The Rythym of Big Generators
Directed by Lisa Rovner
Narrated by Laurie Anderson
Released October 17th, 2020
Unrated
Lisa Rovner’s debut documentary Sisters with Transistors examines the impact women have had on electronic music, going as far back as the 1930s. Through rarely seen archival footage of interviews and performances, Rovner makes the case that these women were drawn to electronic music because as a genre it was dismissed and undervalued, not unlike the women themselves. Sisters with Transistors highlights women from around the world defying convention and following their creative impulses. Outsiders making outsider art.
The film details how the mundane sounds of everyday life, as well as the extreme sounds of war, both influenced the ambient music the artists would create. It’s fascinating seeing music loops being created long before computer technology came along, with the women using early synthesizers, reel to reel machines, and the theremin.
Among the highlights of the film include the story of Bebe and Louis Barron’s music for 1958’s Forbidden Planet, which was the first film with an all-electronic score. Instead of being celebrated for their work, their music was not even categorized as such, credited on the film as “electronic tonalities” because the musician’s union was frightened of machines replacing composers! Sadly, they never composed music for another film.
Delia Derbyshire implemented laborious measures in realizing the iconic theme for the classic BBC television series Doctor Who. Composed by Ron Grainer, Derbyshire’s arrangement used test-tone oscillators, white noise, and other sounds slowed down, sped up, and all spliced together from analogue tapes. The result didn’t sound like anything else on television at the time and became a smashing success on radio, helping to change popular opinion toward electronic music. Due to a BBC policy on co-composers, Derbyshire wouldn’t receive an on-screen credit for her work until 2013, on a 50th anniversary Doctor Who special.
The legendary Wendy Carlos created the first hit album for electronic music, with Switched-On Bach, her recontextualizing of classical music through then-cutting-edge 1968 technology and sounds. Unfortunately, the documentary doesn’t spend much time examining Carlos’ life or her important work on the soundtracks for A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, and Tron.
A mostly black and white film, the imagery on screen is never boring, playing like an experimental music video you’d come across switching channels while chilling out at three o’clock in the morning. Laurie Anderson’s narration is sparse, with the film preferring to let the subjects speak for themselves, through video clips that span ninety years. Though it doesn’t have much of a conclusion (it just kind of ends), Sisters with Transistors is a documentary well worth watching to learn about these unsung heroines who explored uncharted territories in music. The special features on the Kino Lorber DVD release include two featurettes, the theatrical trailer, and a Q&A with director Lisa Rovner.
