Jean Jacques Perrey has died, the world is a little less silly now.

November 6, 2016 9:20 AM

A pioneer in electronic music and composer of the tune that is used for the intro to Futurama. He was known as a innovator and experimented with electronic music and tape splicing since the early 50's. His music was used in the electric light parade at disneyland and the sampled bee version of "Flight of the Bumblebee" is a work of tape splicing magic. I knew him from a album I picked up at a thrift store ,and actually met him at a release party put together by RE Search Magazine. He was a incredibly charming and and made a point of telling me to "always stay happy". Check out "In sounds from way out"
posted by boilermonster (31 comments total)

http://whatyouseewhenyoudie.ytmnd.com/
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posted by wreckingball at 9:30 AM on November 6, 2016 [6 favorites]

🎹
posted by clavdivs at 9:32 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

nooooooooooooooooooo
posted by TwelveTwo at 9:39 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

♪
posted by Smart Dalek at 9:43 AM on November 6, 2016

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posted by not_that_epiphanius at 9:46 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

*a strange cacophony of filter sweeps, sampled animal sounds, beeps and boings*

RIP you brilliant spaced-out synth god.
posted by SansPoint at 9:47 AM on November 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

Also, will someone please check on Wendy Carlos.
posted by SansPoint at 9:53 AM on November 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

IIRC The Futuraja theme is based on Psyche Rick but isn't quite Psyche Rock.
posted by Artw at 9:56 AM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Psyche Rock thread
posted by Artw at 9:57 AM on November 6, 2016

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I'm going to imagine he left this world with a Gossipo Perpetuo-like sigh
posted by that silly white dress at 9:58 AM on November 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

I believe fellow composer and musique concrete-ist Pierre Henry wrote "Psyché Rock," which is the basis for the Futurama theme, rather than Perrey.
posted by the sobsister at 10:38 AM on November 6, 2016 [3 favorites]

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posted by Kevin Street at 11:35 AM on November 6, 2016

I stand corrected on the Futurama intro, but I had heard both versions and assumed that the TV version was just the original piece reworked to fit the intro.

Some argue that the intro is not really much more than that.
posted by boilermonster at 12:31 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

So very delightfully silly.

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posted by scruss at 12:41 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I worked in Disneyland Guest Relations at the time the Main Street Electrical Parade was originally retired and people would occasionally ask me for the title of the music used in the parade. I didn't know its name and I didn't know Jean Jacques Perrey's name but somewhere along the way I had picked up the notion that the genre of the parade's theme was Baroque Hoedown, which was a term I loved, so I'd tell them that.

Now, I see from this, that that was actually the title:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ax00vnsZPKE

In my defense, this was at the dawn of the mainstream internet, pre-Youtube, pre-Wikipedia. But, in loving memory of Mr. Perry and his music, I'd like to offer this correction to the record.
posted by bunbury at 2:28 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by oceanjesse at 2:45 PM on November 6, 2016

I went to a talk that Jean-Jacques Perrey gave in San Francisco that was put together b Vale of ReSearch. Jean-Jacques was full of the joy of life and the absolute opposite of a bitter old man. Such a delight and inspiration.
posted by larrybob at 3:49 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Here are photos from the Recombinant Media Labs event in 2006, which I unfortunately did not attend: a performance by JJP and Dana Countryman, with some sort of participation by Vale and Jello Biafra #incrediblystrangemusic
posted by larrybob at 3:51 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by stilist at 6:08 PM on November 6, 2016

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posted by drezdn at 6:10 PM on November 6, 2016

eva by Jean Jacques Perry is also very proto Futurama ish, so there's understandable confusion. That was a few years after Psyche Rock though. Still, a brilliant man - a sad year for synth nerds with Buchla's death too.
posted by Jon Mitchell at 6:21 PM on November 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

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posted by Mitheral at 7:34 PM on November 6, 2016

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posted by drworm at 7:54 PM on November 6, 2016

Aw...I was driving around listening to KFJC earlier today, and heard several JJP tracks in a row, and didn't put two and two together...
posted by littlejohnnyjewel at 8:38 PM on November 6, 2016

As someone who knows every note of the long version of Baroque Hoedown, and could sing it in my sleep including all the random boings and fart noises, I owe something deep to Jean Jacques Perrey. The Main Street Electrical Parade burrowed deep into my soul and nestled there, and I'm still discovering all the ways it shaped me, and surely my love of weird electronic music is part of that legacy.

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posted by potrzebie at 9:04 PM on November 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

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posted by bigtex at 10:27 PM on November 6, 2016

This is my intro to an artist I wish I'd heard sooner.

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posted by evilDoug at 10:47 PM on November 6, 2016

Shit. I've been a fan ever since discovering Gossipo Perpetuo on RE/Search: Incredibly Strange Music, Volume II. And now I'm worried about Ken Nordine.

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posted by usonian at 8:55 AM on November 7, 2016

I can't tell you how much "The In Sound From Way Out" is cheering me up right now.
posted by daisystomper at 7:05 PM on November 7, 2016 [5 favorites]

This is where I point out that that awful Smash Mouth song "Walking on the Sun" was lifted clean from JJP's "Swan's Splashdown" from ISFWO.
posted by ostranenie at 12:43 PM on November 8, 2016

So sad. I worked the table at that RE/Search event (met Jello Biafra! He was wearing the weirdest coat...) One thing I loved about it is when JJP took out a little stuffed animal/puppet and wanted us to say hello to his friend (and not in a Scarface way).

Such a delightful goofball.
posted by GospelofWesleyWillis at 2:14 PM on November 8, 2016 [1 favorite]