“Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do”, and so was I one procrastinatory afternoon suffering from a bout of graphic design exhaustion I wondered onto YouTube and found me a rabbit and followed it into a rabbit hole. One that would lead me to a leaning tower, a treasure cave and an investment that has denied me of a peaceful night’s sleep ever since. My rabbit was Bootsy Collins and this video discussed in our post HERE.
A brilliant video made by our friends at Reverb. One where unexpectedly Bootsy revealed the presence (in his Boot Cave) of the rig of the now deceased Bernie Worrell. Keyboard trailblaiser and unsung hero of Parliament, Funkadelic and Bootsy’s Rubber Band. Also, personal hero of mine. He had put the “delic” in the funk, had made the motherships, platform heels and mirrored sunglasses come to life in dreamt-up soundscapes of an outer space as told by a squadron of funkateers. My rabbit led me through the bat cave and into an investigation of the key ingredient to his sound. His strings. Turns out the Solina Strings Ensemble (SE-IV) marketed under the “Arp” logo in the United States, was the go to. With further investigation and indulgent level of listening to music from the late 70’s and early 80’s I was astounded by it’s omnipotence considering it’s lack of “household name” status. It dominated UK synth pop, and was all over film and TV of the era not least as the front and central character in Vangelis’ seminal score for Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982).
The rabbit hole, as it so often does led to enquiring how much these things fetch these days and compared to the Jupiters, the Putneys and Moogs was surprisingly affordable. Of the many available I found one that was shipping out of Italy, a distributor I hadn’t heard of, and with further investigation (as the Rabbit demanded) quite a collection of vintage-ware that justified visiting in-person (it’s all about the content baby). So I invited myself out, and the trip proved more fruitful, eye-popping, jaw dropping and wallet ruining than I had ever imagined.
Visit Organ Studio Italia HERE, but don’t tell your family I told you about it, this one is on you.