Video History Project

People

Charles Cohen

This Philadelphia-based composer is known primarily through his live synthesizer performances on classic Buchla equipment, his scores for dance and theatre, and musical collaborations. Like many other composer-performers, Cohen prefers live performance as the true musical experience, and rarely records or promotes "product" of his work (among musicians, this is of course another one of life's neverending discussions). However, there is some hard evidence (friendly joke) of Cohen's activity with other musicians: (1) two or three years of collaborations with video artist Eric Schefter, performances and studio work, are distilled on a video tape that is available by special order through the Internet: http://www.el.net/luminists/.

The Luminists worked in residence at the Experimental Television Center. (2) And his work can be heard prominently on several cuts with the West Philadelphia group Bastard Finders ("Bastard Finders" and "Got One" both 1990 with selections like "Maga' " and "I'm making a trip to reality, can I get you anything") available from Branzstuff Music, which can be also ordered through the Internet: https://web.superb.net/barnz/pages/bfbio.html. ~ "Blue" Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide. http://www.voicenet.com/~ccohen/.

Cite this record

"Charles Cohen." Video History Project, Experimental Television Center, 2011. https://www.videohistoryproject.org/charles-cohen.

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Summary

Charles Cohen is a Philadelphia-based composer known for live synthesizer performances on classic Buchla equipment and for scores for dance and theatre; he prefers live performance and rarely records or markets his work. He collaborated for two or three years with video artist Eric Schefter on performances and studio work, distilled on a videotape available by special order via http://www.el.net/luminists/; the Luminists worked in residence at the Experimental Television Center. His playing appears on cuts by the West Philadelphia group Bastard Finders (1990 releases Bastard Finders and Got One) available from Branzstuff Music via http://web.superb.net/barnz/pages/bfbio.html; a personal site is listed at http://www.voicenet.com/~ccohen/; attribution given to Blue Gene Tyranny, All Music Guide.

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Last modified 17 June 2011

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