Widely loved by sci-fi fans and counter culture types alike during its mid-'60s heyday and beyond, there's one subculture with which Frank Herbert's literary space-opera, Dune, really connected: dudes with synthesizers. And while these were not the only artists to find inspiration on the planet Arrakis, the story’s stark landscapes and drug-enhanced space travel pair well with the sprawling and alien music made by analog electronic instruments. During the '70s, a number of established knob twiddlers released Dune-inspired albums, a few of which have recently been or are in the process of being reissued. Though they make use of similar instrumentation – keyboards and sequenced modular synthesizers – these records do not sound the same. Some commit fully to other-worldly tones, while others come off like weedy prog-rock jam sessions that were merely branded with a Fremen place-name. Not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that.
Richard Pinhas: Chronolyse
Originally released in 1978, Chronolyse is a solo album by guitarist Richard Pinhas, founder of the French electronic rock group, Heldon. A huge fan of Herbert’s Dune trilogy, Pinhas was also the owner of two early Moog synthesizers (a Moog P3 and a Polymoog, if you needed to know) and, ultimately, one thing lead to another. Like much of Heldon’s work, Chronolyse favors melodic minimalism over abstract squiggles. The Moogs play short interlocking melodies that shift in tone and timbre as Pinhas flips various knobs.
I should own up, though: I have only ever read the first 50 or so pages of Dune. And while I have watched the 1984 David Lynch-directed film a number of times, I am aware that it departs heavily from the source material. So, I can’t really attest to the Dune-iness of this music or whether or not Pinhas is effectively nailing the Bene Gesserit vibe on "Sur Le Theme De Bene Gesserit I-VII".
But listening to Chronolyse– a title that, confusingly, has nothing to do with Dune– it’s possible to get a sense of why Herbert’s books resonated with electronic musicians. The story paired future technology with mysticism and altered states of consciousness and there are parallels to that in Pinhas’ music, which uses a mad scientists’ rig of modular synth gear to create delicate and melodic trance music. Out of print since basically forever, Cuneiform has just re-issuedChronolyse on LP and also as a digital download.
Z (aka Bernard Szajner): Visions of Dune
Released a year after Chronolyse, Visions of Dune is a Dune-oriented concept album composed by French synthesizer pioneer and psychedelic light show wizard, Bernard Szajner (working here under the pseudonym, Z). Szajner’s music stands out amidst Dune tributes in that it has a more distant relationship to the cosmic synth and new age music that guides its peers. The others—Chronolyse, Klaus Schulze’s composition "Dune", and even Brian Eno’s sole contribution to Lynch’s Dune film soundtrack, "Prophecy Theme"—are not necessarily meditation music, but they are fairly optimistic and vibey. Visions of Dune is more overtly sci-fi. It is cold and dystopian, full of dissonant drones and alien tape loops. If you’re looking for a deeper read, this record was reviewed by our own Philip Sherburne after it was reissued last year by Infiné.
Kurt Stenzel: Jodorowsky’s Dune OST
Released in 2014, the documentary Jodorowsky’s Dune traces Chilean surrealist filmmaker Alejandro Jodorowsky’s doomed attempt to realize Herbert’s novel as a motion picture during the mid-'70s. While the project ultimately fizzled, the collaborators that the director assembled—Jean Giraud, H.R. Giger, and Dan O’bannon among them—would port some of the design concepts into sci-fi classics like Alien and Blade Runner. Stenzel’s vintage synth and keyboard dominated score is almost a tribute to '70s Dune tributes, splitting the difference between Pinhas’ soothing repetitions and Sjazner’s eerie abstractions. From time to time, Jodorowsky’s voice is dropped in to provide some inspirational quotes, giving the soundtrack the feel of a guided meditation tape. It will be out on LP and CD on November 13th via Light in the Attic.