Design Set to Music
If, as Goethe said, architecture is frozen music, then what are pop songs about modern architecture? The recent work of a few indie bands seeks to answer just that question.
Be they the RISD-schooled Talking Heads, the Gropius-loving Bauhaus, or Joy Division/New Order’s iconic Peter Saville album covers, designers have long left their marks on pop music.
On the new album from the lounge-style Satellite City, the modern architecture of Cincinnati takes center stage. The album, Cincinnati Modern, offers up track titles such as “The Boulter House” (a Frank Lloyd-Wright residence), “The Vontz Center for Molecular Studies” (a Frank Gehry), and “Song for Charley Harper” (a Dwell-beloved graphic artist), suggesting that “The Queen City” deserves credit for more than just William Howard Taft and the Ickey Shuffle. Equal parts smooth jazz and Space Age electro, the mellow grooves are like a hazy trip back to the Womb Chair.
For those longing for a rougher, more northerly design-inspired sound, Ontario’s indie rockers The Vulcan Dub Squad released their Expo 67-inspired album, The New Designers, (with a snap of Montreal's famous Habitat 67 on the cover) in April.
Fellow Canucks Quebec Connection, a Montreal-based outfit with a penchant for analogue synthesizers and fuzzy baselines, celebrated Montreal’s moment in the international sun in 2004 with their own Expo 67 album, Bonjour Electro.
Here’s to hoping a French electro-duo takes up the works of Le Corbusier sometime soon.
Be they the RISD-schooled Talking Heads, the Gropius-loving Bauhaus, or Joy Division/New Order’s iconic Peter Saville album covers, designers have long left their marks on pop music.
On the new album from the lounge-style Satellite City, the modern architecture of Cincinnati takes center stage. The album, Cincinnati Modern, offers up track titles such as “The Boulter House” (a Frank Lloyd-Wright residence), “The Vontz Center for Molecular Studies” (a Frank Gehry), and “Song for Charley Harper” (a Dwell-beloved graphic artist), suggesting that “The Queen City” deserves credit for more than just William Howard Taft and the Ickey Shuffle. Equal parts smooth jazz and Space Age electro, the mellow grooves are like a hazy trip back to the Womb Chair.
For those longing for a rougher, more northerly design-inspired sound, Ontario’s indie rockers The Vulcan Dub Squad released their Expo 67-inspired album, The New Designers, (with a snap of Montreal's famous Habitat 67 on the cover) in April.
Fellow Canucks Quebec Connection, a Montreal-based outfit with a penchant for analogue synthesizers and fuzzy baselines, celebrated Montreal’s moment in the international sun in 2004 with their own Expo 67 album, Bonjour Electro.
Here’s to hoping a French electro-duo takes up the works of Le Corbusier sometime soon.
Posted by: Aaron Britt on Aug 9, 07 at 06:00 PM PDT
I know you are so proud of Tony. We are too. Thanks for sharing this with us. Elma
Posted by elma whitaker on 08/10/07 08:03PM PDT
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