{"id":117102,"date":"2025-08-28T16:51:14","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T20:51:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=117102"},"modified":"2025-08-29T08:00:01","modified_gmt":"2025-08-29T12:00:01","slug":"interview-canadian-composer-gayle-young-american-synth-specialist-robert-wheeler-grimsby-milan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2025\/08\/28\/interview-canadian-composer-gayle-young-american-synth-specialist-robert-wheeler-grimsby-milan\/","title":{"rendered":"INTERVIEW | Canadian Composer Gayle Young & American Synth Specialist Robert Wheeler: From Grimsby To Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"L-R:
L-R: Canadian composer, bespoke instrument builder, and sound artist Gayle Young (Photo: Reinhard Reitzenstein); Keyboardist Robert Wheeler (Photo: Robert Allen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Canadian composer, instrument inventor, and performer Gayle Young, and Robert Wheeler, known for his synthesizer work with American experimental rock band Pere Ubu, have teamed up for a new release. The album From Grimsby To Milan was recorded at legendary Grant Avenue Studios in Hamilton, Ontario, and features textural, exploratory music.<\/p>\n

Young plays a microtonal zither she\u2019s called the Amaranth, and Wheeler an EML Electrocomp 101 synthesizer. The album\u2019s name comes from Grimsby, Ontario, where Gayle is now based, and Milan, Ohio, where inventor Thomas Alva Edison was born, and the release will be officially launched September 3.<\/p>\n

Gayle Young & Robert Wheeler<\/h2>\n

Young has been associated with contemporary classical music, microntonality, and inventing both instruments and notation systems, while Wheeler is known for his expertise with electronic music, and keyboards in particular. Pere Ubu, founded in Cleveland in 1975, pioneered a distinctive and inventive sound which they\u2019ve dubbed avant-garage, and incorporating performance art and other elements in their music. They have a significant underground fandom, and have influenced many bands that have come after them.<\/p>\n

The Young and Wheeler performed together in the summer of 2008 as part of a live performance and recording of John Cage and Lejaren Hiller’s HPSCHD at the Ontario College of Art & Design. It was an auspicious occasion. The performers that day also included Casey Sokol, founding member of Canadian free improvisation group CCMC, Eve Egoyan, George Boski, Gregory Oh, Marc Couroux, Tania Gill, and American electronic music composer and author Joel Chadabe.<\/p>\n

Wheeler processed Young’s Clavinet through a Moog modular, and it was the beginning of a musical and artistic friendship.<\/p>\n

The Interview<\/h2>\n

The album is a culmination of an ongoing relationship, and a mutual dedication to musical experimentation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat sounds correct,\u201d Wheeler says. \u201cWe have a common friend, [Toronto musician] William Blakeney, and he makes things happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s acting a bit like an artistic director in this case,\u201d Young adds.<\/p>\n

It was Blakeney, in fact, who produced the John Cage extravaganza at OCADU several years ago. The current album was co-produced by all three.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had a really good time have dinner together after all the recordings,\u201d She adds.<\/p>\n

Robert says that the album came together over three days spent in the studio, with the music composed\/improvised on the spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cI rely hugely on Robert’s playing for inspiration,\u201d Gayle says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I was relying on Gayle,\u201d Robert adds.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s clear the pair have an enviable working relationship.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that both Roert and I share a kind of perceptiveness about the nature of sound outside any [notion] of genre,\u201d Young says. When Wheeler plays a low frequency wave form, for example, she\u2019ll pick up on the rhythm in her own playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are many layers happening at the same time while we’re playing,\u201d she says. \u201cI came up with things I’ve never done before when I heard Robert playing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"L-R:
L-R: Canadian composer, bespoke instrument builder, and sound artist Gayle Young plays the Amaranth; Keyboardist Robert Wheeler (Photos: William Blakeney)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Experimental Music<\/h3>\n

Wheeler recalls that an album of the Azuma Kubuki Musicians was one of the first recordings he got from his parents as a child. He was struck by the music and its effect on him.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they are playing traditional Japanese instruments, but they’re bending the notes,\u201d he says. \u201cIt would paint pictures, and it would paint landscapes. I remember vividly the sounds.\u201d<\/p>\n

To his ear, it evoked the sounds of dawn in a jungle, where fleshy leaves are heavy with dew.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are the pictures i would get from the kabuki music,\u201d he says. Electronic music and its flexibility held an immediate appeal. \u201cI just ran to electronic music,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

It was that energy that took him to Pere Ubu, where he first played the theramin. \u201cWith Ubu we did a piece with clarinet and theramin,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

It led to experimenting with the instruments themselves. \u201cMy first theramin I built was backwards,\u201d he laughs. There wasn\u2019t much to go on in terms of reference material. \u201cThere was no internet. You had to find the right store with the right magazines. And the right record store.\u201d<\/p>\n

The search was rewarding. \u201cOnce you locked into things, a new world opened out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSome radio stations were very influential,\u201d Gayle notes of the 1970s. \u201cIt seems there was always a lot of experimentation.\u201d Much of that occurred in live performance rather than in recordings, though.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s really important,\u201d she says. \u201cSome musicians really feed off the audience.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her own passion for building instruments likewise stems from an experimental curiosity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI built a 24 string instrument because I used guitar strings,\u201d she relates. As she notes, guitar strings come in packages of six. \u201cThose are very practical decisions,\u201d she laughs.<\/p>\n

Asian stringed instruments became an inspiration, resulting in one of her inventions.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe strings are all 1000 mm long, and that’s because I was interested in proportional tuning,\u201d she explains.<\/p>\n

She invents the instruments using knowledge gleaned from all over the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not new technology,\u201d she says. It\u2019s more about putting various elements together in new ways.<\/p>\n