On the occasion of the June 23rd, 2024 discussion at Santa Monica College dedicated to the local history of telepresence, Tom Erbe is joined by Bana Haffar for a conversation about the early teleconcerts and other notable musical experiments he participated in.

In this interview:

• After setting the scene with an overview of literally rebuilding the CalArts School of Music after the ’94 Northridge Earthquake, Tom circles back to tell about the preceding years at Mills College and his work with Robert Ashley.
• Before landing on the West Coast, Tom got the training as a computer science student at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, the home for early supercomputers and experimental music composed with computers. Spending his formative years in the Midwest (Wisconsin and Illinois), Tom got exposed to contemporary music repertoire DJ-ing for local radio stations and, like many young people in the 80s, playing in a band.
• Conversing about Tom’s inventions and the inspiration for his music research, Bana offers conceptual questions related to music making, instrument design, and performance — which gives Tom a chance to share his recent work at UCSD and collaboration with Make Noise.
• Revisiting the theme of the early remote performance in an attempt to define a relatively oblique term “telepresence,” Tom tells about the ’95 remote brainwave music performance of Alvin Lucier and the uncanny feeling it evoked.

Tune in to hear the full story…

Bana Haffar is an electronic music composer exploring the materiality of sound, and the relation of sonic worlds to the vast terrain of natural and artificial systems. Bana is a DJ at dublab who’s been active in the LA experimental music community (Modular on the Spot, 2014) and worldwide (Beirut Synthesizer Center in Lebanon, 2021). Currently, Bana is pursuing graduate research at Concordia University, Intermedia Program.

Tom Erbe is an educator, designer of computer music hardware & software, recording engineer, and performer. Over nearly four decades Tom produced over 100 CDs of contemporary music, developed sound generation and processing tools (SoundHack; w/Make Noise Music: Echophon, Erbe-Verb, telHarmonic, Morphagene, Mimeophon, and Spectraphon modules), contributed to the archiving and preservation of experimental music (David Tudor Collection at Getty RI), published and reviewed numerous articles as a member Leonardo Music Journal Editorial Board. Since 2004 Tom has been teaching computer and electronic music University of California, San Diego (UCSD).

Written text: Anastasia Chernysheva.
The interview was recorded on June 22nd, 2024.