Screening: Sisters with Transistors by Lisa Rovner, 2020

FESTIVAL OF EXPERIMENTAL ARTS AND ADVANCED MUSIC

Sisters with Transistors is the extraordinary story of the pioneers of electronic music, visionary women who embraced machines and new technologies to radically transform the way music is created, produced, and listened to.

Directed by Lisa Rovner in her cinematic debut, this 2020 American documentary traces the origins of electronic music through the experiences and experiments of the composers who redefined its boundaries. Using archival material, recordings, and testimonies, the film takes us into their studios and laboratories, and to the tools with which they opened sonic paths that remain relevant today.

Clara Rockmore, Daphne Oram, Bebe Barron, Delia Derbyshire, Maryanne Amacher, Pauline Oliveros, Wendy Carlos, Eliane Radigue, Suzanne Ciani, and Laurie Spiegel are some of the key figures in this story. Synthesizers, tape recorders, oscillators, and other technologies became instruments of experimentation with which they expanded the possibilities of music.

From the earliest experiments with electronic sound...