The happy moog sound of Dana Countryman harks back to the novelty electronic records of the sixties and seventies; the first popular synthesizer songs.
As a teenager in Washington Countryman made 8mm films and had an obsession with songwriting, sparked when at 16 he heard the moog LPs
The Amazing New Electronic Pop Sound of Jean-Jacques Perrey and
The Electric Eclectics of Dick Hyman. His songwriting, bass and comedic talents were put to good use in a series of seventies and eighties bands and cabaret acts (Sparklers, Swingaires, The Amazing Pink Things).
For seven years, Countryman was the editor and publisher of Cool and Strange Music magazine, but is now devoted to synthesizers full-time - working on an old-school Moog style record using a custom built modular synth and a vintage Ondioline. The album,
Moog-Tastic! features weird retro-futuristic sounds and wacky titles like
Ragtime For Robots, and
Gravity Free Bop, evoking the space-pop aesthetic of Perrey and Kingsley.
Countryman is also a recent collaborator of
Jean-Jacques Perry, recording a new CD entitled
The Happy Electropop Music Machine with the synthesizer pioneer. He is also writing Perrey’s biography.
>www.danacountryman.com
Appearances:
> CTM.06
