Off: Theramin

[Doug Pearson]

On Thu, 3 Feb 2005 14:32:26 +0000, Neil Shilladay
<neil.shilladay at MICROLISE.COM> wrote:
>Did me eyes deceive me (I could just be stupid), but did list faves Litmus
>use some sort of optical theremin on their recent tour supporting Julian
>Cope ?
>I caught Litmus @ Wolverhampton, and the chap on the left of the stage
>appeared to have some funky optically triggered thingamajig, that I took
>to be a theremin.

Of course, an actual theremin is electro-magnetic, not optical (sorry to
split hairs), but I think that Litmus are using one of the Alesis "Air"
units (AirSynth or AirFX), which are optical (IR, IIRC).  I'm at work, so
I can't check the insert, but I'm pretty sure that one of those is visible
in the photos with the 'You Are Here' CD.

Incidentally, my piano teacher during my early teen years was an
accomplished thereminist who had performed it at Carnegie Hall way back
(she was a contemporary of the great Clara Rockmore).  She had one of the
old RCA console-style tube theremins that I got to play a couple times.
Leon Theremin's daughter is also a great player; I got to see her play the
violin (or was it flute?) solo part of a concerto, with electronic
instruments from the Stanford e.music department playing the orchestra
part, about 15 years ago.  It was the first time that (the now late) mr.
Theremin visited the US since being kidnapped from NYC by the KGB in the
20s!  Pamela Kurstin is a great contemporary Thereminist, if you want to
check out someone current ...

    -Doug
     jasret at mindspring.com