Rachel Elkind

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Rachel Elkind, later Rachel Elkind-Tourre, is an American classically trained musician, producer and composer. She was born on 23 February 1939. From 1967 to 1980 she worked closely with Wendy Carlos and produced her work. She then moved to France with her husband Yves Tourre.

Music and breakthrough

Her best-known production is Switched-On Bach from 1968, the album on which Carlos played pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach on a synthesizer and which became a great success. It brought the electronic sound to a wide audience and showed that a synthesizer could do more than make strange noises. Elkind led the recording sessions as producer and kept watch over the whole. Carlos herself felt that her contribution was too little recognised and called her a silent partner whose work was crucial to its success.

Influence

Elkind was also heard as a singer. Her voice was put through a vocoder on a few Carlos recordings, so that a human voice became an instrument. She is also credited as co-composer of the film music of The Shining. In 1971 she produced One Voice Many, by the rock band Michaelangelo, for Columbia Records. Her name shows how much work in pop history was done by people behind the scenes. Without a producer who combined classical training with technical insight, an album like Switched-On Bach would probably not have been so convincing.

Listening

In School of Rock

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