MY "AUTOBAHN" TO CREATIVITY

Which musical group had the most profound effect on you? For me, it was the German electronic music group Kraftwerk. Their early works inspired me to make my own electronic music.

A local radio announcer named Len Thuesen played the side-long version of "Autobahn<" in the spring of 1975. I immediately fell in love with the band's analogue synthesizer masterpiece. Sadly, the music store I visited had sold all their copies of Autobahn.

Two years later, I happened upon Kraftwerk's albums at the music store. I purchased Radio Activity as well as Ralf and Florian. A couple of months later, I purchased Trans-Europe Express and instantly fell in love with the new musical direction the band presented. I continued buying Kraftwerk albums until I had them all.

Listening to the first two Kraftwerk albums, I felt amazed by the simplicity of their sound. Since there were no drum machines in the early seventies, Ralf and Florian made their own. You can see it in action on a video clip from the BBC's Tomorrow's World TV program. I believed that if they could make their own music without tons of synthesizer keyboards, so could I.

My early experimental sounds were very crude. All I had was an old guitar, a 10-In-One Electronic Project kit, and an old chord organ. I also used radio interference from my TV and a fluorescent flashlight in some pieces.

In December of 1984, I happened upon an electronic program broadcast from CJSR, Edmonton's university radio station. This was the music I'd been yearning for. When Marcel Dion, the host, asked for home recordings of electronic and experimental music, I gathered my tunes on a cassette and hand-delivered it to the station. Marcel was particularly impressed by a tune called "That Feeling You Get When You Stand in a Forest and Feel Time".

Thanks to Marcel's encouragement, I purchased a second-hand synthesizer and a few Casio electronic keyboards. He also loaned me his four-track cassette recorder so I could create more tunes. One piece from that period was "Echoes of Childhood".

I bought my own four-track open reel deck a year later and eventually recorded fifteen albums of music.

Recently, I made videos for many of my pieces. You can hear and see them on my YouTube channel.

As for my mentors, view Kraftwerk's page at Kraftwerk.com.

I mentioned my electronic music compositions in my When a Man Loves a Rabbit debut memoir. It and my Deliverance from Jericho paperback are on the Bruce Atchison's books link.

How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity is distributed through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Virtual Bookworm Publishers.

AUTOBAHN: THE HIGHWAY TO ELECTRONIC MUSIC EXPLORATION.

During twenty-one years of my life, I composed and recorded my own form of electronic music. My passion for this genre began in 1975 when I became an instant fan of the German group Kraftwerk. I first heard their hit Autobahn played on CHED, Edmonton's local rock music radio station.

When I bought their first three albums, I felt inspired to create my own sonic textures. Other electronic artists intimidated me with their racks of expensive synthesizers but Kraftwerk's early music could be produced even by poor musicians such as me.

I began tinkering with various circuits and acoustic sound-making devices in my housekeeping room, during the late seventies, for my own amusement. I couldn't imagine that anybody would be interested in my style of compositions so I never mentioned my hobby to anybody.

In December of 1984, I discovered a program on CJSR radio called Departures. The host, Marcel Dion, played all sorts of fascinating compositions plus he invited "home tapers" to submit their music for broadcast. Believing that my works might have a chance of being played, I copied all of my experiments onto a cassette and hand-delivered it to Marcel in March of 1985 as he was airing his program. Those early recordings were very primitive but as time passed, I bought better gear and improved my technique.

During the summer of 1998, and in honour of my beloved house bunny, Gideon, I recorded an album called Lagomorph. The title refers to the family of animals comprising rabbits, hares, and pikas. When I visited the House Rabbit Society web page containing the word rabbit in different languages, I decided to title each of my new tunes with those names. It took me a few months to finish recording and manufacturing the album at my home, partly due to my freelance writing work, but also because of other interruptions.

Though my music never sold well, I had fun creating it. I now write books and articles but I still have a large number of my electronic music CD-Rs collecting dust in my basement. Please contact me directly if you're interested in this style of music.

I also wrote about how I combined my love of house rabbits and electronic music in my How I Was Razed: A Journey from Cultism to Christianity memoir. Please check out the links on the left hand side of this page for details.

A SIDE OF ME THAT MIGHT SURPRISE YOU.

did you know that I've composed and recorded fifteen albums of electronic music? I haven't released any of late due to being occupied with my freelance writing work, editing my How I Was Razed memoir, and searching for new customers for my two previous books. many of my pieces were played on radio stations in Moscow, Warsaw, Paris, Montreal, and on more than a dozen college stations in America. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation even aired my "Contacting U2MIR" piece across the nation. I also made a few black-and-white music videos for my tunes. Please click here to watch one of them.

From my When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) memoir, here's an excerpt about how I merged my love for rabbits with my passion for electronic music.

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My passion for that genre began in 1975 when I became an instant fan of Kraftwerk, a German electronic music group. I heard their hit, Autobahn, played on 630 CHED, Edmonton's rock music radio station, and I bought their first three albums.

Listening to them, I felt inspired to create my own sonic textures. Other electronic artists intimidated me with their racks of expensive synthesizers, but Kraftwerk's earlier music could be produced even by poor musicians.

During the late seventies, I had tinkered with various circuits and acoustic sound-making devices in my home. It was for my own amusement and I never mentioned it to my friends because I never dreamed that anybody would be interested in my sort of compositions.

In December 1984, I discovered a program on CJSR radio called Departures. The host Marcel Dion played all sorts of fascinating compositions and he invited "home tapers" to submit their music for broadcast. In March, of 1985, believing that my work might have a chance of being played, I copied all of my experiments onto a cassette and hand-delivered it to Marcel while he was doing his program.

Those early recordings were very primitive, but as time passed, I bought better gear and improved my technique. During the summer of 1998, and in honour of my beloved Gideon, I recorded an album called Lagomorph.

The title refers to the family of animals comprising rabbits, hares and pikas. When I visited a web page containing the word rabbit in different languages, I decided to title each of my new tunes with those names. It took me a few months to record and manufacture the album at home, partly due to my freelance writing work and also because of other interruptions.


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When a Man Loves a Rabbit contains many more fascinating stories of life with house bunnies. These range from the tragic to the hilarious. Click here to read more about this book and to order it. You may also e-mail me directly if the comment form doesn't work.