Jean Jacques Perrey

Jean-Jacques Perrey was born in France in 1929. He was studying medecine in Paris when he met George Jenny, inventor of the Ondioline. Quitting medical school, Perrey travelled through Europe demonstrating this keyboard ancestor of the modern synth. At the age of 30, Perrey relocated to New York, sponsored by Caroll Bratman, who build him an experimental laboratory and recording studio. Here he invented "a new process for generating rhythms with sequences and loops", utilising the environmental sounds of musique concrète. With scissors, splicing tape & tape recorders, he spent weeks piecing together a uniquely comique take on the future. Befriending Robert Moog, he became one of the first Moog musicians, creating "far out electronic entertainment". In 1965 Perrey met Gershon Kingsley, a former accomplice to John Cage. Together, using Ondioline and Perrey's loops, they created two albums for Vanguard: The In Sound From Way Out (1966) and Kaleidoscopic Vibrations (1967). Perrey & Kingsley collaborated on sound design for radio and television advertising. Perrey returned to France, composing for television, scoring for ballet and continuing medical research into therapeutic sounds for insomniacs.