Wendy Carlos

Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos—see Personal life section below—November 14, 1939 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island) is an American composer and electronic musician. Carlos was one of the first famous performers of elec

Wendy Carlos (born Walter Carlos—see Personal life section below—November 14, 1939 in Pawtucket, Rhode Island) is an American composer and electronic musician. Carlos was one of the first famous performers of electronic music using synthesizers.

Switched-On Bach was perhaps the first album to attempt the use of synthesizers as an alternative to an orchestra. Having assisted Robert Moog in the development of his first commercially available synthesizers, Carlos helped pioneer the technology, which was significantly more complex and difficult to use than it is today. Multitrack recording techniques played a critical role in the time-consuming process of creating this album. On its release, Switched-On Bach became the best-selling classical album of all time, and the first to go platinum. A sequel of additional synthesized baroque music, The Well-Tempered Synthesizer followed in 1969. (Its title is a play on Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier".) While it sold well, it did not achieve the near-legendary status that Switched-On Bach did. For listeners new to synthesized music The Well-Tempered Synthesizer is more recommended since it contains a wider variety of synthesizer sound. These first albums were a crucial source of inspiration for Japanese composer Isao Tomita, who later recorded and released his own interpretations of numerous classical works performed with synthesizers.