After Maryanne Amacher

The documentary Sisters with Transistors could not be more clearly presented: “The history of women has been a history of silence. Music is no exception”. In a world in which technology is associated with men, women in electronic music have been doubly silenced. The documentary reveals that, in this case, it is not just yet another example of women being overlooked, because many of them were actual pioneers in bridging the gap between technology and sound. Hence, failure to acknowledge them is tantamount to overlooking the origins of this genre. Thomas Ankersmit dedicates Perceptual Geography to Maryanne Amacher, not so much by way of a tribute but as an expression of her influence. They both coincided in New York in the year 2000 and they remained in contact until the artist’s death in 2009. The piece was composed for a Serge analogue modular synthesiser, developed by Serge Tcherepnin (together with Rich Gold and Randy Cohen) in late 1972. The piece seeks to generate otoacoustic emissions; that is, a reaction by the cochlea to certain sounds so that we hear more things than the sounds that are really being produced. Maria W Horn’s compositions (1989) are based on minimalist structures and her music explores the spectral properties of sound, using generative and algorithmic processes to control tuning and timbre.