Helado Negro journeys into synth history on his latest album

In the early 1960s, composer Salvatore Martirano helped build an electronic music system that would become known as the Sal-Mar Construction. Described in one book as a “live performance instrument,” it combines human-controlled actions and digital technology, Martirano wrote a handful of compositions for it, including 1970’s“Let’s Look At The Back of My Head for a While.” For his latest Helado Negro album, songwriter-artist Roberto Carlos Lange experimented with the instrument while exploring personal themes.

In a recent interview with Music Radar, Lange explains working with the Sal-Mar Construction, which has no manual or instructions:

When I was recording with it, it was just so disorienting because it’s so idiosyncratic to someone’s process and work style. This wasn’t parallel to developments from the likes of Moog and ARP and people or companies like that making these synths that were more commercial; more for studios or more for musicians, specifically, to create musical formats or themes or ideas that were already kind of existing. But this was just, like, so much in its own world. So falling into someone’s process like that was really fun.

The instrument is central to Helado Negro’s new album Phasor. In the interview, Lange, the child of Ecuadoran immigrants, talks about integrating it with digital tools. “I had some song ideas, and I started inserting some of the Sal-Mar idea sounds in there,” he told Music Radar. For music nerds, the entire interview is well worth the read.

Lange is known for pushing the boundaries of electronic music through an integration of performance and sound art (he studied Computer Art and Animation at the Savannah College of Art). He has worked in a variety of mediums, and integrated experimental performance in his live shows. His “Tinsel Animals,” described as visual extensions of his music, have been presented at 100 performances.

“Phasor” is available now on all platforms