Reid

Now, for the benefit of our audience who can't see you, please introduce yourselves and so they can match up the voices with the names.

Whiskie

All right, well we're the Hissy Kits. My name is Whiskie and it's spelled WHISKIE and that is short for my whiskers and I am a black and white tuxedo cat.

17:19 Scotch

I am Scotch and that stands for butterscotch, which is my coloration and I am the quieter cat.
Yes.

Whiskie

And some might think that our names Whiskie and Scotch are because we are the resident cats of the supper club in Wisconsin. But it's really very feline expressionistic, which is our genre, by the way. We specialize in the genre of feline expressionism.

17:58 Rick Reid

Big picture here, what are the hissy kits?

Whiskie

Well, we are a musical and performance art duo. We specialize in piano which is the instrument Scotch plays and theremin. It started as strictly piano and theremin, much like Clara Rock More and her sister Nadia. And along the way we added vocals, which is usually Scotch singing in English or French or Italian. And then I add feline expressionistic meows and cat sounds, and we've become sort of a thing in Milwaukee.

18:43 Rick Reid

Scotch, How did the the group come together? How did you come up with this idea?

Scotch

I better let whiskey take that.

Whiskie

Scotch goes along with the ideas that come to whiskey. It started with the theremin we played. I have played theremin for a long time and as you know, sometimes it's difficult to get respect for the theremin. It is. And one thing that I have heard is that it can sound like a cat. Well, it can. It can sound like a lot of things and it started when just for fun we played a version of Take Me Out to the ball game and on the Take Me Out we would make the me Out sound very feline. But I only did that for just a little bit because the exciting thing was is that finally for the first time out of years of my enthusiasm for theremin and trying to explain to people what theremin is about, nothing sparked the interest of audiences like the Hissy Kits did. So as long time educators I could stand up and give a lecture about the theremin, but the Hissy Kits had a sense of fun to it. To where if they want to come with the saying that we say is, they come to jeer and stay to cheer. So it sparks this excitement in our audiences about the theremin.

Rick Reid

Now I've been listening to your album on Band Camp and a lot of the songs are covers of classic jazz tunes. What drew you to that genre?

20:20 Whiskie

Scotch is a very prolific singer and has worked with big bands and and different jazz musicians and the phrase. We like a lot of cat puns. So the idea of "Scat, cat!" and in our performances, sometimes something that the audiences like is Scotch will be singing a song and then she'll holler out scat cat. And then I come in with my meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow, meow meow. You know, and I, I do it sort of jazz style. So then we started thinking, you know, we've got some really Great American tunes. When people think of American songs, I think they think typically patriotic songs or folk songs. But we have a huge body of jazz songs that other countries admire America for, and why don't we introduce them to younger people? And why don't we throw some theremin in from time to time? But really, let's introduce people to these Great American songs. So that's where we got the title. Scat Cat, Feline Expressionism, The songs of the Great American Shorthair's.

Rick Reid

One challenge of working with the thereminist is they tend to get the spotlight. How do you deal with that?

Scotch

Fine with me, it really is. I like being a support system to Whiskey, but it's it's her instrument that's playing that melody and I just am along for the ride. I love hearing the soaring melodies that she plays, and I also love it when she's doing something faster that you wouldn't expect a theremin to be able to do. Like like sweet Georgia Brown. It moves a lot all over the place fast, and I wouldn't have thought she could do that yet that doesn't seem to faze her at all. So she's got the long, beautiful melodies that are soaring and then also the faster stuff that that goes all over the. Up and down all over the staff, and she's right there with that too, so it's kind of fun to keep up.

Rick Reid

You do have some original songs. Who's the songwriter in the duo?

Both of us. Both of us, we just collaborate on everything and it again, it falls together amazingly easily.

22:44 Whiskie

So for instance, I'll tell you one of our newest ones is the Hissy Kits theme Tuna, and that came about when we went into the studio to actually record Tales of Two Kitties. While we were in the studio, we knew that we had an upcoming interview with Wisconsin Public Radio and we thought, oh, we should come up with a a theme tune. So right there in the studio, we already had this melody that we've been batting around for, oh, a year or so that. That just an instrument. It was just an instrumental, that instrument that that we like. Really went anywhere? Yeah, and, and so while Scotch was putting down the piano tracks for a different song, I went, I grabbed a pen and I started writing the lyrics out. You know, who's that sneaking round the corner? Then it was my turn to go out and do something. I don't know, add mews or theremin, who knows? Then I passed the pen to Scotch and Scotch went and we literally wrote it in between doing other tracks for other songs and we. Then yeah, put it on and there it was.There it was.
 
24:26 Rick Reid

I understand that you auditioned for a TV show recently. I know that you might have to keep some secrets, but tell me in general what that experience was like.

Whiskie

Well, if anybody's considering it, we highly recommend it because it was an experience that cannot be replicated in any.

24:46 Scotch

Yeah, yeah, it's a singular thing.

Whiskie

We wanted to see if they'd let the cats in, and we went. I can tell you what we did. We went and we auditioned for America's Got Talent. We cannot talk about results or our performance.

Rick Reid

You've been in the studio creating a new album for America's 250th anniversary.

25:07 Whiskie

We recorded a version of the national anthem. We recorded a version of America the Beautiful. We did I'm a Yankee Doodle Dandy. 

Scotch

We did You're a grand old flag with Theremin doing the public domain.

Whiskie

We did all the public domain ones and our audio engineer is hopefully mixing and mastering them this week. We've got Matt Thompson on drums, he's the drummer for King Diamond and Scotch is on keys. I'm on Theremin. Scotch also sings. And Eric Delegard, he is our audio engineer and he he plays bass for us, so.

Rick Reid

Well thank you so much for being on the show, I really enjoyed visiting with both of you and good luck with your 9 lives I guess. Thank you, thank you. It's Been fun.

Rick Reid

You can stream and purchase the Hissy Kids album Scat Cat on their band Camp page. To get there, click on their artist name in this episode's show notes. Now let's finish the show with a track from that album. Here is their cover of the classic tune Saint Louis Blues.

29:27 Rick Reid

Thanks so much to L'Exotighost, Kepa Lehtinen, Timeless Sonic Factory, Norman Freund, and my special guests The Hissy Kits. And as always, a big thank you goes to the listeners who support this podcast with small one time or monthly donations.Till next time, I'm your host, Rick Reid. I'll see you somewhere in the ether.

David Brower

You've been listening to the theremin 30 podcast. Visit theremin 30 on the web at theremin30.com.
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[S07E02] May 2025 - Roy Palmer




In this May 2025 edition of the Theremin 30 Podcast, host Rick Reid plays theremin music from Australia, Iceland, Finland, and England. Rick's interview guest is Roy Palmer, one of the organizers of the 2025 Hands Off Theremin Festival.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA & NEWS LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2025 Rick Reid 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  0:00  
Rick, this is Theremin 30 - Thirty minutes of Theremin music, news, events and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now. Here's your host, Rick Reid.

Rick Reid  0:18  
hello there. Welcome to the May 2025, edition of the theremin 30 podcast this month. I've got Theremin music from Australia, Iceland, Finland and England. And my interview guest is Roy Palmer. He'll be telling us all about Hands off 2025, a weekend of Theremin events set for this September in the East Midlands region of England. We'll also take a look at the theremin 30 calendar and more.

Let's get right to it with a classical Theremin performance from Australian thereminist Gary P Hayes, followed by a track from the latest album by Hekla. I'll have more details for You on the other side.

We started the show with Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata as performed by Sydney Australia recording artist Gary P Hayes from his new album The classical Theremin Two. This 17 track collection is available now on band camp. After that, I played a track called Grammin from the Turnar album by Icelandic recording artist Hekla. Obviously, I don't speak Icelandic. According to Google Translate, the track is called The Gray in English, and the album title translates as Towers. You can order the album on vinyl LP or purchase a download on Bandcamp. Links for both artists are in this month's show notes at theremin30.com.

It's time now for a look at the theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events. Friday, May 23 is the anniversary of the birth of Dr Robert Moog, also this weekend, Masami Takeuchi leads at their mid workshop in Hamamatsu city, Japan. Also in Japan, progressive rock artist Andmo performs at Raw Tracks in the Osaka area. And Thorwald Jorgenson has a classical concert in the Netherlands. On June 7 the divine hand ensemble holds its annual concert among the crypts in the Philadelphia area. And on June 28 Ernesto Mendoza performs at the Antique Toy Museum in Mexico City. I also want to share a couple of news items. Gaudi Labs has announced a new version of the open Theremin four that has built in MIDI jacks for connecting to other instruments. I have a link to details in this month's show notes, and Los Angeles based thereminist Randy George is featured in the score of the new Disney movie Lilo and Stitch. It opens in the USA on May 23 for other countries, check their local movie listings. 

Coming up in a few minutes. I'll visit with Roy Palmer about the 2025 Hands Off festival, set for this fall in the East Midlands of England. But first, I've got a recent recording from Finland composer Kepa Lehtinen called Dark Romance. It's part of a four track EP called Dark that you can listen to on Spotify, and you can see the official music video for This track on the theremin 30 playlist on YouTube. 

My interview guest this month is Roy Palmer. He lives in Nottingham, England, where he moderates the Theremini People group on Facebook. Roy is also part of a group of volunteers planning the 2025 Hands Off Festival. I spoke with Roy a couple of weeks ago to find out about plans for the event. Roy, thank you for being back on Theremin 30. Thank you for inviting me back a couple years ago. You were on the show talking about your Theremini user group. This time, we're going to talk about something that's not specific to the Theremini. It's the Hands Off 2025, event that you're planning.

Roy Palmer  16:06  
That's right, yes, put it in a nutshell as possible, for some time, I've had this dream. Call it a nightmare, of having a theremin event in my hometown. Two reasons, love the theremin. Second reason, I'm lazy and I don't want to travel too far. Then also what happened was a group of us coming out of the Copenhagen event said it wouldn't be good to do a UK based Theremin event. And then I came across a venue in my locality that looked ideal to do this sort of event in. And it grew from there, really, and then everything suddenly became, sort of falling into place. The venue was available, the people were available, and the main person that was available for the weekend I'd chosen was, of course, Lydia Kavina, who has rubber stamped this, mainly also because the the title Hands Off Festival began many years ago. The use of that term started, I think it was back in 2007 when there was a Hands Off Festival in Scarborough in the UK, which I believe you attended. 

Rick Reid  17:13  
Well, I was at the one in Scarborough in 2011. I'm not sure if that's where the 2007 one was or not. I wasn't involved in the community back then. Yours is going to be in Nottingham, is that right? 

Roy Palmer  17:26  
Yeah. Nottingham is where I live and breathe, and it's in a lovely Anglican church called St Paul's, which is in Daybreak, which is only a few miles from the city center. Great access for the UK and for Europe. And we have our own airport, and then links from the airport into the city center, great bus and travel networks. The Church has made itself available for two days, so the plan is to have the first day for intermediate and advanced players, where we will run a variety of workshops, ranging from talking about MIDI, talking about Theremin in Asian music, something called thereoki, which is where we get a list of tracks and people play. Because the main thing we Theremin players like to do is meet other players and also play together and share our music and our ideas, so that we discussion groups and so on. On the evening or the Friday we'll have a social event, because, of course, we all like to eat and have perhaps a beer or two. And then the Saturday morning, there will be two public sessions, one for kids, one for grown ups, so that members of the public get a chance to have a go themselves. You know, one of the great things with the theremin is, once you have a go yourself, it kind of becomes captivating, and you get hooked on it. But unfortunately, there's not the opportunity to do that, and that's what we've created here. So there's two workshops, a junior and an adult.

Rick Reid  18:56  
 And this is in September? I don't know if we mentioned the date. 

Roy Palmer  18:58  
The dates are the 19th and the 20th of September this year, we'll be running from 10 till five each day, but the second day so we have the the open workshops in the morning for children and for adults, then in the afternoon. Well, we're going to finish with a concert on the evening of the Saturday the 20th, from seven till 930 Lydia will be our main star, but there will also feature an ensemble piece. So throughout the weekend, those of who are there will be learning an ensemble piece to play as part of a public concert. There will also be a really great chap that I've met a year or so ago called Peter Chaloner, who is an ambient electronic music player with synths and so on. Not a thereminist, not a thereminist, but he and I become good friends, and we're going to start working on a piece together for the event. Because, of course, Lydia has sent out a few challenges as she does, one of which. Was to myself to come up with something. Another one was with Peter. I introduced her to Peter because I met Peter at an electronic music festival which featured Thorsten Quaeschning from Tangerine Dream. We shared the same interesting music. I'm a big fan of electronic music, and so we sort of developed this friendship and this talk about doing something together. Then I mentioned his name to Lydia, and she said, Oh, would he like to work at the concert and we can do something? And I said, Well, ask him. And so they've now got their heads together and come up with something they're going to work on then. And this has evolved over the last few months. Lydia said, Is there a church organist? And I said, Well, I believe so. Well, would he like to partake as well, and I can play something with him. And so it's become not just Lydia on our own, but Lydia with Peter myself as kind of MC for the evening, the church organ, the piece I'm working on. My late father was a politician in Nottingham, but also worked in the local coal mines, which were all closed down many years ago. And the coal mining he worked at is only a few miles from Arnold, where we're daybrook St Paul's church. So I'm working on a piece which is going to be a tribute to my father. We use some audio clips I managed to record in an interview I filmed with him many years ago, one of the things he said in the interview was, I never wanted to be a minor. I hated the thought of going underground and being a minor. And at the time, he was looking for work. That was the only work available, and so at the tender age of 15, he went down the mines, finished when he was 60. But those was a strong campaigner for health and safety within the coal mining industry. The piece I'm working on will be a tribute to him. Will be a mix of my own, improvised Theremin playing some ambient electronics, hopefully something with Peter, also a lady that I've met recently who's a great vocalist, who will partly sing. I'm not sure if you would be familiar, or your listeners would be familiar with the hymn Jerusalem. 

Rick Reid  22:05  
Oh, yeah, Emerson, Lake, and Palmer did that one. Of course, we know that one.

Roy Palmer  22:10  
Of course, yeah, opening track from Brain Salad Surgery. So I'm working on this piece at the moment. It may, it may fall apart at the first hurdle, but I've done a demo already which Lydia was quite enthralled with, and a few other people, because, like, you know, music, we talk often talk about music and the technicalities and the complexities of music, but it also has that emotional capacity and side to it, and this is very much from my heart and from My love for my father and what he stood for, and I'm hoping it will all work on the night. 

Rick Reid  22:47  
So a couple more questions about this event. This is not a closed off event where only a few people can participate, like we did in Denmark, right? This is more open to the public. 

Roy Palmer  22:58  
It's almost got two parts. There is intermediate and advanced because of the theremin's nature of not being able to play too many Theremin together in one room, we've had to limit it to 20 people physically because of the size and the space available to separate them, the public part, which is open to anyone, will also be limited to 20 but only because of the physicality and what we don't want. You know, if we, if we said, oh, it's open to 30, 40, or 50, would not everybody would get a chance to have a go. But what we're also planning to do off the back of this event, we want to build on opportunities for newcomers to try the theremin. So there is a small group of us that have been discussing this possibility and are working towards having regular Theremin workshops and events around the UK that are in person. You know, we've had enough of the online environment. You know, we've survived COVID And we've survived the online community, but we've got to that point, at least COVID, where you want to meet people.

Rick Reid  24:01  
Well, it sounds like a great event. I went to the, as I mentioned, the hands off in 2011 in Scarborough, and I've still kept in touch with most of the people I met there. Many of them have been on the podcast. So it's a, you know, if anybody has the ability and the time to make it to Nottingham in September for this event. I really recommend it. It's sounds like it's going to be a great event. I wish I could be there.

Roy Palmer  24:25  
It's Hands Off Festival 2025, Saint Paul's church in Daybrook, which is on the outskirts of Nottingham. It is September the 19th and 20th, which are the workshop days. And then on the evening of the 20th, an amazing concert of electronic music and Theremin music.

Rick Reid  24:44  
if you'd like to attend the hands off concert, there is a link to tickets on this month's show notes at Theremin30.com. I'll also add a link to workshop registration as soon as it becomes available. In the meantime, I'll post an email address where you can contact event organizers directly.

With the time remaining in the show. Here's an electronic improv featuring Roy Palmer on Theremini and Peter Challoner on synthesizers. This is called Ambient Mixology 3.

That was Ambient Mixology 3. It began as a live concert performance by Peter Challoner, then Roy Palmer added a layer of Theremini sounds in the studio. Both Peter and Roy will be part of the hands off Festival in September. Tthanks to them, as well as Gary P Hayes, Hekla and Kepa Lehtinen for sharing their music this month. Please support these artists any way you can. And a big thanks goes to the listeners who support this show with small one time or monthly donations or by purchasing items from the merch store and the pro shop on the theremin 30 website. Until next time, I'm your host, Rick Reid, and I'll see you again somewhere in the ether.

David Brower  29:51  
You've been listening to the theremin 30 podcast. Visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin30.com.

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[S06E04] November 2024 - Thorwald Jorgensen



In this November 2024 edition of the Theremin 30 Podcast, host Rick Reid plays theremin music from the USA, Finland, France, and the Netherlands, and visits with Thorwald Jorgensen about his new classical album Nuit Exotique. 

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2024 Rick Reid 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  0:04  
Rick, this is Theremin 3030. Minutes of Theremin, music, news, events and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now. Here's your host from Chicago, Illinois, Rick Reid, welcome

Rick Reid  0:19  
to the November 2024, episode of the theremin 30 podcast. I hope you had a happy Halloween last month with lots of opportunities to play spooky Theremin music for your friends and neighbors. This month, I've got no tricks, just treats with new music from Anna glyph, Charlotte Dubois and kepalatinen. And my interview guest is torwald Jorgenson. He'll be discussing his brand new classical music album, and we'll get to preview one of the tracks. Let's get started now with new music from Northern California. Anna glyph is music project of Anne wary. She's a singer songwriter, thereminist, guitarist and modular synthesist, and with any time left over. She's also an artist and animator on this brand new recording she just sent me. Steve bird joins her on string bass. Here is the world premiere of the Annaglyph single called Oleander leaves.

We started the show With a track called Oleander leaves by Annaglyph. That song will be available on band camp this month. Click on the artist name in this month's show notes at Theremin thirty.com and a bit of trivia on that track, Anne is playing a Moog ether wave, plus that she bought from me. Somehow it sounds better when she plays it. After that, we heard a song called lost opportunities. It's the new single from Finnish recording artist keppa lathannon, featuring Theremin piano, double bass and a vintage Mellotron. You can hear this track and more of Kepa is music on Spotify, and check out his soundtrack work on the TV series made in Finland, mobile 101 available on Disney plus.

it's time now for the theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events on November 19 and 20th, Spanish thereminist Javier Diaz Ena will share the stage with thereminist Ernesto Mendoza and pan drummer Arturo Fernandez in Mexico City on Saturday, November 30, Stephen Hamm Theremin man performs with his new space family band In Vancouver, BC, Canada on December 7, the Georgia Salzburg society presents its annual Christmas tea at the Ebenezer Museum, featuring the theremin music of Philip niedlinger. Also on December 7, Miss Terry will present an Advent music recital for Theremin and church organ in a house Germany. For details about these events and more. Check out the full calendar at Theremin thirty.com up next, I have a recent track from French recording artist Charlotte DuBois. She makes wonderful use of loopers and synthesizers to accompany Her Theremin melodies. This is called through the looking glass.

That was through the looking glass by Charlotte Dubois, featuring a Moog ether wave pro Theremin and an Arturia Mini freak synthesizer. You can find Charlotte's wonderful music video for through the looking glass on the theremin 30 YouTube playlist.

Professional classical thereminist Thorwald Jorgensen has a new album set for release later this month. He spoke with me about it a few days ago from his home in the Netherlands. Thank you so much for being on the theremin 30 Podcast. I'm happy to be there. Yeah, it's great to have you back. It's been a couple of years, but we did see each other in June in Denmark at the International Theremin camp. 

Thorwald Jørgensen  13:00  
Yes. Wasn't that a blast? It was amazing, wasn't it? 

Rick Reid  13:03  
It was so much fun. And I was just fascinated how you could come in and learn a new piece in a matter of four days and then perform it live. 

Thorwald Jørgensen  13:15  
Yeah, yeah. We got the score like, a few days before, and just play and do it. It's uh, that's the job, of course. 

Rick Reid  13:22  
While we were there, you mentioned that you have a new album coming out soon, and that's why you're on the show this month. So tell me about Nui exotic. That's my very bad American accent of a French title.

Thorwald Jørgensen  13:36  
The title is Nui exotic. The album is coming out this month, or maybe early December, and it's a little bit different than the previous one, because with the previous one, we decided to go completely original Theremin music. So so everything was originally written for Theremin, and with this album, it's the opposite. We play pieces written for other instruments on Theremin, for instance, we play nui xotique by block, which is a tricky piece, but it works beautifully on theremin. And we just wanted to have an album with beautiful music played to the best of our abilities, and add some exotic touch. So the overall exotic touch, of course, is the theremin, because that in itself, is an exotic instrument, but we decided on new exotic was the first piece we decided on, and we found pieces which fitted that type of music, at least I'm happy with with the end result, we have a nice selection of pieces which suit the theremin very well. And some pieces are familiar because I played two pieces from Clara robmos repertoire, the ravel Habanera and casado Rick ebros, but for the rest, most of it is new and never played before on theremin. So I hope everybody will like it.

Rick Reid  14:53  
I'm curious about your process. Do you learn the songs and perform them live first and then go into the story? Studio, or are you kind of experimenting in the studio as you're recording?

Thorwald Jørgensen  15:04  
There's no time for experimenting because the studio is booked for two days, and it has to be done in that time set. So what we do with my pianist? Of course, we have a regular duo. We perform often, we decide on pieces and we try them if it works, we keep them if it doesn't work, or we should improve on it, or whatever, we work on it, and that's how we come to a program. And then, of course, we rehearse that, we practice it, and we make sure that we can do it to the best of our ability. And then you have two days in the studio just to record it. So it has to be done quick. Unfortunately,

Rick Reid  15:38  
you have the piano and Theremin, are you multi tracking that in the recording studio, or is it a live performance that you're recording? 

Thorwald Jørgensen  15:46  
We record live. We play in a concert hall, obviously. So we have the beautiful acoustics of the hall, and we have microphones everywhere, so everything is recorded. Then in the end, if there's a, for instance, imbalance problem, things can be adjusted in a mix. But in general, it's a live performance. What you place, what you hear 

Rick Reid  16:06  
when you're recording the theremin Are you recording the direct signal out and a microphone on a PA speaker, and then you mix the two together?

Thorwald Jørgensen  16:16  
I'm not that technical, but I know the recording engineer puts put a cable into my Theremin to have a direct output, and maybe it's mixed. Maybe it's not, I don't know. For me, what I think is important is that it sounds like the way we do in concert. It should be. It should have a live energy. Because if you record separately, you record different energies, and now we play together, so we record the same energy, and I think that is audible in what we present in the in the album. It really is concert music. So we play it as a concert.

Rick Reid  16:51  
So I was listening to another recording of the title track, nui exotic, done with violin and piano. And I, I was wondering, when you're learning a new piece that was not written for Theremin, are you listening to other recordings to get a feel for the the expressions and timing and so on, or is it something that you just work on on your own?

Thorwald Jørgensen  17:16  
I do listen to it, but I listen in the beginning. So so I listen if I like, if I see sheet music, if I like, if I find a piece which I think is interesting, I look it up, I listen to it, and I listen to one or three versions, but if I decide to play it myself, I don't listen to any recordings anymore, because I don't want to copy anything or anybody. And if I have some ideas of about phrasing, I can do this with my penis. Or also I have a coach, a violin coach, who sometimes helps me with phrasing or vibrato. So we work on it as as she would do on a on a regular instrument, and not copy what, what, a violinist is doing, because that will never work. You have to find your own way within the music. And if you, if you listen to the new exiting on the violin, you will hear that I don't, didn't make any arrangement. I play, literally, the violin score. I play anything as written as it was for violin. But then on Theremin,

Rick Reid  18:23  
the idea of having a violin coach help, because I definitely don't play at your level, as you know, but I have to learn a melody on piano before I can usually play it well on the theremin there's because piano was my first instrument, and so it makes more sense to me that way. So it's interesting that that you have somebody who's maybe doesn't even know how to play the theremin is helping you to play the theremin. 

Thorwald Jørgensen  18:47  
It doesn't matter, because it doesn't it's not about theremin. It's about music. Theremin is just secondary. In this case, we discuss phrasing and we discuss vibrato, and how you use vibrato, or where you don't use vibrato. So it's more of a musical coach. She could have also have been a trumpet player or a flute player. It doesn't matter. She happens to play the violin. And sometimes we just, it's not, not very often, but every now and then we come together, and I say, Oh, listen to this. And what do you think? And then she says, Well, if you would play it on a violin, it would sound like this. And then she shows me, and then it gives me new ideas. So that gives me, gives me more ideas than listen to any recording of any artist, because I can never copy them as they can ever copy me. It's personal. 

Rick Reid  19:37  
I think a lot of people, including myself, who aren't frequent listeners of classical music, we know the loud, pompous, familiar Premier, familiar tunes like the 1812 Overture and things like that. And this is this is very different and a very pleasant and surprising way for someone who's not as familiar with the repertoire of some of these composers.

Thorwald Jørgensen  20:03  
it's chamber music. First of all, it's not orchestral music, as you say with the 1812 Overture, which, of course, is this big piece with cannons and fireworks and trumpets, and I don't know what else is in there, this is your chamber music. So it in itself, is already much smaller because we're only two people, although piano is, of course, a very big instrument, yeah, but it's, it's just beautiful music. That's, I think, foremost, is what I think of this album is beautiful music. And if I played, well, that's up to you guys to decide and if you like the music. But in the compositions, in itself, are just beautiful and nice to listen to.

Rick Reid  20:43  
How do you and Kamilla, your pianist, decide when it's time to make a new album? 

Thorwald Jørgensen  20:49  
We have a contract with a recording studio where we can do four albums. Or at least I have the contract. So it's a matter of planning and schedules coming together. Because I have a busy schedule, she has a busy schedule. Recording Studio has a busy chat schedule, so it has to fit and yeah, so that's why this one took a little longer. But the next one, we will be recorded in March, so that the new one will be will not wait, will you don't have to wait as long as you did for this one.

Rick Reid  21:23  
So who do you find is your audience for your albums, as opposed to say, your live performances? Is it a different audience?

Thorwald Jørgensen  21:31  
I have no idea, because I don't know who listens to it on Spotify. They go also in music stores. But there are hardly any music stores, any left, so I don't know who picks it up there. I do know that after concerts, usually a lot of people still want to have an album. We sell them, but that's to the audience, so they already know who I am and what I play. And for the rest, I have no idea it's out there, and I hope some people like it, at least I'm very proud of it.

Rick Reid  22:02  
Well, thank you so much for being on Theremin 30. I wish you great luck with the release of the new album, and hopefully we'll get a chance to see you perform again sometime soon. Thank you so much to world. The organ says new album Nui exotic will be available in all the usual places beginning in late November. For more details, visit his website by following the link in this month's show notes at Theremin thirty.com I've also included a video performance of Claire de Lune from the new album on the Youtube playlist. And torworld and Camila bistrova have a concert scheduled for November 24 in Middleburg, Netherlands. There's a link to ticket information on this month's calendar of events. Let's finish the show with music from the new album. Here is Nui com or a quiet night by Dutch composer Henrietta Bosmans, performed by Thorwald Jorgensen and Kamilla Bystrova.

Thanks so much to Annaglyph, Kepa Lehtinen, Charlotte Dubois and Thorwald Jorgensen for sharing their wonderful Music with us. Please support all these artists by purchasing their recordings, attending their concerts and following them on social media. Also, thanks to Thorwald for visiting with me about his new album, nui exotique. And as always, a special thanks to the listeners who support this series with small, one time or monthly donations that help me cover my expenses. I'll be back soon with another 30 minutes of Theremin music and interviews. Until then, I'll see you somewhere in the ether.

David Brower  29:49  
You've been listening to the theremin 30 podcast. Visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin30.com.
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[S06E02] July 2024 - Shueh-li Ong



In this July 2024 edition of Theremin 30, host Rick Reid plays new theremin music from Peru, the Netherlands, Finland, and Singapore. Rick's guest is Shueh-li Ong, who has a new album out called MissOriented Metaphor.

FEATURED MUSIC*

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2024 Rick Reid 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  0:00  
Rick, this is Theremin 30. 30 Minutes of Theremin, music, news, events and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now. Here's your host from Chicago, Illinois, Rick Reid.

Rick Reid  0:18  
Hey. Welcome to the July 2024, episode of the theremin 30 podcast. This time around, I've got new Theremin music from the Netherlands, Peru, Finland and Singapore. My special guest is Shelley Ong here to talk about her new album called Miss oriented metaphor. And if I sound a little spaced out today, I'm just having trouble getting back into a good sleep schedule. I recently traveled to Denmark to spend a week with a bunch of Theremin playing friends from I think, 11 different countries. And between jet lag exploring Copenhagen late into the evenings and the very short nights in the Scandinavian summertime, I didn't get much sleep, at least not at the right times. Even a week later, I'm still feeling it, but I think I can manage to stay awake for the next 30 minutes. I hope you can too. So let's get started.

In just a bit, I'll play a track featuring Wilco Botermans on Theremin first though, I have new music from veronik When I interviewed her for the october 2021 episode of the theremin 30 podcast, she told us about a new album she was working on at the time. She's released a couple of singles from the project since then, but now the full album, illusionist pelagrossas is out on her Bandcamp page, Spotify and other streaming outlets in my poorly pronounced Spanish, this track coming up is called concione para un regress, and according to Google Translate, that means song for a comeback. 

We started the show with the Peruvian recording artist Veronica with song for a comeback. It's a track from her new album, illusionist pellegrosis, or dangerous illusions. If you go to this month's show notes at Theremin thirty.com and click on her name, you'll go right to her band camp page where you can listen to and purchase the full album. And after that, I played a track called opti stool, or on this stool from the eclectic Dutch band overlanders, featuring guest musicians, vilko bodermans on Theremin and Joris Vermeulen on a double Reid instrument called tenora. To hear more music from overlanders, click on their name in this month's show notes. It's time now for the theremin 30 calendar of Theremin events. Lydia Cavanagh continues her online group Theremin classes on most Sundays on July 18, modulate featuring thereminist Chris Conway and sound artist Jez Creek, will perform at the Church of sound event in Nottingham, England. July 23 is the birthday of the late great Dr Samuel Hoffman. Commemorate the day by watching a movie featuring his Theremin in the score. On July 25 noritaka ubukata performs with his custom made there sin in Tokyo, and Stephen Hamm has a gig in Vancouver, BC, Canada. For details about these events and more, check out the full calendar at Theremin thirty.com and if you have an event you'd like me to place on the calendar, contact me through the website. Let's get back to the music now, with a single from Kepa Lehtinen that came out about three months ago, but I haven't had a chance to play it until now. This is called Unet in Finnish or dreams in English. 

That was Unet or dreams by Finnish composer and thereminist Kepa lechtinen. You can see the official music video for that song on the theremin 30 YouTube playlist. Just. Search for Theremin 30 on YouTube or follow the link in this month's show notes.

Shueh-Li Ong is a multi Continental, multi instrumentalist with not one, but two live streaming shows on YouTube, and she just released her fifth studio album, Miss oriented metaphor. I visited with Shelly recently to find out all about it. Shelley Ong, it's so good to see you again, actually hear you again on the theremin 30 podcast. 

Shueh-Li Ong  15:36  
Thanks, Rick. So good to see you and hear you too. It's been a few years, but always glad to see your smiling face.

Rick Reid  15:44  
It's been about three years since you've been on the show, and back then we talked about your musical history and how you got involved in the theremin. So I don't want to repeat that, but I do want to find out what you've been doing since then. 

Speaker 1  15:57  
Well, in the last few years, I've endeavoled to experiment with different ways in which I could articulate the voice of the theremin, and it was a slow kind of assembly, because there was a lot of playing around with until I got something that I went, Aha, I could use this. So it's been a while since I released an album. I thought, why not consolidate these experiments in new composition and then further develop them as I put them together as I went along? And I wanted to also create a repertoire of original music. You probably know this, I have a degree in piano performance, and I did study synth techniques during my post grad period. So I'm naturally inclined towards live performance. It's kind of like, you know, kids in the playground I like to play.

Rick Reid  16:53  
Yeah, I seen some videos on your YouTube channel where you collaborated with some of the musicians that I think are on the new album. Sort of the early development of some of these tracks. 

Speaker 1  17:03  
I was road testing these works for venue versatility and playability with live musicians again, because I wanted to make sure these could be executed live. And again, these pieces were really more for my live performance repertoire. But you know, people like to receive my fans and friends like to receive these finished works in a recorded version. So hence the album. That seems to be the way musicians do it. They write, they record it, and then they play it. So, but I wanted to play it and then record it a friend of mine, bassist Brian Mooney, who appears on the album, he had reached out to me to work with me in live performance. So he played the first gig with me on the New Jersey prop house music series in 2018 and I enjoyed working with him live and on my music video, so much. And I said to Brian, you know, these are new pieces. Would you like to play on the music video with me, as you know, version one? So I I had a, I had, like, a recording or a document of what I had done. And he said, Sure. And I enjoyed his working with him so much, he repeated his performance, so to speak, on the album. And guitarist Dean parks, he didn't appear on my music videos for this album, but he had worked with me before on my third album, which was written under my Monica zanovites. And when he record on my third album, Crossing Paths, I became such a fan of his excellence, and I'm not mad another musician like him, I plotted to have him appear on this fifth album, Miss oriented metaphor.

Rick Reid  18:50  
The album title is mis oriented metaphor. Yes. What does that mean? 

Speaker 1  18:57  
Miss oriented metaphor was nicknamed the concerto. So it began as a concerto because I had in mind it would be an instrumental with the soloists being the theremin the synthesizer, and I had a tin whistle in there as well, against luscious orchestration. You know, as you would imagine, a concerto would be the title plays on the words oriental, disoriented and the Cassandra metaphor, which in Greek mythology, Cassandra is the daughter of Troy, and she was given the gift of prophecy, but cursed With having her prophecies disbelieved. 

Rick Reid  19:41  
You play multiple instruments and you're playing with the band this time. Did you record together in the same room at the same time, or is this a multi track thing that was done remotely? 

Speaker 1  19:52  
I wanted this album to feature a few of my friends, and because of the nature of the genres. Yes, and the style in which the tracks, I call the movements, because it's supposed to be a concerto, they each movement has different sections to it and and they span several genres, so I wanted a real person's appearance to kind of tackle these changes, these transitions, but they would follow my written score, but in certain parts, they would imbue their lines with their own. What take on things for a drama it be feels for bass players, similarly, and of course, I had a guitarist, the one and only Dean parks, where lines were written for him, of certain guitar sounds that I was looking for, but others where I went, I said, Just do what you feel you hear in whatever genre it is that We're working in egy. I'd say this will be stadium rock in field, you know, but he's had six, almost seven decades of experience, so no big deal. And there was one part in the finale where I said, you know, this is your solo cadenza. I'd like you to be flamboyant dean. And I recorded remotely, but in real time. So he looked at me and he said, You asked for it. The other musicians recorded independently of me, but again, I had directions and I had my demo. So my method of writing is I write record straight into my door, and I play the instrumental lines the way I would want to hear it in my finished product. Bear in mind, these pieces must be playable live. All those things that you hear, those will be reproduced live.

Rick Reid  21:55  
Now, speaking of live performance, the way you're releasing this album is non conventional, non traditional, as well. 

Shueh-Li Ong  22:03  
Well, I've been running this live stream that features friends and friends of friends in the music and entertainment industry called music and chat. And Rick you and I talked about that previously, so I thought, well, you know, I have my viewership there already, and these are the people who've been supporting my work and supporting me in this live stream situation. So why not use the live stream and thank my friends and fans at the same time in the release of this album, end of June on the 29th and 30th of June, that's the weekend before Fourth of July. And I will release the album in two parts. The album is in digital form, so first part will be the first three tracks, and the second part will be the next three tracks, and I'll feel questions live as well. So, yeah, live stream. So anyone can put in questions in a live chat, and I will respond to them. The album, again, is in digital form. But if I have what I call YouTube chat, my youtube channel donors. It's a PayPal, you know, donation, little spot, if you donate 35 and above, I will actually hand assemble a physical CD, autograph it, and mail it to you, US residents only, because postage overseas is quite exorbitant.

Rick Reid  23:36  
Okay. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with me about your new album. You have such an interesting and unique take on the theremin, especially, and really all the genres that you draw from. It's really fascinating to listen to. 

Speaker 1  23:51  
Thanks, Rick, thanks so much for having me. It's always a pleasure talking to you.

Rick Reid  23:56  
 If you missed the live streamed album release event on Shelley's YouTube page. It's still available to watch anytime there's a link to it in this month's show notes on Theremin thirty.com and you can stream and purchase the full misoriented metaphor album on her band camp page. I have the link for that too. Now let's finish the show with a track from Miss oriented metaphor. This is called calor, which is the Spanish word for heat. Shelly tells me this part of her concerto was inspired in part by flamenco music. 

It's time to thank Veronik, overlanders, Kepa Lehtinen, and Shueh-Li Ong for sharing their music with us this month. Please support these artists by following them on social media, streaming or downloading their music and attending their live performances. Also, thanks to Shueh-Li Ong for being my guest this month, and as always, a special thanks to the listeners who helped me cover my expenses with small one time or monthly donations. If you'd like to help out, go to the theremin 30 website and look for the tip jar while you're there. Check out the library of past episodes for more great Theremin music from around the world. I'll be back soon with another episode. Until then, I'll see you somewhere in the ether.

David Brower  29:50  
You've been listening to the theremin 30 podcast. Visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin three zero.com.
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[S05E06] December 2023 - Honey Bizarre


The December 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast features theremin music from Canada, Germany, Italy, Finland, and the USA. Host Rick Reid interviews Gilda Razani and Hanzō Wanning, members of the German duo Honey Bizarre.

▶️ Listen to this episode on your favorite podcast platform.

FEATURED MUSIC*

  • "Sagittarius A-Star" - Stephen Hamm (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
  • "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" [Mozart] - Gilda Razani with Hanzō Wanning (Dortmund, Germany)
  • "Cosa Prova Una Scimmia Nello Spazi" - Vincenzo Vasi (Bologna, Italy)
  • "Suru" - Kepa Lehtinen (Helsinki, Finland)
  • "Silent Night" - Armen Ra (West Hollywood, CA, USA)

*The full-length recordings featured in this show were used with the knowledge and permission of the artists and composers. Please support the artists by visiting their websites, purchasing their recordings, and attending their performances. 

ADDITIONAL MUSIC

INTERVIEW GUEST

CALENDAR OF THEREMIN EVENTS

MEDIA LINKS

SUPPORT THIS PODCAST

CONTACT

CREDITS 

Copyright 2023 Rick Reid 


--------------------------------------------

TRANSCRIPT

Please note: This transcript was created with the help of speech-to-text AI.  It may contain some errors.

David Brower  0:04  
This is Theremin 30. 30 minutes of theremin music news events and interviews with a new episode about every 30 days. Now here's your host from Denver, Colorado, USA, Rick Reid.

Rick Reid  0:19  
Hey, welcome to the December 2023 episode of the Theremin 30 podcast. This month I've got music from the USA, Canada, Finland, Germany and Italy. And my interview guests are Hanzo vining and Gilda Rosani they'll be talking about their latest music project called Honey bizarre. Let's get going now with a groovy new single from Stephen ham that Theremin man here is his psychedelic sci fi themed track called Sagittarius A star.

We launched into the music with a spacey new track from Stephen ham called Sagittarius A star. It's the first single from a forthcoming album. You can see the music video performance of the song on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. And after that I played Hell's vengeance boils in my heart, better known as the Queen of the Night aria from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute, performed there by Gilda Rosani on Theramin with an orchestral backing track by Hanzo, Vining, Gilda and Hanzo are my interview guests this month and later in the show, I'll be visiting with them about their new music project called Honey bizarre. After the next break, I've got music from Vincenzo Vasi and from Kipper Liikanen. So stay tuned

I'm gonna stray from the usual format a little bit here to make room for extra music and interview time. There isn't much on that Theremin 30 calendar for the next few weeks to talk about so I'm skipping my usual calendar segment this month, but you can always see the calendar on the Theremin 30 website. If you have a Theramin related event you'd like me to put on the calendar send me a note with all the details you can reach me with the contact form at Theremin thirty.com Italian thereminist Vincenzo Vaci recently released a 10th anniversary remastered edition of his Roxio electrico album that's available for download or you can order a limited edition CD cassette or vinyl LP from his Bandcamp page. Here is the first track on the album. Cosa proba una schema and Ella I don't know how to say it. In English. It's called what a monkey feels in space.

We started that set with Vincenzo Vaci with what a monkey fields in space from the 10th anniversary edition of his rasio electrico or electric arm album. You may also know Vincenzo as part of an eclectic Italian duo called oppo Poyo. After that I played su or sadness from finished thereminist and film composer kept by lentinan you can watch the music video on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. Coming up later in the show I've got a Christmas classic from Armin raw. And after the break I'll visit with German duo honey bizarre so stay tuned.

Earlier in the show, we heard classical music from gilda Rosani and Hanzo Vani. They are also known for experimental jazz and for some fascinating purely electronic recordings. I spoke with them a few days ago about their current music project, honey bizarre. Gilda Razani and Hanzo Vani. Thank you so much for being on the Theremin 30 podcast.

Gilda Razani  16:24  
Thank you for having us.

Hanzo Wanning  16:25  
Yeah, thank you. So glad

Rick Reid  16:29  
I've played your music on the show over the last four years a few times. And one time it was released under your names. And one time it was bloody red roses. And another time. It was about Aphrodite. And now you've got a new band. Tell me how did the two of you get together? And why do you have all these different names?

Gilda Razani  16:51  
About Aphrodite is another band. We play there with the drama and Tani visa, it's new formation, this new song and a little bit more than bigger and more dreamy, 

Hanzo Wanning  17:08  
dreamy more.

Rick Reid  17:10  
For people that aren't familiar with you to introduce your part in the musical collaboration, What instruments do each of you play?

Gilda Razani  17:17  
I play of course, the Theremin. And I play also a saxophone and I play the arrow phone and I play the soma type. And of course, I like to make this electronic rules and noises and so on.

Rick Reid  17:34  
 And Hanzo How about you?

Hanzo Wanning  17:35  
I'm a classical and jazz piano player and composer. But since my youth I'm deep in electronic music of all parts of all sides. Also,

Rick Reid  17:44  
how did the two of you become musical collaborators?

Gilda Razani  17:51  
We met up in a bar and talk about music. And so after time, we started to make music together.

Rick Reid  18:01  
And how long have you been performing together and recording together?

Gilda Razani  18:04  
Oh, I think 15 years 

Hanzo Wanning  18:06  
15 years,

Gilda Razani  18:07  
15 years, Yeah. 

Rick Reid  18:09  
Wow. 

Gilda Razani  18:09  
We're married too.

Rick Reid  18:11  
Oh, well, that makes it convenient for rehearsing.

Hanzo Wanning  18:16  
With all the positives and negatives

Rick Reid  18:23  
did you become musical partners first, or did you get married first?

Gilda Razani  18:31  
No, we started the saxophone Piano Duo. And then after time we founded a band and so on and so on.

Rick Reid  18:39  
I really enjoy the variety of music that the two of you create bloody red roses in particular, which happened just before the COVID lockdown this wonderful, almost frightening electronic music that I would expect to hear in a horror film. 

Gilda Razani  18:55  
Yeah, bloody red roses is now Honey Bizarre.

Rick Reid  19:01  
And it's a very different sound. Now it still has its basis in electronics, but it has a sort of almost an ambient sound to it. It's almost an ambient I want to say jazz but that's not quite right. How do you describe honey? Bizarre?

Hanzo Wanning  19:14  
Yeah. It's quite difficult to describe because it has so many sides, but you're right. It has a strong ambient side of music in it. What would you say?

Gilda Razani  19:28  
Ambient side but also a dancing side to side and this is because the sentence is music for dancing and dreaming. The songs deepness Strange is more Indian and LeBrons game is more than that

Rick Reid  19:58  
what's your process for compose? Sing this wonderful music to start by improvising on your instruments or

Gilda Razani  20:05  
Yeah, at first, we improvise. And then we sew the material, and then we improvise again. There's some good ideas from the first improvisation. Yeah. And so after time after time, after time, we say, Okay, this is the main theme. And this is a good group. And then we make a composition.

Rick Reid  20:29  
Hanzo what would you add to that?

Hanzo Wanning  20:31  
The first step for me is that I'm looking for some electronical sounds, or soundscape, or electronic elements when I'm putting them together. So I'm in general able to improvise, because I always make a new kind of instruments. For me, just for the improvisation, it's, I need some preparation, before we can start. And with all the colors in my book, then we start sometimes one or two hours, then we listen to everything and fall asleep. And after we we listen once more. And sometimes we have only one little idea in this one hour, which we really like. But sometimes we also had an improvisation about 20 minutes, and we take the whole improvisation, just because they're also recording MIDI. I sent this MIDI data also two very different songs again, but we had this material in general, and we use it for nails, let's say 99%, with very, very different.

Rick Reid  21:33  
The Theremin draws attention to itself, both in concert and in recordings, because it's so different. So how do you balance out the Theremin with all the other instrument sounds you have available to you?

Hanzo Wanning  21:45  
Very often we are looking for some hot spots for the theremin. So it's not the instrument which you can listen to the whole time of the song. It's very nice to have some spots for

Rick Reid  21:57  
it. And then of course, Gilda you play other instruments. So you might choose a saxophone instead of a Theramin sometimes, 

Gilda Razani  22:03  
yes, but in Honey Bizarre, I do not play the saxophone I play is the arrow for I play. Also, there's so much anti but I play also from Holon it's called a will phone and it's like electronic. Saxophone, also with other sounds is the kinds of electronic saxophone.

Rick Reid  22:25  
You have several different theorems. I know you have Mogae and you have a sub scope.

Gilda Razani  22:30  
Yeah, but I don't play anymore. I play only the Etherwave Pro and the Claravox in the moment. I like to play two different sides of Theremin music. I like the classical Theremin playing, but also I have own sound. I created my own sound because I love Jimi Hendrix. And it's my role model. I like to play like guitar and because of that you can use in in the song deepness strange. This is my sound, distorted sound somehow I created

Unknown Speaker  23:22  
How did this honey bizarre project come about? 

Gilda Razani  23:25  
We first study with roses, but we let this formation and created us new and so now we are honeybees. About Aphrodite is more jazzy, and honey bizarre is the old bloody red rose.

Rick Reid  23:42  
And the bloody red roses songs. I just just loved everything I've heard and music videos are wonderful. You're so creative in so many ways. Besides music. The visuals are just just amazing.

Gilda Razani  23:54  
Yeah, thank you. Thank you. Well, to that you can see it also in our honey bizarre formation.

Unknown Speaker  24:06  
I see on the photography that you've done so far for honey bizarre that there's an airplane theme. How does that relate to your music? And how did you come about that?

Gilda Razani  24:14  
In our info, we said that we are driving in space with full words. Improvising for freedom and, and dancing. So we make our photos in very old airplane.

Unknown Speaker  24:30  
We had a photo session in a museum of airplanes in Austria. 

Rick Reid  24:37  
So you have a new album coming out in January

Gilda Razani  24:39  
because the vinyl is finished in March. Our release is in March. Not in January. 

Unknown Speaker  24:46  
how can listeners hear the first single or two from the new honey bizarre album?

Gilda Razani  24:50  
You can go to Spotify or iTunes or Apple Music or Deezer or other and then you can hear our two singers From any desire or you go to our web site and then in the spring we have our IBM release there it's also to all flooding red roses song now or honey bizarre. You can hear it. 

Rick Reid  25:15  
Okay.

Gilda Razani  25:15  
Yeah, yeah

Rick Reid  25:29  
another recent project you did, which is the Queen of the Night aria from a magic flute? How did that come about? What motivated you didn't record that

Gilda Razani  25:38  
only, I mean, not not 

Hanzo Wanning  25:42  
just for fun.

Unknown Speaker  25:46  
Just for fun, one of the most difficult pieces in opera

Gilda Razani  25:51  
because I like to play. So in this way, it felt good.

Rick Reid  25:56  
You get to visit with some of the other well known Theremin players around Germany.

Gilda Razani  26:01  
I hope to see them soon. But I think perhaps because of Corona, I don't see them for quite a while. Yeah, quite a while. I hope that this is in the future. No problem.

Unknown Speaker  26:14  
Well, thank you so much for visiting with me today. I really enjoy your music and I encourage people to find any of your bands online because they are all wonderful. 

Gilda Razani  26:26  
Thank you so much. Thank you so much. It means a lot for us. You're saying this.

Unknown Speaker  26:34  
To learn more about honey bizarre click on the link in this month's show notes at Theremin thirty.com You can also see their music video for a little deep Miss strange on the Theremin 30 YouTube playlist. Let's finish the episode and this calendar year with the lovely holiday him here he is Armen Ra with silent Night.

Unknown Speaker  29:17  
A big thank you to Steven Hamm, Gilda Razani and Hanzo Wanning, Vicenzo Fonzie, Kepa Lehtinen, and Armen Ra for sharing their music with us, and to Gilda and Hanzo for visiting with me about their honey bizarre project. I'm also very grateful every month to the listeners who support this podcast with small one time or monthly donations. I wish everyone listening a very happy and peaceful holiday season and a wonderful new year. I'm your host, Rick Reid, and I'll see you again in the year 2024.

David Brower  29:50  
You've been listening to the Theramin 30 podcast visit Theremin 30 on the web at Theremin 30 dot com
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