Dekmantel Podcast 250 - Suzanne Ciani

To pick up five Grammy award nominations means you're pretty special, and American composer, electronic pioneer and neo-classical recording artist Suzanne Ciani is just that. In her early days she got pure magic out of the brand new Buchla synth that immediately set her apart and earned her the title of "America's first female synth hero". With a wealth of studio and live albums under her belt and new - as well as old but previously unreleased - ones coming as regularly as ever, she continues to be a pioneer more than forty years after first emerging. Ciani describes this mix less than one of her live sets and more like something for "a social gathering of friends and acquaintances for lunch or dinner." It draws on music from friends she admires and has worked with after meeting on tour around the world and kicks off with her latest archival release on Finders Keepers. The last track is "an old perennial favourite that still makes me cry a bit" and in between is an hour of glistening electronics, suspensory ambient and contemporary piano and percussion that lift your spirits in that way that beautiful music so often does.