It appears that one of the last pioneers of electronic music, Bebe Barron has passed away. She was 82 and died of natural causes.
Barron is best known for the soundtrack to Forbidden Planet, which she created with her husband Louis. It was the first commercial film with an entirely electronic soundtrack. The movie was a huge hit and to this day the Barrons’ electronic timbres remain intimately tied with 50s science fiction.
The Barrons experimented with tape recorders as soon as 1948, around the same time as Pierre Schaeffer, who is often seen as the father of tape manipulation. Working at a time when synthesizers were only to be found in a few university or state-funded experimental studios, they built their own circuits in what was one of the earliest private electronic music studios.