Moogfest is an annual electronic music festival that takes place in Asheville, North Carolina towards the end of April. The festival is held in Asheville because it is the city where Robert Arthur “Bob” Moog, the inventor of the Moog synthesizer and founding father of electronic music, spent the last thirty years of his life. Moogfest is put on to honor the creativity and inventiveness that Bob Moog had spread throughout the course of his life.
As the audience upstairs at the Masonic Temple waited for Keith Emerson to make his way from the Moog store unveiling of his cloned Moog Modular System, Malcolm Cecil told a few more Stevie Wonder stories. Still a minor when he recorded tracks for Motown, Wonder had no say over the material. Told what to sing […]
Like Willy Wonka, Moogfest hid a golden ticket in a special chocolate bar. Here’s the lucky winner, Tonya Lee Jaynes, at the Moog Music store today. She found the ticket while at a NAMM show in L.A.
Keith Emerson — a friend of Bob Moog’s and the the first musician to tour with a Moog synthesizer — performed at Diana Wortham Theatre on Thursday. Photos by David Simchock.
The Bernie Worrell Orchestra, led by septuagenarian keyboardist and Parliament-Funkadelic founding member Bernie Worrell, performed at The Diana Wortham Theatre on Thursday night. Photographer David Simchock was there.
The majority of panelists and performers at Moogfest have been focused on the future of sound and technology. But we can’t know the future of electronic music without knowing its history.
A collection of art and architecture installations is being installed on Lexington Avenue near the Moog Factory, part of a between Moogfest and The Media Arts Project, Aloft Hotels and Clemson School of Architecture.
The 2004 documentary Moog may be available most days through the Buncombe County Library, but not with insightful answers to your very own questions by director Hans Fjellestad. Noting how surreal it was to be back in Asheville after all these years, the filmmaker celebrated the 10th anniversary of his work with a screening late Thursday afternoon, upstairs at the Masonic Temple.
An influential (and Academy Award-winning) Italian composer, producer, songwriter and filmmaker, Moroder, at 73 years old, is known for pioneering synth-heavy disco and electronic dance music.
When Herb Deutsch speaks, it’s best to listen. Bob Moog’s former colleague and one of his foremost inspirations in pursuing electronic music, Deutsch ably wielded his experience Thursday afternoon at Diana Wortham Theatre.
AVL’s local musicians take over Moogfest with the Local Showcase and Claire Evans hosts a conversation with the Electric Lady, Janelle Monáe. Check out the highlights from Moogfest day two.
Day two has come and gone. With panel discussions, futuristic technology to play with and bass-blasting performances — including a sound meltdown at a Thomas Wolfe Auditorium Kraftwerk show — Moogfest day two was all about the music (or lack thereof).
From the neon lights at the local showcase in the (quieter, but certainly not quiet) side room to the high-energy dance party droning into the night in the main room, the revamped venue New Earth, formerly Club Hairspray, earned itself a spot among Asheville’s top concert venues during an electric Thursday night lineup. In the […]
The UK’s most successful pop duo, The Pet Shop Boys, took to the stage at Thomas Wolfe last night. Photographer David Simchock was on hand to capture last night’s performance.
Psychedelic soul superstar Janelle Monáe came to Moogfest April 24 for a wide ranging talk on everything from the evolution of the music business and community building to what kind of music aliens might enjoy.
Designer, engineer and musician Yuri Suzuki is the poster-guy for the idea that science can be fun. Forget beakers and goggles, his inventions include a Three Thermin Radio, a light powered by a lemon and the Colour Chaser, which “translates RGB data into sound.”
Sometimes the synthesis of music and technology means making a piano out of bananas. And that’s just one of many projects that have resulted from JoyLabz founder Jay Silver’s invention kit called MaKey MaKey.
Didn’t make it to Janelle Monáe’s panel at Moogfest today? Want to learn about cybernetics while stuck in the office? Check out this live stream of the Moog panels courtesy of justin.tv.
Synthetic Things, from Knoxville, really wanted to play Moogfest. But when faced with the disappoint of being shut out of the festival that, as far as they’re concerned, was custom-made for them, Synthetic Things got creative.
