Suzanne Ciani is a name that should be familiar to many of you. Considered to be one of the true innovators of electronic music, Ciani found great success as a sound-designer for television and radio commercials in New York in the 70s and 80s. After a very lucurative career, she returned to California and began a 2nd career as a recording artist; her music is often generalized as ‘new age,’ not surprisingly.
There is just a ton of information online regarding Ciani and her work; I suggest you start here and here. Also if there is anyone out there who wants to redesign her website HOLY SHIT it’s like 1997 up in there. Jesus. Anyhow, I was at an estate sale recently, some real eccentric types; in the LPs were such gems at the United States Of America, Holy Modal Rounders, and The Remains. Not your typical 60s rock albums. The piles of musty old magazines included graphic-designer fav U&lc, an old issue of Viva, and something called TECHNOLOGY, which was on its 2nd edition, 2nd issue by March of ’82. Sorta like OMNI minus the fiction, TECHNOLOGY featured this profile with Ciani, which I think may have been lost to time… until now. I offer it to you here:
DOWNLOAD: ciani_1982
Author is one Stephen Kindel. The focus is very much on the economics of being an in-demand synthesist, which may have just been some 80s yuppie zeitgeist shit, or maybe some part of the magazine’s editorial mission. Either way, it’s Karl Marx’s fucking nightmare. Enjoy! Oh, and here she is around the same time on Letterman, doing some sorta wacky proto Liz Lemon-meets-Kate Bush schtick. Love it.
2 replies on “Suzanne Ciani profile in TECHNOLOGY magazine, 1982”
actually the Holy Modal Rounders, and The United States of America WERE very typical records to find in someone’s collection at the end of the 1960s. The Remains were more of a garage rock band and from slightly earlier. they shouldn’t even be mentioned along with the other two groups stylistically speaking. the others were very standard Psychedelic LPs. They even took a cut from the Holy Modal Rounders for the Easy Rider soundtrack.
i’m guessing you weren’t alive at the time, or maybe not old enough to be buying records, but almost everyone i knew had those records. i had em then, and i own them now, and i still listen to them.
i was many years away from being born