Overview: In Shaping Sounds, visionary music producer Robert Margouleff shares his stories of pushing the boundaries of musical innovation, art, and technology while helping create some of the most significant and influential music of our time.

Verdict: Beginning on the set of his first film, Ciao! Manhattan, with Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick, Margouleff captures the tragic beauty of New York’s East Village and Warhol’s Factory as he discovers a powerful new way to score his movie: the Moog synthesizer.

This discovery leads him to meet a studio engineer who would become his long-time partner, Malcolm Cecil, with whom he would collaborate to invent the world’s largest analog synthesizer, ‘TONTO’ (The Original New Timbral Orchestra). Together, Margouleff and Cecil used TONTO to help unleash Stevie Wonder’s genius on his era-defining classic albums Music Of My Mind, Talking Book, Innervisions, and Fulfillingness’ First Finale.

In legendary studios like Electric Lady and the Record Plant, Margouleff became a pioneering producer and engineer for artists like Billy Preston, Jeff Beck, DEVO, The Isley Brothers, and David Sanborn. A true sonic innovator, he was an early adopter of immersive audio and surround, developing new mixing techniques for home theaters that brought some of Hollywood’s biggest blockbusters to life.

Having now read this infectiously informative, amazingly intriguing, and mind-blowingly written new prose twice through, I have to honestly say that it was just as good as I had hoped it would be - perhaps, even better!

In what is an avenue into, and behind the scenes of a time (and man) that has thus far not been explored in such a dutifully astute, and intriguingly revealed way before, what we get are stories upon glorious stories of how this time period of musical exploration and wealth came to be.

As the author himself says: “On countless nights I’ve stood in the recording studio, all eyes on me. Chasing the perfect sound, playing my role as a song transforms from idea into reality. Every note, every beat, every story has been a part of my journey. I’ve experienced struggles and successes, highs and lows. If I’ve learned anything from these trials and tribulations, it’s that in the end, the real joy comes from working together toward a common end, sharing your creativity, exploring uncharted waters, and, when you’re lucky enough to find the magic, giving it to the world.”

In closing, Shaping Sounds: Stevie Wonder, DEVO, The Synth Revolution, And My Life Behind The Music is so much more than a chronicle of music history. It’s a story about creativity, collaboration, and artistic courage. Margouleff interweaves his personal experiences with the teachers, friends, mentors, and influences that shaped him, revealing how empathy and curiosity fueled his life’s work.

Thus this memoir is a rich and entertaining narrative of a key period in music history that brings readers deep into the world of record and film production and will inspire new generations of music-makers and dreamers.

About the Authors - Robert Margouleff is a Grammy Award-winning engineer, record producer, electronic music pioneer, studio owner, and filmmaker. Along with his partner Malcolm Cecil, he invented the mega-synth known as ‘TONTO’ (The Original New Timbral Orchestra), one of the largest and most advanced analog synthesizers ever built.

He was an early adopter of immersive audio, founding Mi Casa Multimedia to deliver surround-sound audio to home theaters for hundreds of feature films, including The Lord Of The Rings, Se7en, and X-Men. Though music was his career, Margouleff began as a filmmaker, producing Ciao! Manhattan with Andy Warhol superstar Edie Sedgwick and other denizens of the famed Factory. In addition to Shaping Sounds, Margouleff has written for several music industry magazines and is an in-demand public speaker.

Writer, musician, and educator Jim Reilly studied both jazz guitar and journalism in college and has spent the past twenty-five years or so combining those two loves. He has authored four books: the fictional Bass Player, plus biographies of three of today’s most influential and impactful musical instrument designers: StickMan: The Story Of Emmett Chapman & The Instrument He Created, Steinberger: A Story Of Creativity And Design, and Chasing Tone: How Rob Turner & EMG Revolutionized The Guitar’s Sound.

His work has also appeared in numerous print magazines and online, including Bass Player Magazine, the Boston Globe, and Canadian Musician, and has been featured in Canada on CBC Radio One. An accomplished musician, Jim continues to perform solo Chapman Stick concerts and holds down the bass chair in Calgary’s DC & The Struggle (when he’s not at his day job, holding down a middle school principalship).

The exploration of creativity, musical and otherwise, continues in print and on his Words & Music podcast. Jim currently lives in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, during the school year and hides away near Kelowna, British Columbia, in the summer months and any other chance he gets.

www.margouleff.com

www.jimreilly.ca

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