I first heard of Wendy Carlos more as a legend than an artist. I was too young to witness firsthand the impact of Switched-on Bach, the album that formally introduced synthesizers to the world. I came to her music through her later collaborations with Stanley Kubrick on A Clockwork Orange and The Shining.1 The two working together seems somehow inevitable: Both were perfectionists, poring over every detail. Carlos was born in Rhode Island in 1939. Her musical education began at the age of six, practicing on a drawing of a keyboard, and ended with a master’s degree in composing electronic music at Columbia University. In the 1960s, she provided important feedback on the first commercial synthesizers to be developed, pushing Bob Moog to revise and refine his devices. She convinced the world that this odd new instrument wasn’t just worth paying attention to, but that it This story is from Kinfolk Issue Forty Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 47 Alice Sheppard On dance as a channel to commune with the body—even when it hurts. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Dr. Woo Meet the tattoo artist who's inked LA. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Walt Odets The author and clinical psychologist on why self-acceptance is the key to a gay man's well-being. Arts & Culture Fashion Issue 47 A Picture of Health Xiaopeng Yuan photographs the world’s weirdest wellness cures. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Chani Nicholas and Sonya Passi Inside the astrology company on a mission to prove workplace well-being is more than a corporate tagline. Arts & Culture Issue 47 Julia Bainbridge On the life-enhancing potential of not drinking alcohol.
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