Wendy Carlos: The Well-Tempered Synthesizer

Walter Carlos, now 'Wendy' following her gender reassignment in the 70's, found fame for the release of 'Switched On Bach,' a collection of virtuosic synthesiser performances of Bach compositions, reviewed in detail here. The great commercial success achieved with her debut secured several further releases, including this 1969 follow up to her debut, 'The Well Tempered Synthesizer.'

Wendy Carlos: The Well-Tempered Synthesizer

The 1999 remastered album, which is reviewed here, contains 12 musical tracks as well as an interesting vocal commentary and stereo alignment tones to calibrate systems in the by-gone era where reliable stereo sound had not permeated into the majority of living rooms. Unlike Carlos' previous album, 'The Well Tempered Synthesizer' contains tracks by Monteverdi, Domenico Scarlatti, and Handel as well as Bach. 

The performances contained within this album of Handel's Water Music and Bach's Brandenburg Concerto once more show Carlos' virtuosic ability at her craft. The 'Allegro Deciso' movement from Handel's water music is a truly vibrant and playful take on the work. Following the three movements from Handel come Scarlatti's Harpsichord Sonatas in E and D. The sonata in E once more exhibits the admirable range of timbres Carlos achieves with her Moog Modular system.

The Brandenburg Concerto performances are again of great quality, in particular the dysphoric introduction of the 'Andante' movement. The third movement, 'Presto,' revisits the playful and light-hearted nature of several tracks previous. Like the entire album, the music is crystal clear and makes highly creative use of the stereo field, two aspects of Carlos' music which have remained with her from the very start of her career.

Like the previous 'Switched On Bach' album, this release serves as a fantastic decadent exhibition of an electronic take on classical music, highly praise-worthy for both its originality and quality of performance.

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Walter Carlos: Switched On Bach

The 1968 Walter (later 'Wendy') Carlos album 'Switched On Bach' album is the rather interesting Classical / Experimental music curio which introduced a great many to the Moog Synthesizer, paving the way for the slew of 70's acts to use the machine as their primary instrument. The album also marks its place in history as a breakthrough electronic album which will forever be one of the first classical music based albums to achieve platinum status.

The albums track listing contains, as the title suggests, a series of performances of Bach works, including a remarkable performance of the Brandenburg Symphony and three of Bach's Two-part Inventions. Most listeners unfamiliar with classical music will probably at least recognise Carlos' performance of Jesu, Joy Of Man's Desiring.

When one considers the album's advanced years, there is a truly remarkable attention paid to mixing the album - each of the tracks sound crisp with fantastic attention to articulations and dynamics, rather than a flat compressed amplitude, and Carlos' use of the stereo field puts the album far ahead of its time in this regard.

While the album has been very carefully mixed, all performances featured on the album have clearly been subject to great care, with impressive variety of timbre and expression. Every track contains a multitude of synthetic instrumentation and shows Carlos' expertise with their craft, not to mention the versatility of the Moog system. This album is without doubt one of the best exposition of the great variety possible with a synthesiser, given a skilled operator with the know-how and imagination to pull off such a feat as Walter Carlos.

Unsurprisingly, following the great success of 'Switched On Bach,' Carlos continued with a variety of projects including several follow up albums and soundtrack credits including 'Tron' and 'A Clockwork Orange.' For a review of the 1969 release 'The Well Tempered Synthesizer,' click here.

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