[#166] SEKRET MACHINE MUSIC, Part 2: Leon Theremin and the Sounds of a Soviet Super-Patriot (Patreon)

SEKRET MACHINE MUSIC is a multi-episode series investigating the origins of synthesizers, electronic music, and rave culture from the early 20th century to today.

PART 2: LEON THEREMIN AND THE SOUNDS OF A SOVIET SUPER-PATRIOT

Dimitri and Khalid jump to the opposite end of the political spectrum to explore the fascinating life of Soviet inventor Leon Theremin, including: the intense ideological contention over Theremin’s musical inventions in the West, Theremin’s incredible story of showing Vladimir Ilyich Lenin how to play “The Lark” on the Thereminvox in 1920, his move to New York City in 1927, becoming a celebrity sensation for the NYC silk toppers, losing his wife to an American Nazi, modern attempts to frame Theremin as a “Soviet Faust” who sold his soul to Stalin in order to keep inventing, his friendship with synesthesia enthusiast Albert Einstein, Theremin’s employment at RCA and early television innovations, getting married to African-American dancer Lavinia Williams, his mysterious disappearance from NYC at the start of World War 2, being “a bit of a rezident” in New York, Armand Hammer and the AMTORG Trading Corp, spying on all the silk toppers, spending WW2 in a top secret Soviet science gulag, creating “The Thing” powerless surveillance device, and Leon Theremin’s long-awaited triumphant admission to the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in 1991.