2022 Round-up

A slightly belated round-up of Synth Evolution activities from 2022. (Had a bit of flu at the end of last year which somewhat knocked me for six, hence the delay.)

Sill, last year was quite productive, now I look back at it - so a big thanks to all Synth Evolution customers whose support, interest and purchases keep me motivated to make and sell the best synth related products I possibly can. I love you all!

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POSTERS

• A refreshed set of colours to my best-selling core product - the Greatest Hits of Synth poster - now in blueprint blue, racing green, alongside re-prints of the black and white versions. I do love the green version! :-)

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• I was hugely honoured to be asked by the Alan R Pearlman Foundation to design the 50th Anniversary poster for the beyond-legendary ARP Odyssey. I was only too happy to oblige, basing this design on a vintage advert, but updating it with some great quotes from selected artists, musicians and producers declaring their love this instrument. A lovely project to work on and resulting in a splendid celebration of this classic synth:

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• I branched out into posters featuring a single synth for the fans of any one particular synth. Available in A4/A3 sizes or as digital downloads, I can produce these to order to feature any of the 500 or so synths I have illustrations for!

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T-SHIRTS

• Following 2021’s highly successful and enjoyable ‘World Cup of Synths’ collaboration with ‘We Are 1 of 100 T-shirts’, I approached them with a new idea focussing on synth oscillators. I think we came up with super-cool designs celebrating both the synths themselves in a novel and - splendidly nerdish way!

• Did I mention we got a cease and desist from Moog Music by not thinking through the implications of using the Moog logo? Whoops! Luckily we got permission from the ARP Foundation to use the logo on this glorious artifact below:

• https://weare1of100.co.uk/clothing/all-t-shirts/t-shirts/oscillator-champion-2022-oli-freke/

• We also made a splendid ARP Odyssey t-shirt to accompany the poster:

• https://alanrpearlmanfoundation.org/product/50-year-odyssey-tee-shirt/

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Calendar

• Following of from the collaboration with the Alan R Pearlman Foundation with the Odyssey’s 50th Anniversary poster, it was great to see the illustration used in their 2023 Calendar - available to purcahse right now for the year ahead…

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SYNTHfest uk

The first in-person SynthFestUK since lockdown took place in October 2022 and it was wonderful to catch up with old friends and make new ones after a two year hiatus. As ever Synth Evolution hosted a stand and sold plenty of books, posters, mugs and t-shirts. Thanks to all those customers and it was great to chat with everyone there, customer or not. I was able to slip away to see Paul Wiffen’s splendid talk featuring the Elka Synthex (Jarre’s laser harp) and the E-Mu 50th anniversary talk by Tony Wride of Exclusively Analogue.

Synth Evolution stand at SynthFestUK 2022

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synthtrax.net

• I created a Wiki site to log all the verifiable uses of synths in every track ever made. Yes, that was a bit crazy ambitious, but it’s up and running and I had some enjoyable research sessions fleshing out the Moog Minimoog, ARP 2600, Roland Jupiter 8, and many more. Check it out, and help out - it’s an open Wiki and I would welcome any dedicated collaborators :-)

• www.synthtrax.net

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Music

As well as all the Synth Evolution products and activities, I also produce electronic music with synths (unsurprisingly!) In 2022 I released three techno EPs which I think get the balance right between hardness, funk, groove, melody, arrangement and is in-keeping with the genre’s heritage. Well, I would say that of course, wouldn’t I?

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2023

So, what about 2023 then? Well, all things being equal, it’d be great to create a new poster or two. I haven’t really thought what that could be yet, but I’m sure it will be some combination of hand-illustrated vintage synthesizers combined with a view of their place in musical and tech history.! I’d also love to follow up 2020’s Synth Evolution book, and I have some ideas that could similarly grab the imagination of synth fans everywhere. And of course, bang out some more banging techno! Hopefully get to do some PAs too…watch all these spaces, and more!

New poster - 'DANCE EVOLUTION'

Synth Evolution are proud to announce a new poster - ‘DANCE EVOLUTION’ at Synthfest|UK 2020!

Oli says:

When one has been living and breathing synthesizers and electronic music for long enough, and have participated in the music scenes they drive, it’s inevitable that one starts thinking about the history of the music - what were the preceeding genres, and how did we get to the diversity of dance music today (which is basically an electronic music scenee dependent on synths and digital sound technology) .

That certainly happened to me: I realised I didnt’t know enough about the origins of disco - I had a vague knowledge of David Mancuso, the Loft, the Paradise Garage, Saturday Night Fever and Studio 54, and so on. But where did it all come from exactly?

And even techno - sure, I know like most people, that it came from Detroit, had its roots in Chicago house, and that ‘May, Saunderson and Atkin's’ are credited as the originators, but the details were shamefully sketchy.

So I set out to answer these basic questions, and the thing soon ballooned into a survey of the main dance styles of the entire 20th century, and this is the result!

Now - it’s important to bear some important facts - possibly even caveats - when looking and thinking about this poster, and they are these:

• With a topic as broad as ‘the history of 20th century dance music’, it can never be compressed onto an A2 poster and be considered ‘complete’. There will be missing styles - perhaps your favourite ones - and the post-2000 years are somewhat compressed, with the years 1960-1999 being the most detailed.

• Similarly, this is one journey through the story. There are other linkages to make and other stories to tell. I think the main story of this particular version is that there are overarching styles - soul, disco, house - which comprise a number of sub-genres that are usually considered to be part of those higher level categories - eg, jump-up is a style of jungle, and Motown is a style of soul. Further, it generally possible to sequence these higher level styles chronologically - disco happened after the blues, trance happened after musique concrete, acid house happened after Chicago House. Of course, there is blurring, overlapping and genre straddling, but I think the overarching progression is ‘true enough’, and that is one story within this poster.

• The linkage between styles are intended to convey influence and a sense of the torch being carried forward, but again not every single link can be shown. Indeed, at the lowest level of a musician or band, it would be impossible to represent every influence and intention with regards the music they make, and how a scene coalesces around a sound, fashion, technology and dance style.

• Examples of a genre are given under each - I will have course missed off your favourite, or could have used a better example in your opinion. This is to be expected - music is personal and everyone carries their own personal ‘story of music’ with them, some of which may map onto this poster, and some not. I hope that the poster is taken with this in mind and that it’s a conversation starter, not the final word, and a celebration of some of the most dynamic music ever made, and not an attempt to freeze it in aspic.

As a final point, I think one of the most interesting aspects to consider is how - right from the start - the music on the poster is always a blending of culture, ideas and people - and to be specific dance music is generally a blending of African music and European music (and other indigeneous musics). From the blues to ska, to soul, disco and jungle, all these influences are ever-present in varying proportions and weights.

Despite the unforgivable brutality of slavery by which African music was introduced into the Americas and the Carribean Islands this poster can still transmit the postive message that human culture is at its very best when cultures share ideas and when people of all races, colours and ideas can mingle and are able generate new things that are greater than the sum of their parts.

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i’d love to hear your thoughts, comments and observations. I’m sure there will opinions!

Follow up to the previous blog - exhibition is now open, poster now on sale!

Buy here:
https://designmuseumshop.com/products/synth-evolution

As noted in the previous blog post, the Design Museum’s exhibtion ‘Electronic - from Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers’ didn’t open on schedule on April 1st 2020 - but it now is!

https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/electronic-from-kraftwerk-to-the-chemical-brothers

It’s had rave (!) reviews in the journals: Guardian 5 star review, MixMag review and more.

I can’t wait to go!

And, as noted below, I’ve had the honour of designing an exclusive and official Synth Evolution poster to accompany it. Synths, drum machines and samplers are of course the driving force of the house, techno, and rave revolutions of the 80s and 90s. And this poster celebrates that with a selection of some of the finest:

Printed on 150gsm Munken Kristall acid free paper

40 x 50cm

The featured synths are: Yamaha DX7s, Yamaha CS-80, Sequential Circuits Pro One, Roland TB-303, EDP Wasp, Roland Jupiter 8, PPG Realizer, Roland D-50, Moog System 35, Roland TR-808, E-mu Modular, Korg Prophecy, Korg MS-20, EMS VCS-3, Korg Mono/Poly, EML Polybox, ARP Odyssey, Moog Minimoog, Korg PS-3100, Con Brio ADS 200, Electro-Harmonix Mini, Buchla 100, ARP 2600, Yamaha CS-30, Sequential Circuits Prophet 10, Kinetic Sound Prism, Siel DK-70, PPG Modular, Roland SH-3a, Stinger, Akai S1000, Korg PS-3200, Oberheim OB-X, Wersi MK1, Roland Alpha-Juno 1, Yamaha CSX1, NED Synclavier, OSC Oscar

If you get to the exhibition before me - let me know your thoughts!

Synth Evolution collaboration with The Design Museum!

Good news and bad news…

Good News

Synth Evolution is amazingly proud to announce a collaboration with London’s iconic Design Museum for their upcoming ‘Electronic: From Kraftwerk to The Chemical Brothers’ exhibtion - a celebration of all things electronic music.

https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/electronic-from-kraftwerk-to-the-chemical-brothers

As such an exclusive, collaborative poster has been created to accompany the exhbition. See below for a teaser of that!

Bad News

The bad news is that the exhibiton has been postponed due to the current coronavirus lockdown, which is obviously the completely right thing to do, as disappointing as this is. (I was definitely looking forward to visiting the exhibtion apart from anything else!)

Nevertheless, let’s hope the closure is relatively temporary and things can start returing to normal sooner rather than later.

Sneak preview

Here’s roughly what it looks like - you’ll have to wait till the exhbition opens to see the full design and to acquire one!



New synth poster to be unveiled at Synthfest!

I hope you’ve all got your tickets to #synthfest2018? Synth Evolution are very proud to be hosting a stand with our posters, mugs and t-shirts. (Plus an interactive version of the SynthSounds website)

Not only that, but we’re launching a new poster - ‘Syntheseizer’s Greatest Hits’ which features all the most important and influential synthesizers of the last 80 years (yes, 80 - can you guess the earliest?' ;-) 10% discount to the first correct answer! info@synthevolution.net)

Here’s a sneak preview:

Synth Evolution - A1 poster - ‘Synthesizer’s greatest hits’

It will also available in white, and will be on sale on this website from October 7th 2018.

Very nice electronic music poster: Electric Love Blueprint

Follow the link below to see a very nice poster charting the history of electronic music. The twist is that it's presented as an electronic circuit board, making it super attractive to look at. 

I'm not sure if the electronic components in any way relate to the bands who have been assigned resistors, capacitors, etc, but I think it would be even better if it did. Kraftwerk should naturally be shown as a power-cell, for example...

Anyway, click the image below to see the full poster on the www.wearedorothy.com website, where you can purchase a copy.