Are electronics dehumanizing music and art? Here’s what pioneering composer Karlheinz Stockhausen had to say on the matter back in 1972. Midway through, he riffs on the proto-human scene in 2001. For a nice point-of-entry into Stockhausen’s work, I suggest Kontakte (1959-1960), his first composition that melded traditional instrumentation with electronics, including a tape recording of treated percussion. You can hear some of it below. The classic 1960 performance of Kontakte by Christoph Caskel, David Tudor, Gottfried Michael Koenig, and Stockhausen in Köln, was just reissued on vinyl by the Doxy label, available from Forced Exposure.
