Portrait of an Electronic Music Pioneer‘, a film made by north American electronic music obsessives Waveshaper Media is being premiered in Toronto this weekend (26 October, 2023). The film explores the life of electronic music pioneer Morton Subotnick.  At 90 years of age, he has become a cult figure for a whole new generation that have come to recognize him as “The Father of Techno”.  Featuring live performances captured in surround sound and augmented with innovative liquid-light psychedelic effects, Subotnick is a multimedia experience that highlights and celebrates one of the world’s most influential living composers.

About the film:

Through a series of candid interviews and illuminating conversations with key figures from his past and present, Subotnick provides an overview of this fascinating composer’s rich life and uncompromising career.

Over 5 years in the making, Subotnick is a first-hand account, and an artistic portrait, of this seminal composer, whose approach to art, and outlook on life, reveal a unique thinker with a fiercely individualist streak.

The film narrative moves along two parallel lines; exploring a year in his life as he creates and shapes the multi-media chamber opera “Crowds and Power,” while simultaneously exploring his past — going back in time to his days as a child prodigy on the clarinet, his disastrous stint in the army during the Korean War, founding the San Francisco Tape Music Center, and culminating in his breakthrough recording of b, the world’s first electronic music composition specifically created for the record medium.

Featuring several live performances from around the globe, captured in glorious surround sound, and augmented with innovative liquid-light psychedelic effects, Subotnick is a multimedia experience that highlights and celebrates one of the world’s most influential living composers.