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The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Thom Holmes
Thom Holmes is your curator and guide to vintage electronic music recordings and audio experimentation. Drawing from his collection of vintage electronic music recordings spanning the years 1915-1985, each episode explores a topic or theme of historical interest. Holmes is the author of the book, Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, 2020.
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- 3 days ago18 min
EcoStoackhausen
Welcome to the podcast and thanks for listening. As I prepare a large batch of episodes to drop when the revision of my book Electronic and Experimental Music appears in August, I have been releasing a few select experiments of my own in electronic sound. This episode is loosely connected to the book. I put together a series of sound experiments using AudioMulch and source material from the famous Stockhausen lectures in the early 1970s. This is one of the experiments. This piece is called EcoStockhausen. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
- 5 days ago31 min
Cybelle
Welcome to the podcast and thanks for listening. As I prepare a large batch of episodes to drop when the revision of my book Electronic and Experimental Music appears in August, I thought why not release a few additional episodes that have nothing to do with the book. I have a fairly large vault of original electronic works and figured that this might be a good time to share a smidgen of it. Each of these works comes from a place of experimentation. Most include vintage recordings as part of their overall texture. Many include original electronic sounds that I’ve composed for this purpose. In this episode, we will hear Cybelle. I will let the music speak for itself. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
- 1 weeks ago17 min
Clouds
Welcome to the podcast and thanks for listening. As I prepare a large batch of episodes to drop when the revision of my book Electronic and Experimental Music appears in August, I thought why not release a few additional episodes that have nothing to do with the book. I have a fairly large vault of original electronic works and figured that this might be a good time to share a smidgen of it. Each of these works comes from a place of experimentation. Most include vintage recordings as part of their overall texture. Many include original electronic sounds that I’ve composed for this purpose. In this episode, we will hear Clouds. I will let the music speak for itself. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
- 1 weeks ago19 min
Frizzle
Welcome to the podcast and thanks for listening. As I prepare a large batch of episodes to drop when the revision of my book Electronic and Experimental Music appears in August, I thought why not release a few additional episodes that have nothing to do with the book. I have a fairly large vault of original electronic works and figured that this might be a good time to share a smidgen of it. Each of these works comes from a place of experimentation. Most include vintage recordings as part of their overall texture. Many include original electronic sounds that I’ve composed for this purpose. In this episode, we will hear Frizzle. I will let the music speak for itself. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
- 2 weeks ago20 min
Elite Beats
Welcome to the podcast and thanks for listening. As I prepare a large batch of episodes to drop when the revision of my book Electronic and Experimental Music appears in August, I thought why not release a few additional episodes that have nothing to do with the book. I have a fairly large vault of original electronic works and figured that this might be a good time to share a smidgen of it. Each of these works comes from a place of experimentation. Most include vintage recordings as part of their overall texture. Many include original electronic sounds that I’ve composed for this purpose. In this episode, we will hear Elite Beats. I will let the music speak for itself. Thanks for listening and see you next time.
- Jan 9, 20261h 59m
The BBC Shipping Forecast Soundscape, No. 2, for 2026
Episode 183 The BBC Shipping Forecast Soundscape, No. 2, for 2026 Playlist This soundscape consists of selections of BBC Shipping Forecasts from the past two years, bits of other broadcasts from the BBC and others, plus electronic sounds and audio treatments that I’ve created. BBC Shipping Forecasts are ©copyright BBC and located at the BBC Radio 4 Website. Here is a rundown of the various recordings I’ve included in this version of the soundscape: BBC Shipping Forecasts—Individual episodes featuring both men and women readers. The final section of the podcast includes an elaborate five-track remix of five female readers (and one male), stuttered and jogged in various patterns to create a soothing, if nonsensical conclusion to this edition. These forecasts are from 2024-25. BBC World Service Annual Antarctic Midwinter Broadcast: June 21, 2024 Jane Barbe voice clips from the archives of AT&T. Barbe was the “voice of the operator” during much of the 1960s and 1970s. Miscellaneous Shortwave Broadcasts—These were retrieved from the wonderful The Shortwave Radio Audio Archive, which I highly recommend. Radio Canada Shortwave Club (1973). Radio+Gjirokaster (Albania) (1988). Shortwave Stations Eastern Europe (circa 1980s). Shortwave Stations Western Europe (circa 1980s). Voice of America (Skylab Re-entry Coverage)--July 11, 1979. Republic of Yemen Radio--February 15/April 9, 2025. Short clips from Seoul, South Korea, Japan, and the Voice of Armenia. Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz. Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes. See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation. For additional notes, please see my blog, Noise and Notations. Links for The BBC Shipping Forecast: Website from BBC Radio 4 for clips of The Shipping Forecast. From the BBC: What does the Shipping Forecast Mean? Script Guidelines for the Shipping Forecast from the Met Office
- Dec 5, 20251h 43m
Merry Moog 2025 A Soundscape of Vintage Holiday Synthesizer Music
Episode 182 Merry Moog 2025 A Soundscape of Vintage Holiday Synthesizer Music Thanks for your patience while I’ve been producing podcast episodes for my book, the seventh edition of which will be released next year. I produced 62 of them and it diverted me from the regular episodes. However, a friend asked me if I was preparing the holiday episode and that’s exactly what I’ve done. This is my annual holiday podcast. The purpose of which is to play synthesizer-based holiday tunes from the ages—from 1967 to the present day. This edition will be a little different than previous holiday episodes. Rather than play a set of individual, synthesizer-based tunes on the holiday theme, I decided to put together a soundscape that integrates the holiday music, mostly in short excerpts and mixed in various ways, along with an audio environment made up of shortwave radio sounds and broadcasts. There is something about the global appeal of holiday music that fits with the theme of universal shortwave sounds, sounds that know no borders. If you listen carefully, you will hear many of the holiday tunes that I usually stack up in these editions. I try to garner the most representative themes from each yet provide a soundscape that you can sit back and relax to while doing other things this holiday season. There are literally dozens of tracks represented in this episode, each with its own distinctive sound imprint. Jean Jacques Perrey, Douglas Leedy, Hans Wurman, Joseph Byrd, The Moog Machine, Emerson Lake and Palmer, Greg Lake, Taeko Onuki, the Joy Electric, Bernie Krause, The Star Wars Christmas album, The Smurfs Christmas album, the Romantic Synthesizer, Armen Ra, Don Voegeli, The Roots, and Paul Tanner. Among others. I also threw in a decidedly not electronic track by Ron Sexsmith, one of my favorite songwriters. It is lurking the mix, too. So have a happy holiday and I wish you healthy and wondrous listening for the new year. Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz. Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes. My Books/eBooks: Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, Routledge 2020. Also, Sound Art: Concepts and Practices, first edition, Routledge 2022. See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation. For a transcript, please see my blog, Noise and Notations. Original music by Thom Holmes can be found on iTunes and Bandcamp.
- Sep 29, 20251h 31m
Artificial Intelligence and Electronic Music
Episode 181 Artificial Intelligence and Electronic Music Playlist Time Track Time Start Introduction 05:42 00.00 1. Cornelius Cardew, “Treatise: String Orchestra (2025). The first of three AI interpretations of a piece by Cardew composed between 1963 and 1967. The work was written as a graphic score. Produced by the team of Professor Shlomo Dubnov of the University of California at San Diego, they used as the basis for an improvisation Cardew’s graphical musical score comprising 193 pages of lines, symbols, and various geometric or abstract shapes that largely stray from conventional musical notation (pages 1 to 33 were used). The recordings from Dubnov’s team interpreted this graphic score with the help of Open AI’s ChatGPT 40 and a program they developed themselves called Music Latent Diffusion Model (MusicLDM), an AI-like algorithm. The recordings show how AI can transform visual stimuli into sound and expand on their interpretation in an experimental music composition. This version is arranged for digital string orchestra. 11:23 05:54 2. Cornelius Cardew, “Treatise” Sinewave” (2025). This version from Dubrov’s lab was arranged for sinewave generator. 11:15 17:10 3. Cornelius Cardew, “Treatise: Experimental” (2025). This version from Dubrov’s lab was arranged for a mix of instruments defined as “experimental” by the team. 11:32 28:24 4. Valérie Philippin, “Extraits de recherche” (2024). Vocal interaction experiment conducted with vocalist Valérie Philippin while she was in artistic residence at European Research Council REACH project (ERC) at IRCAM. AI interaction in real-time using the Somax2 program. Voice: Valérie Philippin, Somax2 & electronics: Mikhail Malt. 03:52 39:48 5. Horse Lords and The Who/Men, “Zero Degree Machine” (2023). Horse Lords Concert at ERC REACH. Music using Somax2 to interact with the performers and add new parts and instruments in real time. If you hear something other than a guitar, drums, bass, and sax, then it was created by Somax2. You might detect loops of instruments (e.g., saxophone) as well because Somax2 adds to the mix. Horse Lords (Max Eilbacher bass/electronics, Sam Haberman percussion, Owen Gardner guitar, Andrew Bernstein percussion/saxophone). The Who/Men: Gérard Assayag, Mikhail Malt, Reach interactive AI: Somax2; Marco Fiorini, Reach interactive AI: Somax2 and electric guitar; Manuel Poletti, computer music production at IRCAM). The Who/Men are providing guidance for Somax2 in real-time, operating different instances of the program on their laptops. 18:45 43:42 6. PintoCreation “AI-generated Sci-Fi Sci-Fi and Visual Storytelling” (2025). This is just an example of how task-specific AI is being used to generate videos with electronic music soundtracks. This is an excerpt from one of the soundtracks for the many videos they have generated for their YouTube channel. 07:54 01:02:26 7. Artificial Intelligence Music, “Melodic Techno” (2025). Excerpt of AI-generated techno music found on this YouTube site. They explain that the music found here “was composed by an AI, meticulously trained on the nuances of this captivating genre.’ I have no idea what AI engine was used, but this is just one example of how many music producers are getting onto the AI train. 06:51 01:10:17 8. Atmoscapia, “Calm Ambient” (2025). This is a purpose-built generative ambient music creator for “Films, Games, YouTube, and Creative Projects.” Billed as an “Instant Ambient Music Generator For Content Creators,” you use it by selecting styles and lengths up to an hour long. In this case, I chose the style “Calm, Meditative, Dreamy.” Two other categories are also provided for “Cinematic, Dramatic, Emotional” and “Dark, Horror, Suspense.” Those are the extent of the current choices in the free version. It delivers a soundtrack that you can download. 10:00 01:17:08 9. Thom Holmes, “Thom DeepAI Noise Music” (2025). In an attempt to generate something more experimental using an AI system, I turned to DeepAI and gave it the following instructions: “Experimental, noise sounds. No melody, no harmony, no rhythm. Randomized intervals of silence. Randomized mood swings.” It was short as I was not using the premium version, but it came closer than some other AI programs to creating a work that was more closely aligned with
About The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music
Thom Holmes is your curator and guide to vintage electronic music recordings and audio experimentation. Drawing from his collection of vintage electronic music recordings spanning the years 1915-1985, each episode explores a topic or theme of historical interest. Holmes is the author of the book, Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, 2020.
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