Editor’s note: The banner image above shows legendary experimental musician Bruce Haack (right) with long-time collaborator and friend Ted Pandel (left) , circa 1985. Image courtesy of the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
The Provincial Archives of Alberta also invites you to an evening devoted to electronic music pioneer Bruce Haack at the TELUS World of Science – Edmonton, Zeidler Dome for a screening of the 2004 documentary Haack: The King of Techno followed by a lightshow performance set to Haack’s landmark album The Electric Lucifer. The event takes place on Friday, September 29. Doors at 6:30 p.m., show at 7 p.m. The event is free, seating is first come, first served.
Written by: Jared Majeski (Editor, RETROactive) and Braden Cannon (Private Records Archivist, Provincial Archives of Alberta [PAA])
After creating some of the most spaced-out, light years-ahead-of-its-time experimental electronic music, the renaissance of Albertan Bruce Haack continues apace. His music has been reissued by record labels around the world (including Toronto’s own Telephone Explosion Records), he was the subject of the 2004 documentary Haack: The King of Techno and now, some of his most treasured possessions have been made available at the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
Bruce Haack, from the Rocky Mountain House area, was born in 1931 and displayed music talent from an early age. He attended the University of Alberta before being accepted into the Julliard School in New York City to study music. After a year, he dropped out to explore his own, unique ideas in music. He had an early interest in electronic music and began to design and build his own electronic instruments and voice modulators. Together with Ted Pandel, a pianist whom he met at Julliard, Haack supported himself with songwriting gigs for record labels and advertising firms. He eventually met Esther Nelson, a children’s dance instructor, and collaborated with her on a series of children’s records using Haack’s electronic instruments and his increasingly experimental arrangements. Haack gained further attention through appearances on “The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson” and “Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood” where he would demonstrate his inventions such as a synthesizer that would emit sound through touch.
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