People

Associate Professor of Music, CUNY GC
(recording studio gear, modular synthesis)

Eliot Bates, Director of the Ethnomusicology program at The CUNY Graduate Center, is an ethnographer who researches the interface between people and sound/music technologies—including their design, materiality, instrumentality, and cultural milieux. From 2004-16 they researched these within Istanbul’s recording studios, instrument-building factories and music industries. Since 2013, their work has broadened to consider European and North American gear cultures, currently focused on finishing two books examining 21st century modular synthesis gear cultures. Eliot is active in studio-based creative work, whether collaborative recordings featuring the oud, or makam-based electronic music as the artist Makamqore. They have contributed, as either performer, composer, or recordist, to more than 90 albums produced in the US, UK, Turkey and Italy.

Professor of Music, Australian National University
(recording studio gear, audio secrets, Fairlight)

Samantha Bennett is Professor of Music in the College of Arts at Australian National University, and Chair of the International Association for the Study of Popular Music (IASPM). She is editor and advisory board member for Bloomsbury’s 33 1/3 series, and editor of the Cambridge Elements in Popular Music Series (Cambridge University Press). She is a specialist in music technologies and praxes, sound recording, and the analysis of technological and production aesthetics in recorded popular music. Her monograph Secrets and Revelation in Music and Audio Technology Cultures is forthcoming with Cambridge University Press, and she is currently working on a multi-year study of Australia’s Fairlight CMI.