It has been fifty years since the iconic Buchla Music Easel was first released in limited quantities. One of the people celebrating this anniversary is Steven Horelick, who is known for some of the most cherished music on television. His credits include over 350 television episodes and films, with the nostalgic “Butterfly in the Sky” from PBS’s Reading Rainbow being one of the most notable. 

Steve is no stranger to using the Buchla Music easel on his albums and EPS either and has released “Live Wires,” which features fifteen performances on the instrument. On his Bandcamp page, Steve states that Live Wires is a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Donald Buchla’s Music Easel but that the album also pays homage to his own grandfather and father’s pioneering work in power transforming technology. Some of their patents appear on the cover art of the album alongside the Music Easel. 

Steve also elaborated on his performances on the album, saying that he infused his music with asymmetrical Fibonacci-inspired loops and echoes. The idea was to blend the concept of transformer’s spiral windings with his melodic spiral-infused patterns. The loops were processed and panned through Apple’s Logic Pro to create a symphony of sounds that serves as a nod to his family’s electric legacy. 

Live Wires was released on Bandcamp on the 11th of December, 2023, and can be purchased digitally for $9 or more. Listen to the embed below for a preview of the tracks featured on the album, and visit Steve’s official website for more information on his work (https://www.stevehmusic.com/home).