The Bob Moog Foundation and Waveshaper Media have announced the addition of three legendary figures in the world of electronic music, Jean-Michel Jarre, Dick Hyman, and Jim Scott, to the historical line-up of  participants in Electronic Voyager,  the upcoming documentary about synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog. The film seeks to trace Moog's path of sonic innovation by talking to those people who worked most closely with him and his instruments. The film recently raised over $125,000 (CAD) through Kickstarter to assist with the initial segments of production. Here's the Bob Moog Foundation press release with the full story...

Jean-Michel Jarre first appeared on the international stage in 1976 with his electronic music masterpiece, Oxygène. For the past four decades, he has been one of music's most prolific and influential electronic composers and performers. He is an award-winning pioneer of the genre with 80 million albums sold, and he holds the Guinness world record for the top three biggest live shows in history--each with an audience of more than a million people. Jarre uses scores of vintage and contemporary synthesizers in his work, including multiple Moog synthesizers, which continue to be at the heart of his sound. He is currently on a world tour promoting his recently released Electronica and Electronica 2 albums.

Among the electronic music community, Dick Hyman is best known for his groundbreaking albums Moog: The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman (1969)and The Age of Electronicus (1969). The track "The Minotaur" from The Electric Eclectics charted in the US top-40, becoming the first Moog hit single. Hyman is also a renowned jazz pianist and organist with a prolific career that spans nearly seven decades. He was recently named a 2017 National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters Fellow, the nation's highest honor in the genre. He served as composer, arranger, conductor, and pianist for 13 Woody Allen films including Zelig, The Purple Rose of Cairo, Broadway Danny Rose, Stardust Memories, Hannah and Her Sisters, and scored films including Moonstruck, Scott Joplin, The Lemon Sisters and Alan and Naomi.

Jim Scott is best known as one of the engineers who helped design and develop the iconic Mini Moog synthesizer at the R.A. Moog Co. in the late 1960s, most notably adapting and simplifying Bob Moog's original studio system designs for the sound. He also refined Bob's idea for an oscillator pitch control to improve the Mini accuracy and stability compared to older circuitry. He became the project leader to carry the synthesizer into production. Scott was the only engineer from R.A. Moog, Co. who migrated from Trumansburg, NY to Buffalo, NY to join Bob at the new Moog Music Inc. There Jim conceived of and designed the Micro Moog, and the Multi Moog in the late 70s, featuring ultra stable oscillators of his design. Scott joined Bob Moog and Tom Rhea in the early 80s to help design the Crumar Spirit synthesizer.

Jarre, Hyman, and Scott join a prestigious lineup of participants in the film, including:

Iconic Moog musicians: Rick Wakeman (Yes), Gary Numan, Larry Fast (Synergy, Peter Gabriel), Gershon Kingsley (First Moog Quartet, "Popcorn"), Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff (TONTO's Expanding Head Band, Stevie Wonder), Roger Powell (Utopia), Patrick Moraz (The Moody Blues, Yes), Steve Porcaro (Toto).

Early electronic music pioneers: Herb Deutsch, Morton Subotnick, Bernie Krause (Beaver & Krause, Moog modular session musician - George Harrison, The Doors), Joel Chadabe, David Borden (Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company).

Contemporary Moog musicians: Moby, Adrian Utley (Portishead, Moog Ensemble).

Friends and music industry contemporaries: Dave Smith (Sequential Circuits), Tom Oberheim, Roger Linn, Dave Rossum (E-mu), Mark Vail (Keyboard Magazine), David Mash (Berkelee College of Music), Dominic Milano (Keyboard Magazine), Wayne Kirby (University of North Carolina - Asheville).

Session musicians, composers, technicians: Patrick Gleeson (Herbie Hancock, film composer), Greg Phillinganes (Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson), Edd Kalehoff (tv/film composer), Michael Boddicker (Michael Jackson, film composer), Will Alexander (Keith Emerson's synth tech).

Moog employees/collaborators: Bill Hemsath, David VanKoevering, Tom Rhea, Roger Luther, Greg Hockman, Tom Gullo, Dale Ong.

Filming for the documentary will take place in several different cities in the US, Canada, and Europe, and will include such venues as the original location of R.A. Moog, Co., the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA), Bronx High School of Science, among many other locations.

More information:

• Moog Foundation

Bob Moog Foundation Social

• Bob Moog Foundation Announces Auction 17-Apr-24
• Polymoog 280A Vox Humana Setting Sampled 08-Mar-24
• Win A Moog Source Signed By Bob Moog 06-Feb-24
• Bob Moog Foundation 2024 Calendar 12-Dec-23
• Herb Deutsch Remembered 06-Dec-23