Fortean Times – September 2019

28 FT383

A TRIP THROUGH TIME

At the helm of KPIXTelevision,

Broadcast Operations Manager

Eliot Curtis tackles all sorts

of technical problems tokeep

Channel 5 on the air. Late

last year, he volunteered to

fi x a vintage “analogmusic

modular instrument”owned by

the music department at Cal

State University East Bay. The

instrument – commonly known

today as a synthesizer –was

commissionedby Professors

Glenn Glasow and Robert

Basart, leadingavant-garde

musicians who taught in the

music department in the 1960s,

when Cal State East Baywas

known as Cal State Hayward.

The deviceeventually fell

out offavour andwas stored

for decades in a cool, dark

cupboard in the corner of a

classroom.

At some point, itwas

augmented with additional

modules, including ared-

coloured module on the toprow.

During hisrepair work, Curtis

opened the module and saw

something stuck under a knob.

“Therewas like aresidue... a

crust or a crystallineresidue

on it, ” he said. He sprayed

a cleaning solvent on it and

started to push the dissolving

crystal with hisfi nger as

he attempted to dislodge it

and clean the area.About 45

minutes later, he began to feel a

weird, tingling sensation. Itwas

the initial phase of an acid trip,

which lastedroughly nine hours.

Three separatechemical tests

identified the substance as LSD

(or Delysid, the original Sandoz

trade name, whichfor some

reason didn’t catch on, unlike

Bayer’s ‘Heroin’).The drug can

remain potentfor decades if

kept in a cool, dark place and

can be ingested through the

skin. No one knows whether the

acid was intentionally stashed

inside thered module or an

accidental spillresulted in the

drug seeping through to the

circuitry.

It transpired the instrument

was a Buchla 100 series modular

synthesizer, createdby the late

Don Buchla of Berkeley, “the

Leonardo DaVinci of electronic

music design,” according

to electronicmusic pioneer

Suzanne Ciani, the “Diva of the

Diode”. In 1966, some Buchla

modules ended up on the Merry

SOUNDSANDVISIONS

Techiegetsdosedbya50-year-oldsynth,plusthe

peoplewhohearvoicesandotherauditoryhallucinations

It was the initial

phase of an acid

trip which lasted

about nine hours

BENNETT / CREATIVE COMMONS BRANDON DANIEL / CREATIVE COMMONS

ALVA

N MEYEROWITZ / MICHAEL OCHS ARCHIVES / GETTY IMAGES

STRANGEDAYS

ABOVE LEFT:A Buchla 100 series, or Buchla Box, as built by Don Buchla of Berkeley from the early 1960s to the early 1970s.ABOVE RIGHT: Buchla at a music trade show in

2006.BELOW: Owsley Stanley, aka “Bear” (left) talks with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh atKezar Stadium in San Francisco, 23 March 1975.