Intentional Listening Event Taps Into Bob Moog’s Passion for Community Through Music
The sophomore An Evening With An Album, to be held on November 14th in Asheville, NC on the campus of The Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village, will explore the entirety of OK Computer by indie rock band Radiohead, with proceeds benefitting the Bob Moog Foundation. An Evening with an Album was created by a group of local audiophiles who share an interest in creating community through intentional listening to selected albums that are artistically and culturally significant. OK Computer,Radioheads third album released in 1997, is a musically dense alternative-rock commentary on the paradox of being plugged in while also feeling profoundly disconnected.
What: An Evening with An Album – Listening and discussion of Radiohead’s OK Computer.
When: November 14th, 2013 @ 6pm
Where: Zabriskie Hall on the campus of The Cathedral of All Souls in Biltmore Village
What else: Sound and vinyl will be provided by Stewart Sound. Beer, wine and light fare served.
How much: A suggested donation of $10 per person will benefit the projects of the Bob Moog Foundation, a local non-profit created to carry the inventors legacy forward to future generations.
Whether intended or not, Radiohead connected people through the albums dystopian message and sound. OK Computer became a catalyst for forming community around an ethos that resonated with many listeners. Many people can tell you where they were when they first heard the bassline of the opening track or what they felt the first time they heard the albums closing phrase, Idiot, slow down, and that final ring of that small bell, says George Sieburg of An Evening with an Album. Radioheads lead singer Thom Yorke has said that what impressed him about the albums sharing among listeners was the fact that people got all the things, all the textures and the sounds and the atmospheres we were trying to create.
While the albums instrumentation is largely guitar-centered, the band used electronic effects to create unique layers of sound, and OK Computer can be seen as a bridge between the guitar rock of Radioheads early years and the expansive electronic landscapes of their subsequent albums. Because Radiohead embraced electronic sound and processing as a medium for pushing musical and societal boundaries, the organizers of An Evening With an Album felt it was fitting to honor the legacy of synthesizer pioneer Bob Moog through the event. Moog, a resident of Asheville for 25 years, recognized that his creations made it easier for individuals to create electronic music, but he also championed music as a force that brings people together in community:
While the synthesizer has made it easier to create music even simulate an entire orchestra on the desktop, music, especially mainstream pop music, will continue to become more a craft that is practiced by one person at a time offline in a studio, and less a real-time group activity (i.e. live performance). If that happens, then I believe that we will have lost a valuable cultural resource. We need lots more activities that bring people together, not isolate them. Bob Moog, February 2002
An Evening With an Album, though in its infancy, strives to become a force that brings people together through musical exploration. It will be a monthly event that features a different album each month, and benefits a different local non-profit each month.