Laurie Spiegel

May 13, 2020

Good morning.

Today we’re listening to Laurie Spiegel, an American electronic composer and computer programmer. Born in Chicago, Spiegel taught herself acoustic instruments and music notation in her teens. After studying music composition, she worked on early synths at Bell Labs, including the AlphaSyntauri for the Apple II. She’s a pioneer of computer-generated music, which today we just call music. We’re playing two of her solo albums which at the time demonstrated the power of synthesizers and today will help us focus. The Expanding Universe has minimalist synth compositions that seem to express algorithms in musical form. The track “Kepler’s Harmony of the Worlds” was included on the golden record placed on the 1977 Voyager spacecraft. Unseen Worlds is a darker album and explores a broader range of sonic possibilities.

The Expanding Universe by Laurie Spiegel (160m, no vocals) Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Google Play / Tidal

Unseen Worlds by Laurie Spiegel (60m, no vocals) Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube Music / Google Play / Tidal

Have a really nice Wednesday.