Please suggest more beautiful synthesizer solos
December 16, 2024 11:13 PM Subscribe
Hi. I want to make a playlist but all I have are two pieces, one is Chick Corea's Bagatelle #4 and the other is Donald Fagen playing Reflections by Thelonius Monk (with Steve Khan). Thanks!
Maybe along those lines is Betty Carter's Naima's Love Song from the the Verve remix collection. Maybe a little more upbeat, but the synth always reminds me of classic era Chick Corea/Joe Zawinul.
posted by 2N2222 at 4:44 AM on December 17, 2024
posted by 2N2222 at 4:44 AM on December 17, 2024
I deeply love the (short) synth work at the end of Emerson, Lake & Palmer's "Lucky Man".
posted by AgentRocket at 5:38 AM on December 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by AgentRocket at 5:38 AM on December 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
Jan Hammer (of 'Miami Vice' theme song fame) has an album called The First Seven Days which is seven tracks of epic, majestic synthesizer solos.
posted by niicholas at 5:54 AM on December 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by niicholas at 5:54 AM on December 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
INXS - Learn to Smile sort of in the same high keys range as your Reflections one. Starts at 2:40 or so.
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:15 AM on December 17, 2024
posted by The_Vegetables at 7:15 AM on December 17, 2024
All of Wendy Carlos’ Beauty in the Beast but especially the title track.
posted by Lemkin at 7:23 AM on December 17, 2024
posted by Lemkin at 7:23 AM on December 17, 2024
Isao Tomita’s album Snowflakes Are Dancing = arrangements of Debussy pieces on a Moog synthesizer. Possibly my favourite album ever
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:02 PM on December 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
posted by cotton dress sock at 12:02 PM on December 17, 2024 [1 favorite]
The examples you provide don't seem very "synthetic" to me, so here are a few examples that always give me chills or a lump in the throat when I feel the sequenced, arpeggiated, soaring synthesizer waves passing through my body:
- How about Vangelis? Of course, there is the soundtrack to Bladerunner or even Chariots of Fire, but how about his ode to planet Earth, the album Albedo 0.59. This is track Alpha
- Jean Michel Jarre is a bit obvious. But Oxigene is a classic, with the synthesizer sounds panning left to right, you can close your eyes and imagine you're zipping along on the Eurostar. This is part 4
- A very different feel is Magazine, with its wry and sarcastic singer and post-punk energy, but Dave Formula's synthesizer work is stellar. The Thin Air creates an almost post-apocalyptic landscape, while Parade combines the sarcastic voice of Howard Devoto with the soaring keyboards of Dave Formula to create a sense of desperate beauty or abjection
- British Electric Foundation (an offshoot of Heaven 17) did some great cover versions, including Wichita Lineman and Lou Reed's Perfect Day , which mix really well with synthesizers and the great voice of Glenn Gregory. On Heaven 17's album How Men Are, The Skin I'm In is a wonderful ballad with Glenn's voice an anchor.
- Human League is best know for its club hit "Don't you want me?", but they started out as a futurist, Kraftwerkian ensemble. On their early album Reproduction, there are some very beautiful synthesizer works, such as Morale/You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling that starts out with a heartbreaking arpeggiated solo, which morphs into a version of the classic song and manages to evoke distant thunder as a metaphor for a dying relationship, and on the other album Travelogue, Toyota City evokes a car dealership haunted by a child's wind up toy.
- From Come True (a fantastic Canadian movie with a luminous actress who gets lost in liminal spaces linked to sleep and has a great synthesizer soundtrack - just watch it), two wonderful pieces by Electric Youth that come towards the end of the movie: Sarah and Forgiven, with lovely melancholic synths
- From the soundtrack to Beyond The Black Rainbow (another Canadian movie with a great synth score), The Incident In 1966 evokes a psychedelic meltdown, the kind of anihilation that a Shaman would seek to come back a changed being, while Mother evokes the main character taking her first steps out to freedom.
- And of course, since Lemkin above mentioned Wendy Carlos, their soundtrack to Clockwork Orange is pretty great!
When I have more time, I'll try to come up with more examples. As a fellow synthesizer lover, I'm sure there are lots I can remember!
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 1:50 AM on December 18, 2024 [1 favorite]
- How about Vangelis? Of course, there is the soundtrack to Bladerunner or even Chariots of Fire, but how about his ode to planet Earth, the album Albedo 0.59. This is track Alpha
- Jean Michel Jarre is a bit obvious. But Oxigene is a classic, with the synthesizer sounds panning left to right, you can close your eyes and imagine you're zipping along on the Eurostar. This is part 4
- A very different feel is Magazine, with its wry and sarcastic singer and post-punk energy, but Dave Formula's synthesizer work is stellar. The Thin Air creates an almost post-apocalyptic landscape, while Parade combines the sarcastic voice of Howard Devoto with the soaring keyboards of Dave Formula to create a sense of desperate beauty or abjection
- British Electric Foundation (an offshoot of Heaven 17) did some great cover versions, including Wichita Lineman and Lou Reed's Perfect Day , which mix really well with synthesizers and the great voice of Glenn Gregory. On Heaven 17's album How Men Are, The Skin I'm In is a wonderful ballad with Glenn's voice an anchor.
- Human League is best know for its club hit "Don't you want me?", but they started out as a futurist, Kraftwerkian ensemble. On their early album Reproduction, there are some very beautiful synthesizer works, such as Morale/You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling that starts out with a heartbreaking arpeggiated solo, which morphs into a version of the classic song and manages to evoke distant thunder as a metaphor for a dying relationship, and on the other album Travelogue, Toyota City evokes a car dealership haunted by a child's wind up toy.
- From Come True (a fantastic Canadian movie with a luminous actress who gets lost in liminal spaces linked to sleep and has a great synthesizer soundtrack - just watch it), two wonderful pieces by Electric Youth that come towards the end of the movie: Sarah and Forgiven, with lovely melancholic synths
- From the soundtrack to Beyond The Black Rainbow (another Canadian movie with a great synth score), The Incident In 1966 evokes a psychedelic meltdown, the kind of anihilation that a Shaman would seek to come back a changed being, while Mother evokes the main character taking her first steps out to freedom.
- And of course, since Lemkin above mentioned Wendy Carlos, their soundtrack to Clockwork Orange is pretty great!
When I have more time, I'll try to come up with more examples. As a fellow synthesizer lover, I'm sure there are lots I can remember!
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 1:50 AM on December 18, 2024 [1 favorite]
Bonus track: Philip Glass did the soundtrack to Tales From The Loop. Gorgeous musical vignettes, you can almost imagine kids chasing fireflies while their giant Mecha robot sleeps in the wheat field.....
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 10:51 AM on December 18, 2024
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 10:51 AM on December 18, 2024
It's an interesting question. Many of the iconic synth solos that I can think of by Tony Banks (Firth of Fourth), Eno (Editions of You), Kate Bush's band (Egypt), etc, are short solos or riffs. Not as many extended solos come to mind offhand, I'm maybe thinking of Emerson's Tarkus, which was inspired by the great Dick Hyman.
As Bigbootay.. sez, Dave Formula's short solo for The Thin Air is one for the ages.
posted by ovvl at 3:30 PM on December 23, 2024
As Bigbootay.. sez, Dave Formula's short solo for The Thin Air is one for the ages.
posted by ovvl at 3:30 PM on December 23, 2024
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The suggestions I can bring to you get more abstract and rhythmic, like Aphex Twin, but I'm unclear on what you're looking for. Likewise, suggestions like Lisa Bella Donna, for whom... all of her work is probably pretty easy to classify as beautiful synthesizer solos.
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 3:37 AM on December 17, 2024