Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel

[Brad Bechtel]

https://www.duetonline.net/

Duet for Theremin and Lap Steel is:

Scott Burland: Theremin
Frank Schultz: Lap Steel guitar


"The name of this Atlanta duo implies a proper classical recital, a rigid formality. But Scott Burland (theremin) and Frank Schultz (lap steel) don't do scripted, improvising not so much distinct sounds as evolving eddies of sound, vapors of tones that develop and transform gracefully. Hypnotic pulses and dreamy drones weave together to form a kaleidoscope of sounds and moods, ambient clouds and swooning collages that are as much about texture as they are timbre, like a long-lost soundtrack to a deep-sea documentary." -P. Wall, Columbia Free Times

[David Ball]

Among the other skeletons in my closet is having designed and built vacuum tube theremins back in the 80s and 90s. Bob Moog, of synthesizer fame, but who started his electronic music career building theremins, gave me a really hard time about concentrating on vacuum tube instruments (which still are the only ones that really sound right to my ear) while he was in to MIDI. I think he still was kind of excited to see a younger generation (OK, I was in my late forties or early fifties at the time) launching into things that had gotten him started earlier.

But, using a Moog designed solid state theremin, I played duets for hours with a musical saw player (who was absolutely phenomenal) at the Galax Virginia fiddlers convention one year. To get the theremin to work right off of batteries instead of AC power, I had to use a tent stake to provide some kind of ground reference. We were something of a hit for whatever reason.

Anyway, good to see theremin and steel stuff going on!

Dave

[Geoff Cline]

Thanks for posting! Glad to know this exists and where to find it.

[Bill Sinclair]

I like it. I couldn't always tell which was the lap steel and which was the Theramin since they have very similar sonic qualities. From the pictures on their website, it looks like he plays an old Valco Airline Rocket most of the time.

[Michael Johnstone]

Two - count 'em - two manually operated pitch approximators.

[Larry Carlson]

Two - count 'em - two manually operated pitch approximators.

OK, now that right there is funny......

[Tim Whitlock]

Pretty cool! Very reminiscent of Wendy Carlos's "Sonic Seasonings". At San Francisco's Museum of Science I had the pleasure of playing a 1930's RCA theremin. I spent a good couple of hours with it. It's pretty intoxicating. I agree with David Ball that tubes help warm up the sound.

[Ian McLatchie]

I was interested to see this topic posted. For the sort of ambient music Burland and Schultz play lap steel and Theremin work well together but, in my experience, they can be a challenging combination. Years ago in Toronto, a singer-songwriter friend asked me join her group on a club date. She’s a great performer and was always a pleasure to play with, but her unusual chord progressions and idiosyncratic timing sometimes made sitting in a bit of an adventure, too. On the night in question she showed up a few minutes before the show with another musician she’d met that afternoon - a Theremin player. I remember he and I gave each other a “Well, this should be interesting” look before we took the stage. For good measure, the set kicked off with a tune Erika had just written that no one in the band had heard. Without much sense of what our role should be, the Thereminist(?) and I both resorted to the sorts of fills we were used to doing on our own - quite similar, it turned out. The sound of the two manually operated pitch approximators wavering around the same notes was like something out of Gavin Bryars’ “The Sinking of the Titanic.” I can’t remember if we even made it through the first song before Erika said “This isn’t working” and we did a restart. After that I mostly stuck to simple bass coloration (I was tuned to open E, fortunately) and left the melodic fills to the Theremin and guitar. It ended up being a pretty good set but I have to say that on the whole steel and Theremin isn’t a combo I’ve felt much desire to revisit.