The history of Electronic Music in 476 Tracks (1937–2001)
June 24, 2025 5:48 AM   Subscribe

Ubuweb (many previouslies) is hosting an extraordinary compilation: the 476-song history of Electronic/Electroacoustic Music, originally a 62 CD set .

Via Openculture with a useful introductory paragraph:

"Spanning the years 1937–2001, the collection should especially appeal to those with an avant-garde or musicological bent. In fact, the original uploader of this archive of experimental sound, Caio Barros, put these tracks online in 2009 while a student of composition at Brazil’s State University of São Paulo. Barros’ “initiative,” as he writes at Ubuweb, “became some sort of legend” among musicophiles in the know."

As Ubuweb notes:

"It's a clearly flawed selection: there's few women and almost no one working outside of the Western tradition (where are the Japanese? Chinese? etc.). However, as an effort, it's admirable and contains a ton of great stuff."

Openculture has a starting point for such an expansion, however: Hear Seven Hours of Women Making Electronic Music (1938–2014) in which "musician, DJ, and 'escaped housewife/schoolteacher' Barbara Golden devote[s] two episodes of her KPFA radio program “Crack o’ Dawn” to women in electronic music, once in 2010 and again in 2013."
posted by deeker (19 comments total) 41 users marked this as a favorite
 
Ooooh. This looks like it could be really good.
posted by Spike Glee at 6:00 AM on June 24


Is the post missing a link to the actual playlist?
posted by thecjm at 6:36 AM on June 24 [1 favorite]


Playlist here.
posted by mazola at 6:47 AM on June 24 [4 favorites]


Is the post missing a link to the actual playlist?

It's in TFA, but if you prefer not to read for some reason the playlist is here. And wow. Thanks, deker!
posted by The Bellman at 6:47 AM on June 24


I emailed the mods when I realised I hadn't embedded the direct link - maybe they will add it? Glad some people fixed my mistake!
posted by deeker at 6:55 AM on June 24


UNS UNS UNS 476 times?
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:07 AM on June 24


star gentle uterus: "UNS UNS UNS 476 times?"

By the end, you'll be begging for that regular a beat.
posted by deeker at 7:21 AM on June 24 [6 favorites]


Was logging in to add the Barbara Golden (with Wobbly!) compilation when I read the OP more carefully. That 476 track compilation was news to me--thanks, deeker, for highlighting both! An unexpectedly neat start to the day.
posted by working_objects at 7:26 AM on June 24


Ondes Martinot from 1937. Whoa.
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 8:42 AM on June 24 [3 favorites]


(From Barros' description) It was a natural thing then to start sharing it via the famous rapidshare, although it was not an all altruistic idea: the donwloads got me points that allowed me to get an account for downloading other shared material.

haha, those were the days...
posted by bigendian at 9:28 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]


This is great. Thank you for the pointer.
posted by doctornemo at 10:27 AM on June 24


FWIW, it's not really 467 different pieces. Several pieces (notably Stockhausen's "Mixtur") are split into many short segments:

10 Bayle, François - Camera Oscura
10 Boulez, Pierre - Répons
11 Bayle, François - Grande Polyhonie
11 Bayle, François - Tremblement de terre très doux
11 Parmegiani, Bernard - De Natura Sonorum
12 Henry-Schaeffer - Symphonie pour un homme seul
13 Boulez, Pierre - Dialogue de l'Ombre Double
13 Manoury, Philippe - Jupiter
13 Manoury, Philippe - Zeitlauf
26 Stockhausen, Karlheinz - Mantra
40 Stockhausen, Karlheinz – Mixtur

By my accouting there are 107 artists and 214 compositions.
posted by crazy_yeti at 11:42 AM on June 24 [2 favorites]


UNS UNS UNS 476 times?

That would be The history of Electronic Dance Music in 476 Tracks.

(thanks deeker for the post!)
posted by Artful Codger at 12:29 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]


Good to see Jonathan Harvey's- Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco in there. One of the very few pieces of music to come out of the sterile corridors of IRCAM that has any heart at all.
I was once lucky enough to hear it as it was intended - eight speakers around the audience with the deconstructed Winchester bells and the voice of the composer's choirboy son zooming around.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 1:27 PM on June 24 [2 favorites]


UNS UNS UNS 476 times?

five seconds of link clicking would have disabused you of this lol
posted by Sebmojo at 7:42 PM on June 24 [1 favorite]


Mod note: Added direct link
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 4:39 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]


Following the Openculture link above I came across this gem:
Mr. Rogers Introduces Kids to Experimental Electronic Music by Bruce Haack & Esther Nelson (1968)
posted by crazy_yeti at 10:15 AM on June 25


Should be electroacoustic not electronic in the title, feels like it's highly misleading.
posted by WaterAndPixels at 10:33 AM on June 25


Thank you for this, it's wonderful.
posted by jokeefe at 11:06 AM on June 25 [1 favorite]


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