Around 1970, Annette Peacock was doing something with synthesizers that still feels surprisingly modern: using a Moog modular system to process her voice in real time.
The Bob Moog Foundation documents how Peacock and pianist Paul Bley toured Europe with an ARP synthesizer and Moog modules, with Peacock using the Moog specifically for vocal modification.
That is quite different from simply singing alongside a synthesizer.
Her voice itself entered the electronic system.
By the time I’m the One appeared in 1972, Peacock had developed a music in which jazz, electronics, rock, improvisation and manipulated vocals refused to settle into a comfortable category.
What interests me is how early this was.
Today a vocalist can open a laptop and choose from pitch correction, spectral processors, vocoders, formant shifting, granular effects and hundreds of plug-ins designed specifically for the voice.
Peacock was experimenting when electronic processing still meant understanding patch cables, oscillators and signal paths well enough to make the equipment cooperate.
The voice is usually treated as the most human element in a recording.
Peacock seems to have realised very early that this made it the perfect thing to make strange.
Electronic music history remembers many synthesizer players.
It should remember more clearly the people who asked what would happen if the synthesizer started playing the singer.
