“Sisters with Transistors” follows the story of electronic music’s female pioneers, composers who embraced machines and their liberating technologies to utterly transform how we produce and listen to music today.
“Sisters with Transistors” is directed by Lisa Rovner and narrated by Laurie Anderson who observes, “The history of Women has been a story of silence, of breaking through the silence, with beautiful noise.” And these featured women who shaped the future of music certainly made “beautiful noise.”
Rovner’s straightforward approach using archival footage and interviews are great but I was most fascinated by the women contextualizing their visions into a physical medium. By processing various oppressive systems or environments, the women turned existential anxieties and pain into Art. For instance, composer Daphne Orem stated the sounds of air raids blaring in England during World War II inspired her to craft a soundscape based on those dreadful sirens. With her unique soundscapes, Orem invented radiophonic effects which laid down the path for techno and opened the door to another dimension of music. Other composers and artists mentioned the Atom bomb and the potential threat of nuclear war to have a drastic effect on their work.
Next, the story moves to Greenwich Village where Bebe and Louis Barron made the first electronic film score on “Forbidden Planet” with ingenious techniques. Fearful that they’d lose their jobs to a computer, the Musicians Union wouldn’t allow the film’s score to be considered music in 1956.
There’s no shortage of interesting subjects like Clara Thompson who created the “Dr. Who” theme song and Laurie Spiegel who invented the first electronic music programming tool for Macintosh. But my favorite composer was Wendy Carlos, a classically trained pianist whose album “Switched-On Bach” covered Bach compositions with a Moog synthesizer, a device she helped develop. Carlos went on to compose “The Shining,” “A Clockwork Orange,” and “Tron,” and her use of Baroque notes remain haunting and timeless.
For many of the women, there was a scientific and DIY approach, blending available technology and musical talent which pushed the format. Contemporary musicians Kim Gordon and Holly Herndon lend their voices to share their love for the women that paved the way or better yet created a new world of sound.
There are also some interesting statements on how consumerism both diluted and drove up the demand for electronic music but above all else, Rovner’s documentary is a touching tribute to these overlooked pioneers.
In Theaters Friday, April 23rd
