In 2021, Patricia Strange invited me to contribute a testimonial for the new pressing of Electronic Music: Systems, Techniques, and Controls, written by her late husband, Allen Strange.

At the time, I was only familiar with Strange’s Programming and Metaprogramming in the Electro-Organism: An Operating Directive for the Music Easel. Thanks to the generosity of the Buchla Archives, I had the chance to explore the first edition of Electronic Music. As I read, what resonated most is how the book bridges artistry with the technical fundamentals central to performing electronic instruments.

Later that year, I was asked to perform on my Buchla system at an event in San Jose, CA. The venue was just a few steps away from the campus where Allen Strange had established the electronic music studio at San Jose State University, and while developing the piece I was inspired by the significance of this location in the history of electronic music. This connection became a guiding influence in shaping the composition.

In the closing of Electronic Music, Allen Strange offers this observation:

“A single momentary sound may be the result of three or four hours of re-patching and re-recording… the perceiver cannot hear the amount of time and planning spent on the production of an event. As listeners, we don’t judge the aesthetic content of a composition by the time spent on its creation, but rather by its sonic information.”
This passage inspired the title of the work.

The Buchla system used for this performance features a combination of older 200 Series modules from the 1970s, as well as 200 and 200e Series modules from the 2000s, and newer 200e modules from the 2010s. The system also incorporates a Studio.h dual prismatic oscillator, and certain sections were further embellished with additional parts from a vintage Buchla Music Easel, and a Buchla 265 Source of Uncertainty module.

While the performance is not without flaws, the capricious nature of the instrument imbues the composition’s simple structures with a uniquely unpredictable quality.

A Single Momentary Sound is now available to stream on Bandcamp
Quadraphonic version available for download

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