New book on legendary synthesist and composer, Wendy Carlos, out next month

The book will be published in April in the US and May in the UK via Oxford University Press. 

Written by musicologist Amanda Sewell, the biography follows the unique life and career of the composer whose work has been crucial in bringing synthesizer music to the mainstream. Wendy Carlos worked on albums such as Switched-On Bach, Sonic Seasonings as well as the scores for A Clockwork Orange, The Shining ad Tron. 

For her album, Switched-On Bach, Carlos won three Grammys, as well as being awarded into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999. 

Carlos became an important figure for transgender visibility, having underwent gender reassignment surgery in 1979. She was one of the first public figures to disclose having had the procedure.

Amanda Sewell is the music director Michigan’s Interlochen Public Radio and Wendy Carlos will be her first published book. It will be published in April in the US and May in the UK. 

Kyle Devine’s new book ‘Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music’ explores music’s impact on the environment.