David Borden         Articles / Reviews

 
 
Articles Chamber Music Magazine David Borden by Kyle Gann May/June 2012 NEWMUSICBOX David Borden: Continuous Counterpoint By Frank Oteri January 1, 2012 Interview Magazine O, Pioneers! An Evening with the FRKWYS 7 Ensemble By SHAWN BRACKBILL AND RUTH SAXELBY  10/19/2011  MUSIC REVIEW Continuing a Continuing Story by Renewing His Early New Music July 1, 2011 Snapshots Music and Arts Foundation Interview: David Borden 2011 David Borden: Moog to Mother Mallard David Yearsley: Borden and the Mallards: Dazzle at the Brick Factory Counterpunch Magazine Weekend Edition July 8 - 10, 2011 www.counterpunch.org Interview: David Borden June 20, 2011 A pioneering synthesizer composer brings retro street cred to visionary music. By Amanda MacBlane Cuneiform article for Issue Project Room The 40th anniversary of The MiniMoog Synthsizer Greg Barbrick April 23 2010 Homage to Moog and Mallards By DAVID YEARSLEY CounterPunch 4/5/2009 Click here for complete article Excerpt The impact of the Moog synthesizer on the sound of the late 1960s and 1970s is hard to overestimate. Wendy Carlos (then still Walter Carlos) brought out Switched-On Bach in 1968 using Moog’s synthesizers. The LP went platinum and broke into the Billboard top ten. Carlos’ strutting, space-age reading of Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto no. 3 gave that piece a new day-glo grandeur, in whose vibrant reflection all subsequent performances either bask or wilt. Carlos’ version of that over-worked classic-hit Air on the G String demonstrated that underneath the sickly-sweet frosting of too-many wedding performances there was a freshly honed file. Aided and abetted by Moog, Bach made his jailbreak. A year earlier the Doors had used a Moog for their Strange Days album, and in 1969 the instrument adorned the Beatles’ studio swansong, Abbey Road. Hollywood, too, came calling. In Carlos’s score for Stanley Kubrick’s  1971 A Clockwork Orange the urgent electric energy of Moog’s sound even in, or perhaps especially in, slow moving musical textures captured the artful psychopathy of the film’s violence-loving anti-hero, Alex. The soundtrack exploited that strange something in the Moog’s sound, the siren-song way it rides the knife-edge between ambrosial sweetness and terror. Of the many other pop and concert music applications of Moog’s creation, however, none equals that of David Borden, whose 12-part Continuing Story of Counterpoint is one of the great works of late 20th-century art music—an ambitious, yet welcoming masterpiece composed between 1976 and 1987, and one which offers its players and listeners perpetually new perspectives on what it means to play and to listen. Borden’s Continuing Story realizes the promise of music both to mark time’s progress and to cleave ecstatically to the moment. Moog gave Borden, then a neophyte on synthesizers, the keys to his Trumansburg studio in 1967. Two years later Moog received his first major patent and that same year Borden formed Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, the first all-synthesizer ensemble. The group gave its first concert in Barnes Hall on the Cornell University campus in May of 1969. This past Sunday the Mallards returned to Barnes Hall to celebrate the group’s fortieth anniversary.  It’s been a period of commemorations for Borden, who marked his 70th birthday this past Christmas Day. His once-black hair is now gray, but his witty and oracular stage presence is as engaging as ever. Barnes Hall was full even on a wet late-Winter-Early Spring night, the proceedings introduced by Trevor Pinch, who, along with Frank Trocco, has written an excellent book on Robert Moog and others, called Analog Days. http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/PINANA.html. Pinch asked who among the audience had been at the first MMPMC  concert forty years ago. Many hands, attached to witnesses of and contributors to Ithaca’s counter-culture and avant-gardist past, went up. At this point I should probably acknowledge that I have been in the group for most the last decade. Now we use laptops and keyboards instead of the weighty and sometimes irascilbe analog synthesizers. David Borden brought along two of his classic Moogs and set them off to the side of the stage as tributes to the inventor and to the group’s past. Click here for complete article An Ancient Echo From David Borden and Mother Mallard Echoes National Public Radio May 8, 2009 AN INTERVIEW WITH DAVID BORDEN Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company, makers of fine electronic music since 1969. One of the first live synthesizer ensembles wasn't Tangerine Dream, but Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company, led by composer David Borden. Mounting the stage with three massive Moog Modular synthesizers, they spun out their intricate cyclical melodies. We listen back to their now classic albums for this Ancient Echo. Early Mother Mallard music and David Borden interview: http://www.echoes.org/AncientEchoes2007.html#Borden Borden/Mallard 40th Anniversary Concerts - Cunieform Records By ALLAN KOZIN Published: August 4, 2007 The Tanglewood Music Center’s Festival of Contemporary Music The Generation of ’38, Still Kicking Tanglewood Festival of Contemporary Music to Celebrate Generation of '38 By Vivien Schweitzer 25 May 2007 PlayBill Arts http://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6553.html Mother Mallard Flies Again By: Aaron Tate 09/26/2007 Longtime local residents and music connoisseurs alike will already know that the history of the synthesizer is firmly embedded in Tompkins County lore. This is not only because Robert Moog studied engineering at Cornell and opened a factory in Trumansburg, but because David Borden, who has lived in Ithaca for 40 years, started the world's first synthesizer ensemble here with the encouragement, equipment and technical assistance provided by Moog himself. During this time Borden has explored both the Moog technology and his own interests as a composer (today he is loosely associated with the term minimalism, though the word itself developed later than his early compositions in the style), and he has toured, recorded, and performed throughout the United States and Europe with his ensemble, the Mother Mallard Portable Masterpiece Co. On Friday evening, Sept. 28, when Borden brings Mother Mallard to Barnes Hall for the ensemble's first performance in 2007, the event will mark the 38th year in the ensemble's existence. For the event, Borden has succeeded in realizing a concept that he's been contemplating for years: a collaboration with live video projections that make use of images depicting two important early modern dancers, Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. In the second half of the concert, Borden will premiere this new composition, titled "Third Sunset/The Dawns/Denishawn," based on the two dancers, one of whom (St. Denis) Borden worked with during his graduate student days in Boston. The concert will also be the first by Mother Mallard to feature integrated live video in its performance. Click here for complete article AVANT MUSIC NEWS May 2007 David Borden / Mother Mallard: David continues as a beta tester for SAMPLIT, a software program that automatically samples any sound from a hardware or software synth/sampler. The software synths and samplers are the new element, and not all formats are compatible. But once a sound is chosen, the user can stipulate how many velocities and the range. Then after the sampling is done, the user can then fine tune the envelope. After everything sounds the way one wants, the program allows you to format it for a number of software samplers including Kontakt and REASON (NNXT) and several others. I’m doing this testing in part because Mother Mallard is changing its performance format. Instead of performing on an array of synthesizers for each player, everyone will play on keyboard MIDI controllers attached to laptops via the USB connection. The software used for live performance is REASON 3 utilizing sampled sounds from dozens of hardware and software synths as well as sounds native to REASON. In addition, we will also be using Ableton Live. We have only tried this once at Roulette in New York with good results. The only hardware synth on stage will be the Moog Voyager (Electric Blue version). In addition, Mother Mallard is expanding. For the past several years we have existed mainly as three keyboardists (Blaise Bryski, and David Yearsley and me). Blaise and David Y. are world class performers. This fall, Conrad Alexander, a percussionist will join us with his MalletKat MIDI controller and laptop. Conrad is a versatile musician with experience in many musical settings. And finally, I am trying out a visual element employing live video projection with both prepared images and live images. The husband and wife team of Franck and Noni Korf Vidal are the video artists. Our first concert with the expanded ensemble will be at Barnes Hall on the Cornell campus in Ithaca New York on Friday evening September 28, 2007. Two or three new pieces will be premiered including anagram portraits of Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn who formed the Denishawn Dancers, probably the very first Modern Dance Company. These pieces will include vintage footage of these two pioneers of modern dance. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company: music by David Borden Liner Notes Arbiter Records 2005 article on the History of Mother Mallard Arbiter #136 Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. : music by David Borden Article in Philadeliphia City Paper, May 18-14 2003 “Mallard Rising” by A.D. Amorosi
“Mother Mallard -- having only released 1973’s eponymous album and its ’76 follow-up, Like a Duck to Water -- did not experience much in the initial way of success. But Borden is calmly aware of what it is he and his initial blast of synth wrought. ‘I didn’t think it was monumental. But we knew we were doing something no one else was. I thought of it as an invention that would probably rival the piano in the history of musical instruments. I didn’t anticipate the combination of computer technology and synthesizers, though engineers at Moog Co. speculated that everything would eventually be zeros and ones. It seems so strange to think that synthesizers were once such a rare thing that people would travel for miles just to see one.’” Interview with David Bordenlivepage.apple.com
BY JORGE MUNNSHE Abstract: David Borden has been active on the electronic music scene for more than three decades. In 1967, he first made contact with Robert Moog and his synthesizers. After a couple of years experimenting in the Moog Studio, changing his methods of composing and learning the outer limits of what was possible on these new instruments, he founded the band Mother Mallard (the first all-Moog ensemble), together with Steve Drews and Linda Fisher. Mother Mallard became a pioneer band of Space Music, minimalism and other innovative trends.
• Click to read complete article in English Article on Mother Mallard and Patrick Grant Group The Cutting Room 19 W. 24th St. NY, NY Monday, April 29, 2002 Star’s End Ambient Radio article and pictures 2002 Profile: Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co. Synthesizer inventor Robert Moog honored at Smithsonian Concert by Franklin Crawford Cornell Chronicle April 13, 2000 click here for article and pictures Mother Mallard Celebrates 30th Anniversary by Franklin Crawford Cornell Chronicle September 30, 1999 click here for article and pictures MOTHER MALLARD IN CONCERT with Keith Emerson
April 15, at the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institute Washington DC Thursday , 20 Apr 2000, Hannah M.G.Shapero Hannah Shapero’s site Rain, mists, and the threat of demonstrations in the streets did not keep the faithful away from attending the concert of the electronic/acoustic group “Mother Mallard,” here in Washington DC. “Mother Mallard,” historically based in Ithaca, N.Y., has been a performing entity since the early seventies, under the leadership of composer David Borden. Though the personnel has changed over the decades, the music and the inspiration remain, with Borden giving it continuity. In fact, sitting in the audience was Bob Moog himself, inventor of the Moog synthesizer. Still making electronic musical instruments after all these years, Moog was a beaming patriarch enjoying what his genius had helped to create. This concert was the culmination of a Smithsonian program called “300 years of the Piano” which celebrated the evolution of this instrument, which is now morphing into electronic keyboards. And there were plenty of those instruments up on the stage, in a complex tangle of wires and stands. The band for this concert consisted of David Borden on synthesizer, Doug Wyatt (whose album ACCIDENTAL BEAUTIES I recommend highly) on synthesizer, Sam Godin on synth, and Lisa Leong on synth as well as prepared piano. That’s five keyboards. The other musicians were Richard Faria on clarinet, Les Thimmig on saxophone and other wind instruments, David Borden’s strapping, flame-haired son Gabriel on electric guitar, Louise Mygatt as singer, and, for the second half of the concert, rock legend Keith Emerson on piano and synthesizer. The first half of the concert was devoted to one long set of pieces, Borden’s composition “Variations on a theme of Philip Glass.” David Borden is thought of as a “minimalist” composer, and so this is one “minimalist” building on the work of another. Yet as “minimalism” has developed over the 40 or so years of its existence, it has gone from simple repetitions to a more complex style enhanced and enriched by elements of the very “classical” or “jazz” music it originally sought to escape from. In my opinion, Borden’s transformation of Glass improves greatly on the insistent, trance-like yammering of the original. In Borden’s hands, the Glass theme goes through all sorts of fresh changes, both harmonic and textural, and even gets treated to two fugues. Into the driving mix of the minimalist style go echoes of Romantic and Impressionist chords, jazz licks, even a bit of neo-medieval Hindemith here and there, and elsewhere, some noisy stuff that sounds like Messiaen on speed. Indeed, the Glass Variations were postmodern music to the max—colorful sparks struck off of 600 years of Western musical history were flying all about. And yet it is still recognizably “minimalist,” with its unremitting rhythmic drive, its lack of soft-loud dynamics, and its busy sequencer repetitions (which were played “live” rather than mechanically). This music is really unclassifiable. It uses classical harmonies, counterpoint, and fugues, as well as modern “minimalist” techniques, yet it’s played on instruments which are associated with popular and commercial music. The synthesizer sounds that I am used to hearing from big commercial musicians like Vangelis and David Arkenstone were here used in the service of neo-medieval counterpoint and cathedral harmonies. Meanwhile, an electric guitar and jazzy saxophone lit up the mosaic of notes. Louise Mygatt’s singing, all wordless, was treated as another instrument rather than a conveyor of literary “meaning” with lyrics. She went from eerie wailing to pure soprano tones following the melody to fast scat-singing, and looked like she was having a fine time doing it. After intermission, the group returned with another Borden piece, “Continuing Story of Counterpoint part 9,” part of his ongoing transmogrification of counterpoint into the minimalist electronic style. After that was a change of pace. The piece they played next was really two pieces, one by John Cage written in 1944, “The Perilous Night,” and another by David Borden just last year (1999) called “The Perilous Night Companion.” This peculiar cross-time collaboration came about from Borden’s association with John Cage years ago, when Borden asked whether other music could be played at the same time as one of Cage’s works. The eccentric Zen-inspired Cage said yes; an answer unthinkable from an ordinary composer. Many years later, that idea came to life in Borden’s companion piece for this Cage work. The original Cage piece is for “prepared piano,” a technique Cage came up with in the 1930s. Various objects are placed on or in the strings of a piano so that they will sound unlike piano notes. In fact, the piano with these changes sounds more like an Oriental percussion instrument. Lisa Leong was in charge of playing the Cage, while Borden and Wyatt played the accompanying piece. The original Cage music is spare, soft, unmelodic, and only occasionally rhythmic—not something that would appeal to a wide audience. The Borden “companion” added needed continuity and musical accessibility to the piece, and also enhanced the idea of a “perilous night” with spooky synthesizer effects. I would even go so far as to call this piece “dark ambient.” After this, Keith Emerson made his appearance. Up to now, despite all the hot minimalist riffs and synthesizer special effects, the concert had been rather on the intellectual side. But Keith Emerson, a veteran of 30 years of rock and pop performance, added some razzle-dazzle to the night. He is, as always, a showman who immediately takes center stage, wearing an emerald green shirt (and dark pants) against the mostly black outfits of “Mother Mallard.” Emerson tried out the piano, only to realize that the clunky weird “prepared” notes were still there—a comic moment. Then he took charge at the synthesizer to play one of his standards—his rock transformation of Copland’s FANFARE FOR THE COMMON MAN. The band got to play loud. They even had a “virtual” rock drummer, coming from synthesized drums played by David Borden. The marvels of modern technology (with a few glitches) gave us a rockin’ ensemble. Things were still lively and we wanted more, so the band decided to play “Ceres Motion,” a 1973 composition by Steve Drews which Borden had originally announced was going to be deleted from the program. This classic electronic piece has lots of space for jamming, so Keith Emerson, playing the “altered” piano around its Cage-notes, was able to sit in with improvisation, and everyone got his or her turn. There was a standout solo from Thimmig on sax. But that wasn’t all. The band came back after lots of applause and whistles, for one more number, a blues jam led by Keith Emerson and David Borden. The band which played fugues on the first half, ended with blues on the second. As I said, postmodern eclectic sparks all around. Now I’m gonna get a little philosophical here. Many of us music listeners, both classical and popular, have grown up listening to self-contained, emotionally predictable music; the soft melancholy of Brahms or the bombast of Wagner, or the little dramas of songs about love and loss, or psychedelic Grateful Dead-style noodling, or the simple structures of rock anthems. The music I heard tonight, though its style is not new and has been going for more than 30 years, felt new to me, it felt like a music appropriate for our 21st century age of Internet and virtual reality and sizzling circuits of information bytes. It didn’t weep European tragedy, and it didn’t pant with American lust. It was, in its cool pan-cultural kaleidoscopic fiberoptic richness, a glimpse of what our cultural life might be like in the next few decades. And it was also, by the way, wonderful fun to listen to as well. Welcome to the 21st century, listeners! Hannah M.G.Shapero David Borden INTERVIEWED BY PIERO SCARUFFI TM, ®, © 1999 Piero Scaruffi All rights reserved. The first electronic ensemble was founded upstate New York, not far from where Robert Moog had invented the synthesizer. David Borden, fresh from his Berlin studies, learned how to operate Moog's machines and started composing electronic pieces for ballett. In may 1969 the Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company was born, namely Borden and two friends. Two albums later, Borden was ready to try other avenues. His solo albums contain long compositions that recall minimalism but with a peculiar harmonic twist, as much Terry Riley as Bach, as much Steve Reich as free jazz. Borden's masterpiece, "The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint", surfaced little by little over the years and was finally premiered in 1989. Borden has also composed the oratorio "Angels: Visions And Apparitions" and countless chamber music for keyboards. Last summer Borden started performing again as Mother Mallards. Borden is currently the head of Cornell University's Digital Music Department. “David Borden” Interview by Italian music writer Piero Scaruffi, 1999, and posted on: http://www.scaruffi.com/avant/borden.html News Feature in Signal to Noise (Nov/Dec 1999) by Peter Gershorn,
“Return to Planet Moog: Analog synth pioneers Mother Mallard reunite for a 30th anniversary celebration. 
“…in the late ‘60s... [Borden] was hunkering down at Bob Moog’s lab in nearby Trumansburg where the inventor was developing the first voltage-controlled electronic synthesizers, an unknowing guinea-pig who later learned he’d been “idiot-proofing” the new models as he fooled around with the instruments (Borden remembers one keyboard “looked like the cockpit of an airplane”). By the end of the ‘60s, Borden began thinking about how the synthesizer could be applied to minimalism and modern creative music on the concert stage; “I wanted to present very new and startling work,” he has simply stated. Influenced by electronic musicians like Gordon Mumma and David Tudor, as well as the new pieces by young composers he discovered in an avant-jazz publication... Borden began to put together the collective ... known as Mother Mallard. Throughout the ‘70s, MMPMC pioneered the use of Moog’s keyboards, particularly in live performance settings.. Drones and complex rhythms mark their recordings, with multitrack layering borne out of his contrapuntal approach to composing. Critics missed the point as usual, complaining that “nothing happened”. Now, years later, the original Moogs are prized collector’s items and the analog synth is attracting newfound serious interest.” Article in Option, May/June 1988:
“Mother Mallard’s David Borden” by Steve Behrends
Borden on influences:
“...I’d gone through that whole thing of composing music in serial form, studying with students of Schoenberg, and all of that, but I was looking for my own compositional voice in the late sixties. When I discovered Charles Ives, that helped a lot. I was getting back to tonality and repetition, listening to rock music (also, I had always admired Stravinsky and his ostinatos), then I hear Terry Riley’s piece (In C) - it was one of those zeitgeist things. And it seemed to me that the synthesizer could fit in with Bucky Fuller’s idea of ‘doing more with less’: that three people with Moogs could make a lot more noise than three string players!” Profile in Downbeat, Nov. 1983 “David Borden” by John Diliberto “Is there room for more than three minimalists in the new music marketplace? Borden is a contemporary of Philip Glass and Steve Reich, and they all arrived at the same musical locale at about the same time. “I met both Steve Reich and Philip Glass in 1970,” recalls Borden...First I met Steve, who’s a Cornell graduate. He’s just come back from Africa, and he played me some African music and some of his music, and I played him some of my music, and we were both surprised at how similar it was. He urged me to move to New York and make my fortune. In the fall Philip Glass came by, and we basically had the same conversation. But I never moved to New York.” “...Borden’s music is equally evocative as Glass’, Reich’s, or Riley’s and as distinct from theirs as they are from each other’s. It’s a complex polyphony of sound, embroidered through his synthesizers into an electronic mandala... 
“[Borden’s ensemble, Mother Mallard] are weaving some of the most complex and exquisite polyphony this side of J.S. Bach. “I’ve always loved contrapuntal music,” says Borden, “from Guillaume de Machaut through the Renaissance and to Bach.”.... “For all its structural complexity, there’s a compulsive beauty to Borden’s oscillating cycles. His Continuing Story of Counterpoint ... is an epic work, rich in melodic invention and drama” Click here for Matt Howrath’s cartoons / reviews of early Mother Mallard LPs: DAVID BORDEN / NEW MOTHER MALLARD BAND - "ANATIDAE"
DAVID BORDEN / NEW MOTHER MALLARD BAND - "The Continuing Story of Counterpoint (parts 9-12)"
DAVID BORDEN / NEW MOTHER MALLARD BAND - "Migration" Reviews ANOTHER WORLD OF SOUND Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co, 1970-1973 and Like A Duck To Water MONDAY, JANUARY 21, 2008 These two releases constitute some of the most important early electronic music. Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. was intended to be the first all-synthesizer ensemble. I'm leaving that issue well enough alone, except to say the odds are most certainly in their favor for that claim. The main importance lies in the music presented on these two discs and their desire to bring the sounds of electronic music to the masses. The trio initially consisted of composers David Borden and Steve Drews on Moogs and electric pianist Linda Fisher. Borden was Bob Moog's guinea pig during the development of the Moog synthesizer. All you electronic fans owe this man a huge thank you, for he was an important part of making the synthesizer user-friendly. Three of the tracks on 1970-1973 were originally released as an LP in '73; the remaining two tracks saw the light of day on this reissue. Drews composed two out of the five tracks, the remaining three being Borden's creations (Oddly enough, Mother Mallard was originally intended as a sort of minimalism cover band; however, all their recordings consist of original compositions). The material never displays its age; "Cloudscape For Peggy" and "Easter" could easily be passed off as early Orb or Aphex Twin. "Train" is the only track that clocks in at under twelve minutes (at a mere seven minutes!); "Easter" is a mammoth nineteen minutes and twenty-three seconds. The timeless Moog sounds and intricate compositions are a real eye-opener. "Music" even makes use of a looped vocal sample ("music music music...."), pointing very far forward to much later techno. Despite the limited technology (Moogs were still monophonic back then), these tracks are extraordinarily intricate and warm, with far more humanity behind them than Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream ever had. Based on the debut salvo alone, Mother Mallard should be worshipped by acolytes of the Cult Of Techno/Drum'n'Bass/Ambient/whatever electronic genre you can imagine. Yes, it's THAT good. However, the best was just around the corner! Circa 1974, Linda Fisher parted amicably with Borden and Drews, and new electric pianist Judy Borsher stepped in. She is featured on all seven tracks of LIKE A DUCK TO WATER. Drews also takes over the bulk of the credit on this one; he has five compositions to Borden's two. The original LP consisted of Drews' "Oleo Strut" and "Waterwheel" and Borden's massive "C-A-G-E Part II". "Waterwheel" in particular is breathtaking; truly sounding like its title, this is a ten-minute piece of sheer beauty, with cascading ripples of sound and a propulsive bass pulse. "Oleo Strut" is similar, but has its own distinct identity, and is a perfect companion piece to "Waterwheel". "C-A-G-E Part II" (obviously named in tribute to John Cage) is a twenty-minute leviathan, based around the notes/pitches that make up the title. This piece is a great bit of minimalism, ranking with the best of the (unfairly) better-known minimalists' work. The remaining four tracks are very worthwhile as well; Borden's "All Set" and Drews' "Downtown" and "Theme From After The Fall" are great examples of shorter-form minimalism, and Drews' "Harpsichord Truck" makes for a pleasantly lighthearted coda to the album. On their own, each of these albums is a classic landmark of electronic music. Together they form a whole hidden chapter in electronic music's short history. Don't let the recording dates scare you; there is absolutely nothing primitive about Mother Mallard's sound. I heartily recommend both to fans of any synth-based music, minimalism junkies, ambient connoisseurs, and adherents of the spacier realms of Krautrock/kosmische musik. Cuneiform has the full tracks "Downtown" and "Trains" to preview here, along with several of Borden's post-Mother Mallard releases (which also come highly recommended): http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/borden.html Postscript: If you're hooked, there is an additional CD released by Arbiter which contains "The Continuing Story Of Counterpoint" parts one and three (including a chorus in addition to the synths) and "C-A-G-E Part III". This also comes highly recommended. Also check out https://www.mothermallard.com . by Prof. ~.a.~ Article in Philadeliphia City Paper, May 18-14 2003
“Mallard Rising” by A.D. Amorosi
“Mother Mallard -- having only released 1973’s eponymous album and its ’76 follow-up, Like a Duck to Water -- did not experience much in the initial way of success. But Borden is calmly aware of what it is he and his initial blast of synth wrought. ‘I didn’t think it was monumental. But we knew we were doing something no one else was. I thought of it as an invention that would probably rival the piano in the history of musical instruments. I didn’t anticipate the combination of computer technology and synthesizers, though engineers at Moog Co. speculated that everything would eventually be zeros and ones. It seems so strange to think that synthesizers were once such a rare thing that people would travel for miles just to see one.’” “Origins of Cool” profile in Alternative Press (June 99) by Mitch Meyers
“Origins of Cool: Reevaluating Seminal Artists. 
David Borden, who led the world’s first all-synthesizer group, is minimalism’s forgotten pioneer. Mitch Myers corrects this injustice.“...Inspired by Terry Riley, David Tudor and John Cage, Borden began composing on a 4-track recorder and in 1969 formed Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co., the world’s first all-synthesizer band. Since that time, Borden has been recognized as one of the foremost minimal composers. His complex excursions into drones, multi-metered contrapuntal figures and compact, interlocking keyboard motifs put him in an elite musical class. Behrends & Borden on “Continuing Story of Counterpoint”
“The series is a study in polyphony, or the rich interplay of musical voices, which Borden emphasizes and empowers through repetition. The direction he took with the Counterpoint pieces was inspired in part by an admiration for early music. “The music of Guillaume de Machaut, from the 14th century, and the music before the renaissance, that’s some of my favorite music. If you listen to Machaut, the voices have their own line and direction, although they’re very beautifully put together and very intellectually thought out. And there’s interplay - there’s inversion, some pieces have two voices and one is backwards and one is forwards, all the way through. And I love that kind of stuff. I do that in my own music.” “At the same time, the Counterpoint series also explores the opposite extreme of musical interplay, with works assembled out of unrelated voices. Several of the Counterpoint pieces were composed in “part book” form rather than full score, a pre-Bach technique that stresses the independence of individual lines. “...the 12 parts of “The Continuing Story of Counterpoint” are all quite expressive and imaginative. While working in a repetitive format, Borden has managed to sidestep both the insipidness found in Philip Glass’ recent work, and the automatism of Steve Reich. His dense musical tapestries of overlapping figures and battling meters create a sense of joyousness - a feeling evoked not by the programmatic manipulations of the classical vocabulary, but by the propulsive, dancing complexity of the music. Borden is well aware that such intricate, abstract music could easily become dry and off-putting, and he is justly proud of the accessibility of his work. “To make contrapuntal music intellectually satisfying and spontaneous sounding and have some emotional content is a very difficult thing. Bach could do it; a lot of people can’t do it that well. Mozart did it in the last symphonies, he had a hard time with it. Hadyn did it in those string quartets. Beethoven worked on it for a long time...” Borden on “Places and Times” (“Enfield in Summer”, “Enfield in Winter”)
“...I like working with abstractions. I like having the names of the pieces be descriptive, but the premise of the pieces is not that I’m trying to evoke a certain atmosphere all the time, that’s not just what I’m doing.” Borden on the C-A-G-E series:
“Those were pieces I did right before the Counterpoint series, and I think they were very important to my development...The pieces were based on Cs and As and Gs and Es - it was meant as a birthday present to John Cage one year, but it ballooned out of the original proportions.” “David Borden” Article in Estrada I Studio (Poland), October 1999
“Pocztówhi, Portrety, Pomnihi... DAVID BORDEN” by Artur Lasón
(the Polish “Keyboard” magazine; Borden features includes 3pp article, discography, & review of Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co.’s “1970-1973”.) Article in On & Off (Brazil), October 1992
Rock Minimalista: Vinte Anos de Mother Mallard” by Valdir Montanari Profile in The Ithaca Times, Arts & Entertainment
“David Borden: Making His Name at Home” by C. Putney Brisbane
“Now his name is starting to get around. His latest album has been picked up by JEM, a large, aggressive, successful distribution company. It is starting to dawn on some people that he is not a clone of either Reich or Glass. (Really the intensity of counterpoint should have made that crystal clear long ago.)” David Borden by Jim Dorsch allmusic.com click here CONCERT REVIEWS Victoria Theatre, Dayton, Ohio, 1990
“‘When the audience looks at us when we’re first on stage, nothing ‘happens,’ says the pioneer synthesizer musician and founder of the New Mother Mallard Band...’They’ll see racks of synthesizers and electrical boxes, two keyboard players facing each other, and in the middle, a singer, a wind player and a guitarist. We’re just standing amid all the equipment looking like a rock ‘n’ roll band populated with refugees from the ‘60s.
Most of us look kind of pathetic, really,’ he says with a hearty laugh. ‘But as soon as we start to play, they ask, ‘Why haven’t we been listening to this music all our lives?’’...Borden, along with contemporaries Philip Glass and Steve Reich, is one of the founders of minimalism, one of the most significant new music forms of the past 25 years.” Dayton Daily News, Art Snyder, 1/18/90 (USA) Town Hall, New York City, 1990
“Borden’s brand of counterpoint, as performed by his own ensemble, Mother Mallard, is a fast-paced repetitive collection of as many as four melodies at a time. Closer in affinity to Terry Riley’s “In C” than Philip Glass’ extravaganzas, “The Continuing Story” is divided into 12 section which break from the established tradition of minimalism as a rigid, electronic music to include jazz elements such as improvisation and frequent chord and key changes. 
Think mathematically for a moment. With four melodies going on at once, six relationships need coordinating every step of the way. Remember, Mozart wasn’t very good at counterpoint. Now throw in an improvising woodwind virtuoso. This Borden guy must be crazy. 
‘I don’t hear functional harmony,’ says Borden. ‘I do hear separate notes.’ Enter Buckminster Fuller’s principle of synergy -- a working system which cannot be predicted from the behavior of any of its parts. ‘I do have a good sense of time,’ Borden adds. Indeed he does.” Columbia Daily Spectator, Jordan Davis, 4/12/90 (USA) Lincoln Center, New York City, 1990
“David Borden’s Angels is, in a word, heavenly. The work -- conceived as a choreographed opera, but offered here (in Loncoln Center’s open-air, free summer concert series) as a simple oratorio -- unveils first-generation minimalist Borden’s premiere operatic venture. In the wake of his estimable magnum opus, The Contnuing Story of Counterpoint (1976-1988, heard in full at Town Hall last spring), Borden’s Angels seems like a happy focus for the composer’s gifts. And like the 12-part Continuing Story, the 12-part Angels (created with librettist Daniel Beekman) points out Borden’s encyclopedic tendency. A keyword for Borden is fullness: his music is full of life, foliage, oxygen... Musically, the piece calls to mind much of Philip Glass and something of Michael Nyman -- composers whose best vocal work, like Borden’s, carries the sweet irony of a tonal, harmonious, and jubilant utterance that’s indeed savvy about 20th century reality... Angels was thought-provoking, charged with a sense of meditation and fruitful inquiry, and bore a blast of celebration that Handel could have gotten behind.” Ear Magazine, David Raphael Israel, Nov. 1990 (USA) Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, 2000 On the Cage piece played:
“The original Cage music is spare, soft, unmelodic, and only occasionally rhythmic, not something that would appeal to a wide audience. The Borden ‘companion’ added needed continuity and musical accessibility to the piece, and also enhanced the idea of a ‘perilous night’ with spooky synthesizer effects. I would even go as far as to call this piece ‘dark ambient.’” On Borden’s minimalism:
“The music I heard tonight, though its style is not new and has been going for more than 30 years, felt new to me, it felt like a music appropriate for our 21st century age of Internet and virtual reality and sizzling circuits of information bytes. It didn’t weep European tragedy, and it didn’t pant with American lust. It was, in its cool pan-cultural kaleidoscopic fiberoptic richness, a glimpse of what our cultural life might be like in the next few decades. And it was also, by the way, wonderful fun to listen to as well. Welcome to the 21st century listeners!” David Borden's ''The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Part II, David Niemann 1984 ''The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Part II,'' in which Mr. Niemann was joined by the pianist Nurit Tilles, was the most successful of the Minimalist works; its kaleidoscopic jangle captured the listener's attention and held it throughout. CD REVIEWS by Grant Chu Covell La Folia Online Music Review 2004 David BORDEN: The Continuing Story of Counterpoint: Part One (1976), Part Three (1976); C-A-G-E, Part III (1975). Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co. Arbiter Records 136 Moving from flesh and blood to patch cables and analog circuitry, David Borden was the first to tour with Robert Moog’s synthesizers. This disc, out of place on Arbiter’s usual menu, presents performances taped in 1976 and ’77 when early synthesizers could play only one note at a time, with chords and textures having to be created through electronic effects. Borden’s figurations are rapid and tricky with constant meter changes and accents. Complex patterns derived from a detailed study of traditional counterpoint tumble gaily and incessantly. These performances reveal astounding technical and keyboard virtuosity. It’s wonderful that we have them. Borden’s excellent notes document early Moog history, its first music, and life on the road. Like A Duck To Water (1974-76)
Cuneiform Rune 147 Released: 2001 by Bill Tilland, All Music Guide A reissue of Mother Mallard's second LP on their independent Earthquack Records, this CD presents music from the latter stages of their work as a group, after they had been playing and rehearsing together for five or six years and shortly before David Borden began devoting his full attention to his monumental 12-part Continuing Story of Counterpoint series. During these sessions, the group was a trio (as they generally had been from the beginning), with Borden and colleague Steve Drews as the constants and Judy Borsher replacing Linda Fisher, who had been the third member on earlier recordings. Instrumentation varied somewhat within the group, but since members were actively collaborating with inventor Robert Moog throughout most of the group's life, various sizes and styles of Moog synthesizers were always the primary instruments, supplemented by an electric piano, which was usually played by Borsher (or Fisher before her). Borden had first envisioned Mother Mallard as a performance group who would disseminate and interpret the musical gospel of Glass, Reich, Riley, and other proponents of the new minimalism, and also feature original compositions by himself and his colleague, Steve Drews. Gradually, the original compositions took over, at least as indicated in the group's recorded work. However, the influence of the big-name minimalists is relatively strong here, and the seven pieces on this CD all exhibit elements of the rhythmic-pattern minimalism of Glass and Reich, with touches, also, of Riley's softer, drone-based mysticism. Consequently, although Mother Mallard is capable of the occasional funky ostinato riff, and notes are discreetly bent here and there, one will hear none of the variable pitch weirdness and timbral extremes which characterized prog rock's early appropriation of Moogs, and which Borden and company dabbled with a bit themselves during the early '70s. On this CD, Drews receives composer credits on five pieces to Borden's two, although one of Borden's two pieces is the lengthy and ambitious "C-A-G-E Part II," which clocks in at over 20 minutes. Somewhat surprisingly, there's really not much to chose between Drews and Borden as composers, and although Borden went on to achieve the greater reputation, a piece such as Drews' "Oleo Strut" could be easily mistaken for one of Borden's early "Counterpoint" pieces. Drews' "Waterwheel" is also very appealing, with patterns of different lengths moving in and out of phase with each other, producing some interesting auditory disorientation. Borden's feature piece is conceptually based, derived from the four musical notes which make up composer John Cage's last name. The musicians play their parts for prearranged lengths of time, coming together only at the end of the piece. In spite of its logical premises, "C-A-G-E Part II" is a serene, meditative, and even hypnotic musical experience, at times suggesting both Riley's "In C" and his "Rainbow in Curved Air." Borden's sophisticated knowledge of Baroque counterpoint is also evident in this piece, and he would use such elements to an even greater advantage a few years later in the Continuing Story of Counterpoint series. ~ Bill Tilland, All Music Guide Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company - "Like A Duck To Water" (Issued 1976 by EarthQuack Records USA, Re-issued 2001 by Cuneiform Records USA) From Aural Innovations #18 (January 2002) Reviewed byDoug Walker For complete article click here “Once again, Steve Feigenbaum and my buddies at Cuneiform Records have unearthed another historic recording of the first Synthesizer ensemble in the world! MMPMC released this follow-up to their first LP in 1976; it was quite difficult back then to purchase the recording in Record shops... "Water Wheel" is almost a template for some of the musical techniques used by the "Berlin School" of Electronic Music (such as TD, Klaus Schulze, J.M. Jarre), but without the Teutonic-isms and Pink Floyd Rock & Roll moves involved with their sounds! "Oleo Strut" was a live set staple, weaved around a prepared tape, and a "cascading effect" found when the E-piano is dumped into an echo unit...... With the inclusion of the unreleased tunes, MMPMC would've been able to have issued this as a double LP. These tracks show the evolution and interest in the use of Synthesizers to stay within the "Classical Avant-Garde" of Electronic Music. None stray from poly-Cyclic compositional forms, but are beguiling and unusually soothing, especially live, the sound was pure but the audience had to restrain itself, and actually be quiet and listen to the music with total concentration!” Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company
(1970-73) Cuneiform Rune 109 Released: 1999 “Before Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Brian Eno dropped conventional instruments to focus on electronic sound generators, composer David Borden was working with Bob Moog as a leader in the development of the Moog synthesizer. In 1968, Borden took this experience and drafted like-minded artists Steve Drews and Linda Fisher to form Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co., the world’s first live-performing all-synthesizer ensemble.... Most of the early attempts to make serious music with synthesizers came off like a child learning how to ride a bike; awkward and uncoordinated, generally resulting in a painful experience for all involved. In contrast, the pioneering efforts of MMPMC stand as a monument to the gimmick-less magnificence that can be achieved with a pure application of this technology.” – Magnet, Michael Hopkins, 1999 (USA) “Aside from being an invaluable historical document for any serious fan of ambient/electronic music, this is also a warmly enjoyable collection. Mother Mallard’s PMC... was sort of the house demo band for Robert Moog’s nearby studio/factory where the keyboard synth was invented. This CD consists of five long cuts that add up to 65 minutes of music showcasing early kernals of what became the electronic rock of Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, as well as classical minimalism and th more rhythmic style of space music. With only four-track recording and patch cord tuning, Mother Mallard made incredibly alive electronic music.” NAPRA Review, Nat Friedland, May/June 1999 (USA)

“Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company was the very first synthesizer ensemble (one which included a woman, no less) and one of the first to do live performances... Their style derived in large part from the Minimalists, especially Philip Glass and Terry Riley. However, Mother Mallard’s music also fits in with that of such Germans as Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerek and Klaus Schulze. The ensemble favors repetitive modules, clearly tonal musical materials, a steady pulse and extended electronic drones. The first track, “Ceres Motion,”…[has] color and character [that] is quite a lot like that of early Terry Riley, especially A Rainbow in Curved Air, but with more rock...”Train” sounds rather like something from Brian Eno and Robert Fripp’s Evening Star, but predates it by some three years...this music has a timeless quality.” Pulse!, Dean Suzuki, 1999 (USA) “...in the letter “M” of the ”Records which Changed My Life”…we now have the original Mother Mallard silvered. Titled Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiec Co. 1970-73… the CD has tightened up the bass and retained the wonderful sonorities of these analog synthesizers, mostly Moogs and miniMoogs. “Ceres Motion” begins with a striking repetitive figure…This was minimalism before it became mechanical or intellectual; soaring flights of fancy within a loosely-held structure. Pieces like “Cloudscape fro Peggy” or “Train” are tone poems; these are precursors of what later became the scourge of “ambient” (read “new age” for those who don’t dare call it that) music. Slowly developing and evolving, these retain the human touch uynlike so much done by the robotic synthesizers we’ve inflicted on ourselves…Mother Mallard is a must-get for anyone interested in any genre of music…If your tadstes tend toward electronic, drone, trance, free jazz, even to composers of such disparate sonorities as Olivier Messiaen and Arvo Pärt, you must buy this disc. You must. That’s all.” La Folia, Steve Koenig, www.lafolia.com “Borden put together a group known as “Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co. - the first all-synthesizer band on the cutting edge of bringing to the public the sounds of the early Moog. The same year, Wendy Carlos was acquiring fame with Switched-On-Bach, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company was turning their talents towards more minimalist music styles.. the music is comparable with the best minimalist music composed of the day. The compositions employ the long outdated techniques of strip tape looping, pad recording, and ribbon controlling. This album is truly a historic journey of the original pioneers during the early days of synthesizer music.” NAV Music Reviews, Peter Manzi, May 1999 (USA)

“Calm, slow beautiful music played on those huge modular Moogs that need a million patch cords to make one sound.–the kind Wendy Carlos used to make “Switched On Bach.” “Cloudscape” perfectly evokes such a thing; so does “Train” and the slower moments of the others, but when they get kicking, it’s reminiscent of other pulse-music made at the time by Riley, Reich & Glass, and most worthy of that company. “Easter” bops and gurgles in a most Kraftwerk-like fashion, foreshadowing the “Kraftwerk” that was to come.” Mole Magazine, Jeff Bagato, #12 (USA) “Mother Mallard’s newest record is a historical document, reissuing the band’s 1974 debut LP, but there is no need to avoid it, because it sounds contemporary, fresh, exciting and possibly easier to understand than when it was recorded…When [Borden] finally figured out how to adapt his classical training to the modular Moog, Borden formed the first all-synthesizer band and produced sophisticated , evocative, and upbeat work that demonstrated the full possibilities of the new instruments to a legion of artists to come. Washington Post, Jeff Bagato, 4/1/00 “The sound is largely ambient - school of Riley, Glass, etc - featuring mini-Moog drones and subtly shifting textures, but one track percolates nicely around a sampled loop... this was 1972. Fascinating stuff.” Mojo, March 1999 (England) “Cuneiform has just released the early works of Mother Mallard, an early electronic/prog/new-music band, and it’s eye-opening in terms of innovation, providing the missing links between several disjunctive musical styles. They took textbook minimalism and added a rock beat to it; they created ethereal synthesizer landscapes, the worst aspects of which would molt into new age, the best of which would emerge as playful, intellectual electronica by Ryoji Ikeda or Aphex Twin. They were the first rock band to work closely with Robert Moog, bringing the innovations of Raymond Scott’s “Music For Babes” into the rock sphere (Moog built synthesizers for Scott in the 60s). Mallard also aligned themselves with avant-gardists like David Tudor and John Cage (an early work was called CAGE, using only the chords C, A, G and E on an electronic keyboard), providing a solid historical foundation for their experiments. 
Each of the five tracks here provides some sort of Rosetta stone in terms of figuring out how several styles of music evolved in the way that they did. The first cut, “Ceres Motion” (1973) shows the transition between pulse-based high minimalism and full-blown prog rock; its the missing link between the loopy keyboards of Terry Riley or Philip Glass and the baroque precision of Tangerine Dream or early Yes....
“Cloudscape for Peggy” (1970) sounds like it could have been recorded in 1995. It’s a quiet, 12-minute soundscape of pulsating electronics that easily fits the genre of ambient music, written 25 years ahead of its time. In a visionary move, Mallard took the ways and means of dry academic electronic music, softened the approach, added structure and stripped out the dissonance, without letting the piece turn into overcooked mush. On “Easter” Mallard tackles what was to become mechanistic pop, best expressed by early Kraftwerk. The most stunning work on the disc is a piece called “Music” from 1972, which starts out with a sample from that old “Put another nickel in...all I want is music music music song and then glitches on the word “music” for 13 minutes...While Mallard saw it as a pop update to Steve Reich’s “It’s Gonna Rain,” the use of an appropriated repetitive sample didn’t become common practice until the 90s. It’s just another reason to be thrilled that Cuneiform brought these essential, long-lost works to light.” New York Press, Kenneth Goldsmith, 1999 (USA) During the late 60s…only pioneers like Walter Carlos and John Cage were using [synthesizers] to record and play live. But according to Cuneiform Records, the trio Mother Mallard was the first “ensemble” to use synthesizers exclusively. A quick glance through history confirms this claim, as early records by electro-vanguardists Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Silver Apples utilized regular instruments alongside the primitive electronics. 
So Mother Mallard… have their place in history. But is the music any good? You bet. This disc is pretty much essential for collectors of electronic music, as well as anyone interested in its origins.
…plenty on this disc will cause synth-heads to recall groups like T. Dream, Neu!, Cluster and other classic electro projects. 4 stars.” Atlanta Press, Mitchell Foy, Jan 14-20, 2000 “This timely release charts the original works of Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, who have a pretty fair claim to be the world’s first all-synthesizer group. The initial lineup of David Borden, Linda Fisher and Steve Drews came together in the late-60s.. to work through the possibilities offered by Robert Moog’s first commercially available synthesizers... their investigations formed an important stage of development in electronic music. And, unlike other early electronic contemporaries, very little here sounds dated. Indeed, its amazing how fresh much of this music sounds, “Ceres Motion” in particular could be played in open-minded clubs...The 1972 track “Music” must be a pretty early example of sampling... “Cloudscape for Peggy” and “Train” (both 1970) are actually the deepest ambient experiences - extremely lovely liquid drones... perhaps now Mother Mallard will get the recognition they clearly deserved.” Motion, Dan Hill, May 99 (England) “From some of the earliest days of American popular electronic music comes the work of “Mother Mallard,” the first all-synthesizer band in the United States… This CD features some of the earliest music “Mallard” produced. It was an age where even classical ensembles could have odd names... and where composers like Steve Reich and Philip Glass were disturbing the “classical” music world with the loud, repetitive, trance-inducing sound known as “minimalism”. Mother Mallard was part of that world of flexible musical boundaries, able to borrow styles from both the Minimalists as well as from current psychedelic rock and jazz. Masterpiece contains five pieces which range from what we would now call “trance rock” to quiet, impressionistic “ambient”...
The sound of these Moog Synthesizers is a bit raw compared to our current computerized, refined synthesizer sounds. You can hear the whine and buzz of those old oscillators and sound filters and rhythm generators which went into these first portable synthesizers. But the tradition lives on even though the technology has evolved.” Wind & Wire, Hannah Shapero, July/Aug.1999 (USA) Hannah Shapero’s site “Most of the music here is beyond minimalism; in fact, it’s much closer to exploratory proto-space music or new age on the highlights “Ceres Motion and “Cloudscape for Peggy,” the latter of which was composed around the time acts like Tangerine Dream and Cluster were just getting started.” All Music Guide http://allmusic.com/, John Bush, 1999 “…in the late ‘60s... [Borden] was hunkering down at Bob Moog’s lab in nearby Trumansburg where the inventor was developing the first voltage-controlled electronic synthesizers, an unknowing guinea-pig who later learned he’d been “idiot-proofing” the new models as he fooled around with the instruments (Borden remembers one keyboard “looked like the cockpit of an airplane”).By the end of the ‘60s, Borden began thinking about how the synthesizer could be applied to minimalism and modern creative music on the concert stage; “I wanted to present very new and startling work,” he has simply stated. Influenced by electronic musicians like Gordon Mumma and David Tudor, as well as the new pieces by young composers he discovered in an avant-jazz publication... Borden began to put together the collective ... known as Mother Mallard. Throughout the ‘70s, MMPMC pioneered the use of Moog’s keyboards, particularly in live performance settings.. Drones and complex rhythms mark their recordings, with multitrack layering borne out of his contrapuntal approach to composing. Critics missed the point as usual, complaining that “nothing happened”. Now, years later, the original Moogs are prized collector’s items and the analog synth is attracting newfound serious interest.” Signal to Noise, Peter Gershorn, Nov/Dec 1999 (USA) “One of the lesser known chapters of American electronic music is documented with the release of Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company. This was the first all-synthesizer enesmble that became closely associated with Robert Moog and his creation, the voltage controlled electronic synthesizer, in the late ‘60s…Although Walter Carlos’s Switched On Bach brought public attention to Moog’s synthesizer, Borden took inspiration from composers like John Cage and Terry Riley and delved into the avant-garde of electronic music. Mother Mallard share similarities with synth groups spawned shortly thereafter like Synergy and Tangerine Dream by working with drones and complex rhythms to create trance-like, looping layered melodies and ambient works of tonal textures. There’s even an instance of looping samples on “Music.”” Exclaim, Ian Danzig, April 1999 (Canada) “To say the sound is “Moogish” would get a bit redundant in that they were using some of Robert Moog’s first commercially available synthesizers: 2 Mini-Moogs, a RMI electric piano, and 3 Custom Moog Modular Systems. Despite the date on these recordings… some of these 5 tracks would go over well with fans of contemporary ambient electronics (…all or most of them would go over well with fans of Tangerine Dream, etc). Ceres Motion fairly well epitomizes the basis of that sound, despite being analogue and without lapsing into boringness. Droning and wavering synths steadily weave together with more melodic strains, and eventually both of the former become a fast and repetitive basis as their tempo steadily shifts upward… Music crescendos into much fun with the keyboards towards the end… Easter(‘s)…ending is very loud, layered and manic: analog sounds of many types zip, burble, bleep, and loop everywhere. I most enjoyed this one and Music, which were perhaps the two most raucous tracks on the CD. The bulk of this music’s style is very minimalist, but it doesn’t make the mistake of simply droning into unrelenting repetitions of nothing interesting.” Cyber-Psychosis AOD, Jasmine Sailing, #9 Aug. 1999 (USA) “David [Borden] is now known as an innovator in systemic and neo-classical music, and the Mallards were technically of that ilk, being notably inspired by Terry Riley for one…also important in this band was Steve Drews, an innovator and major composer himself with the Mallards. Linda Fisher completed the trio… she is responsible for the faster nimble keyboard work here.
Anyone familiar with early organ-based Riley, Steve Reich’s Phase Patterns, and the more systemic elements of French Acts like Lard Free or Ilitch, will have a good idea of what to expect here. But, instead of organs you’ll hear big modular Moog synths, beefy chunky electronics in dazzlingly complex arrays, ably turned out by three dexterous musicians. Audion, #41 Nov. 1999 (England) ‘Borden came to Moog excited about the prospects of creating electronic music. Moog taught Borden how to pilot the massive control panel that powered his unusual invention, watching the mistakes that Borden made in an effort to simplify the Moog for more universal use. Without Borden’s naïve attempts to navigate the Moog’s arcane possibilities in the late ‘60s, the entire timetable for the evolution of electronic music would have been derailed for years…
The music on 1970-73 shows a range of styles, all of which are familiar in hindsight, but which Mother Mallard predated by several years. Eno’s ambient wallpaper, Glass’s minimalist manifestos, and the German clockwork calibrations are all evident in these compositions dating from an era when electronic music was still being met with confused stares. Borden, Drews and Fisher not only used the Moog to create tone poems of pure ambient atmosphere, but drew heavily on jazz influences as well as uniquely American composers like Aaron Copeland to create this revolutionary hybrid that was so far ahead of its time that its influence has been largely forgotten. This Cuneiform reissue resurrects Mother Mallard’s… seminal synthesizer experimentation along with an additional 25 minutes of never before released material.
…To listen to Mother Mallard’s quiet experimentation today is to be reminded of the 25 years that followed their tentative but innovative footsteps. For fans of this brand of music, 1970-73 is a thrilling archival piece that gives a rare glimpse into the primal beginnings of a style of music that barely existed and was years away from acceptance when these recordings were made.” Audio Café, 2000 “There hardly is a dance club and definitely not a rave that does not boast a “chill-out” or “come-down” room for ambient and relaxing tone basking. Before many of these ravers and club-goers were even born, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Co. induced such mind-calming therapy in its listeners through the sole use of Moog synthesizers….”1970-73” features only pure-Moo[g] compositions by the original trio of Linda Fisher, Steve Drews and David Borden. Moog enthusiasts should take note that “Music” on this collection is performed on the first MiniMoog ever made… The layers and repetitive interaction of two or three Moogs interacting on the twelve-minute-plus tracks here is a gateway to a comfortably cushioned analog sonic paradise.” In Faction, Tom Schulte, 2000 (USA) “We’re talking History here, folks! David Borden, Steve Drews, and Linda Fisher, neighbors to Robert Moog near Ithaca, NY in the early ‘70s, were the first to try, idiot-proof, and perform music on, the original prototypes of the Moog synthesizers. The earliest of these 1970-73 recordings were even produced in the Moog factory in Trumansburg, NY… The word “minimalism” hadn’t yet been coined, but Mother Mallard’s music would end up being one of the genre’s forerunners…the sound forms and compositional techniques are still very much with us today…unless Terry Riley’s Rainbow in Curved Air, and some early Glass and Reich, were your daily music fix some thirty years ago, this will sound as new as anything. …Mother Mallard’s was able to be quite UN-self-conscious, to be humorous in its compositions, and actually grooved and rocked a good deal on some of the pieces therein. …if you know and like the composers mentioned above, this is hugely recommended.”
Carbon 14, Michel Polizzi, 1999 “Sometimes a writer gets a release that… evokes such strong, pleasant memories of discoveries made in one’s youth… I was overjoyed to find this release…I have listened to this music since 1971, and bought their first LP at a 1974 live show at NYC’s “Public Access Synthesizer Studio” (PASS), which existed to serve as a non-profit performance Space for Electronic Music, and allow local composers, musicians, and artists the ability to utilize Electronic Music instruments economically.
MMPMC originally began as the test crew for Moog synthesizers in late 1969. Founder David Borden had been an award-winning Pianist and Composer when he became seduced by the possibilities of Electronic Music…recruiting compatriot Steven Drews and Pianist Linda Fisher, Borden began to experiment with ideas and arrangement for a trio of electronic Keyboardists. Many concerts were given as the trio worked on developing a group sound based on ostinado sequencer patterns and cyclic counterpoint. These ideas seemed to find much favor amongst many Classical Avant-Garde composers of this era, from Terry Riley to Steve Reich to Philip Glass to Lamonte Young.
“Cloudscape for Peggy” is a well-know Electronic Music composition and usually opened MMPMC live performances…”Train” was another staple of the band’s concert music, and appears on the first LP…
MMPMC’s approach to creating live Electronic Music was very successful from about 1972-76, and they did many performances at radio stations and college campuses throughout the US. I first experienced them during a radio broadcast in 1971, when they performed live at WBAI-FM….a connection was made for me aurally with music I’d begun to hear from the likes of Tangerine Dream, or Popul Vuh. Obviously Borden’s approach would be adopted by Froese, Schulze and comp[any, whose adaptation involved the removal of classical influence, and replacing it with an understanding of the creation of Electronic Music in a Rock context, hence MMPMC’s relevance to the SpaceRock genre.”
Aural Innovations, Doug Walker, #9 Jan. 2000 Click her for complete article ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Parts 1-4
Cuneiform Records Rune “the [Counterpoint] cycle is in the regal style of the small electric ensemble (keys, wind, guitar and voice... and placed Borden with the giants of the first wave of minimalist composers (Glass, Riley, and Reich). For those who appreciate this dizzying rapidly-repeating and hypnotic form of music, the release of this CD stands as a landmark in the field.”
Alternative Press, Michael C. Mahan, Dec. 1991 (USA) “David Borden is a minimalist composer, with medieval roots... The Continuing Story of Counterpoint is a set of elaborate contrapuntal melodies that sometimes rush by like Guillaume de Machaut on amphetamines, at others like a slow-motion aerial ballet. Borden’s interwoven lines unfold like Melvin Prueitt’ds computer design, Wing, twisting and turning in three dimensional space, each shift of the perspective revealing new facets. The relentless precision of his synthesizer arranged lines are balanced... by the pure soprano of Ellen Hargis. Intoning the names of contrapuntal composers and techniques, it makes this music sound like a 14th Century hymn sung in space.
If this had been released in the 1970s, when much of it was composed and when Borden was performing it with his synthesizer trio, Mother Mallard’s Portable Masterpiece Company, it would’ve been hailed as a masterwork of minimalism. Coming to light in the early 1990s, it...stands as a model of form and beauty.” Jazziz, Feb/March 1992 “With his ensemble, Borden practices a kind of minimalism that moves in the opposite direction of Philip Glass’. You could even call Borden’s style maximalist to describe the Phil Specter-like wall-of-sound produced by his kinetic, loopy melody lines. In fact, Borden’s music has less in common with modern minimalists, and a lot more with the kind of heavy counterpoint and contrapuntal tendencies found in Baroque music. Imagine an updating of the Back “Inventions” played by denizens from the New York downtown art scene.” Richard Kadrey, Covert Culture Sourcebook, St. Martin’s Press: 1993 “unlike the penchant other minimalists have for backloading some (often overwrought) emotional content into their essentially emotionless methods, Borden seems content to let the music’s pure structure carry it or fail on its own.
..his 12 year, 12-part Counterpoint project... is what he says it is - an extended exercise in composing horizontally layered music that has no functional harmony, but rather builds a pretty parfait of simple, cyclical melodies in counterpoint. Usually that means compiling fast, neo-Mozartian, two-handed lines for two or more electric keyboards, then floating sustained chords over the top with voices and winds. It’s a melodic waterfall; you can either listen to the layered gestalt or pick out individual streams as they rush by... Even at its most dense, this music is playful.. with Borden’s orchestra, Mother Mallard, swimming happily in a midstream between “serious” and more popular musics - between Glass-Reich-Riley and, say, the brainier keyboard projects of pop intelligentsia like Eno and Mark Mothersbaugh.” City Paper, June 1991 (USA) “Borden’s work has qualities similar to Glassworks-era Philip Glass and Terry Riley’s In C. The music has very quick repetitious themes that glide effortlessly, then collide into one another. Unlike Glass or Riley, who let their compositions slowly evolve, Borden triggers countermelodies so quickly that they appear spontaneous or improvised.” Players, 2/20/92 “David Borden’s The Continuing Story of Counterpoint series, in 12 parts...occupies three full CDs, and took Borden 11 years to complete. With a solid academic grounding in the work of early contrapuntal composers and the literature of counterpoint, Borden set out to, in his own words, “develop my own contrapuntal language.” The single-mindedness of Borden’s quest... allowed Borden to complete a truly impressive, even definitive, work of 20th century minimalism, which more than one critic has compared to Bach’s “Goldberg Variations.”...it’s important to keep the record straight and give Borden the credit he deserves...he is a true contemporary of Reich and Glass, rather than just a disciple... The music in Borden’s Counterpoint series... has a relentless rhythmic base and an abstract, almost mathematical precision... Like Bach, Borden is not a tunesmith who composes hummable melodies; he has more lofty goals, and deals more in motifs and interlocking patterns... The dominant melodic theme is hauntingly beautiful...” All Music Guide, http://allmusic.com, Bill Tilland, 1999 “I had this on vinyl but had worn it thin; now that Cuneiform has released it on CD it’s like having it performed in my living room -- what a pleasure!” B-Side 12/91-1/92 (USA) “a pleasant and highly listenable mixture of classical forms, dense textures, strict counterpoints and high energy electronics.”
Background , Maarten Avontuur, Aug. 1992 (The Netherlands) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Parts 5-8
Cuneiform Records Rune 21 “Minimalism, for those unfamiliar with the genre, is a compositional style with roots in traditional eastern music. It is based on rapidly repeating cycles of notes, gradually being altered as the piece moves on. There are generally two distinct sound layers, one moving frantically and hypnotically about a slower and majestic bottom layer. Minimalist compositions are generally for a small ensemble...
Borden’s song cycle... is one of the finest examples of minimalism for a small ensemble.
The sound is very full. Part Five was reminiscent of Mozart in that the complexity of the arrangement seemed so natural. Nothing seemed forced. The complex maze of notes was as normal as the music from a bird-filled forest.”
Alternative Press, #30 “...Borden shows himself here to be a dyed-in-the-wool minimalist, recalling the glory days of the early to mid-1970s, before excessive romanticism crept into the music of the minimalist ideologues…One can make comparisons with the sound and style of the Philip Glass Ensemble or Mikel Rouse’s Broken Consort, but Borden is very much his own man. This is wonderful music...a compelling musical experience.” Ear Magazine, Dean Suzuki, Nov. 1990 (USA) “Borden has contrived to establish intricate and sometimes obscure musical relationships among all twelve parts of the series....the music is often involving and quite beautiful -- in a civilized, understated way. ...Borden does seem to have a general aesthetic affinity with the early Baroque period, when music had a generalized spiritual quality and the individual ego was subordinated to a larger world of musical, philosophical and theological ideas. Not that Borden’s work is overtly religious, but it does commit itself to certain large-scale ordering principles, which distinguishes it from the eccentric and often egotistical self-expression of later periods in classical music. One of the unusual characteristics in Borden’s work, especially on this CD, is the combination of hyperkinetic 16th note patterns and long, floating drones, which creates an aural illusion of music which is racing forward and standing still at the same time. This is especially true of the three section of Part 8, which have a softer, slightly more romantic sensibility than their companions, and are probably the most compelling pieces on [this] CD.
All Music Guide, http://allmusic.com, Bill Tilland, 1999 “Parts 5-8 were originally written for electric piano, Moog and mini-Moog, but are re-orchestrated here using updated technology. And that’s the fascinating part... On the earlier version the interlocking keyboard parts were woven so tightly they almost became a single sparkling, flowing stream. On the updated version, a great variety of synthesized and sampled voices are used, contrasting with the textures of Borden’s son Gabriel’s guitar work. Here the piece’s individual strands, with their conflicting meters, become apparent for the first time.” Damp , #6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Continuing Story of Counterpoint, Parts 9-12
Cuneiform Records Rune 16 “Within the minimalist ranks, David Borden’s music has always stood alone with its logic of motion, elegance of line and form, and deft use of state-of-the-art technology... Borden writes a complex and hyperactive form of counterpoint, often through-composing each line as a separate entity yet interlocking them in synchronous orbits. He winds his pieces up like gyroscopes and sends them spinning full-tilt from the start... Each Counterpoint employs thematic material used in Part 1, which makes the variety that Borden elicits all the more amazing... When released in its entirety, this series may stand as the “Goldberg Variations of minimalism, a canon of work that defines a style and an era.”
Audio , John Diliberto, Aug. 1989 (USA) “Without the big-label exposure of Glass, Reich or Riley, [Borden] has single-mindedly pursued his musical vision for at least eleven years, and it is nicely summed up in this twelve-part counterpart series...Borden’s music has parallels with Terry Riley’s landmark In C, in that it sets up a series of independent motifs which are often played in different meters and for varying lengths of time. But unlike In C, Borden’s counterpoint series of independent motifs does not employ a pulse, and is not in a single key. In fact, Borden uses Riley’s approach as a point of departure, and has gone far beyond the original concept.... His music is lively, but rather austere, and he is perhaps the most intellectual of the minimalist composers...” Option, #33 (USA) “Of the minimalist school, David Borden is probably one of the most undeservedly obscure. The founder of Mother Mallard Portable Masterpiece Co., Borden has been quietly releasing a series of astounding records since the early ‘70s that incorporate his love of pre-Renaissance liturgical music, synthesizers (both analog and digital) and what he’s learned from LaMonte Young.
Counterpoint...utilizes just about every compositional trick in the book. The music is smoothly paced, with odd time signatures and wondrously atonal, yet consonant, voicings. It also has no new age pandering nor is it ponderously academic.
The triumph of this record is “#10.” In it, Borden has composed a marvelously dense series of phrases only to have his reed player, Les Thimming, improvise...Thimming’s sax work steals the show, probably coming the closest to Terry Riley’s “Poppy Nogood & His Shado Band” since Riley left that realm of work behind him.” Reflex, Steve Fritz, V.1 #10 Cage-Riley-Glass are ghosts of an important past but Borden is the spirit for the future. The contents are stunning, fulfilling and I await further episodes with an absorbing interest.” Outlet, #36 (England) “...since they began from similar assumptions and background...[Borden and Glass] have ended up with a superficial resemblance: mainly the keyboard sound and use of repetition. Indeed. It’s impossible to picture Glass composing such a bittersweet melody as graces “Part Twelve A”. Borden’s work is minimalist only in the sense that he uses a fair amount of repetition but that’s generally within the small units that he patches together for each composition, consequently creating a fair amount of change. Borden creates warm, intriguing music and not exercises in harmonic theory for no-humans-involved process music.” Lowlife, Lang Thompson, #16 “Borden, who once contributed to the development of the earliest synths, is a rather more amiable (and listenable) acquaintance than Glass and Reich put together. ...The Continuing... is highly melodic and possesses a variation and a nerve which is usually missing from the work of Borden’s colleagues...Borden’s music emerges as a series of fascinating, enigmatic themes; it is beautiful without being schmaltzy, well conceived and impeccably performed by Borden’s trio Mother Mallard.”
Puls, Thomas Hylland Ericksen, March 1989 (Norway)

“David Borden is one of the classical world innovators with his ensemble, Mother Mallard which has been performing all-synth minimalist masterpieces since ‘68, when Robert Moog gave the trio their first analog patch. Borden’s first major step was the use of synths over other composers’ non-electronic materialized, be it Steve Reich’s tape loops, La Monte Young’s tuned piano or Terry Riley trance compositions....
‘With synthesizers, I have a larger range that continually criss-crosses.’ Borden elaborates, drawing on an influence of generalist philosopher Buckminster Fuller. ‘When put together, they lose their individual identity and the whole takes place.’”
The New York Review of Records, Steve Fritz, Summer ‘90 (USA) “It is so incredibly rich and driven, yet it’s really very minimalist... It’s beautiful, strange, classical and avant-garde all in the same breath.” B-Side (USA) “The Continuing Story of Counterpoint is unambiguously signified by its title...the audible results are a series of segments which display an insistent but undaunting complexity born of interlocking musical elements, somewhat in the manner of Glass’s Music in Twelve Parts or Milesis’ Modi I And II.
Borden’s music, however, develops with its own kind of pace. Seemingly reluctant to take this systems thing too seriously, Borden allows his themes to become established and then artfully tinkers with them just enough to keep you interested. The music which results is harmonious, euphonious and generally emotionally uplifting without being deficient in the necessary compositional discipline.
Most of all, the human elements in this system are important in a way to which... Michael Nyman has alluded, in that the performers of this particularly demanding kind of music are not idealized interpreting machines but people... This seems to be explicit in Borden’s approach, or maybe it’s simply coincidental that his music exhibits a healthy emotional depth.
...Buy these recordings ... if you fancy the idea of a systems music which blends a remarkable level of technical assurance with a sense of gentle optimism and a readily approachable sense of fun.”
The Wire, Tom Corbin, July 1990 (England) “David Borden is a no-nonsense, roots minimalist, one who kept the faith of bracing 16th notes and keyboard dominated small groups...Borden’s forte is a streamlined harmonic sensibility influenced by early European music, and a crisp rhythmic drive devoid of obvious ethnic models...Borden has also astutely read the sign of the times, astutely integrating computer-driven samples and sequences, and small doses of improvisation. Downbeat, 2/89 (USA) “The complete Story is a twelve-part musical cycle based on strict counterpoint that kept Borden busy from 1976 to 1987. Despite the music’s rigorous internal logic, the minimalist tale offers the kind of textured attractiveness on the surface that could pass for background music in The Exorcist, Part 12.
Borden’s synthesizers combine with Les Thimming’s wind playing and Ellen Hargis’ voice to produce an arresting sound.” Jazziz, Feb/March/89 (USA) “..Borden shows amazing skills as both a composer and synthesist. This music is structurally complex, dense, and full of surprises...”Part Ten,” based on a canon, reflects the sweeping grandeur of a Mahler symphony. Later in the piece, when the tempo shifts, multi-reedist Les Thimming plays expression-laden alto and soprano solos... “Part Eleven” is a tour-de-force.” 
Option, Russ Summers, #24 (USA) “Less known by far than Reich or Riley or Glass, David Borden was mining the same “minimal” ore in the mid-sixties, years before he ever heard Reich or Glass...
Borden’s rhythms are rather compelling -- as conducive to toe-tapping as a pot of strong coffee. And as with Reich’s “Electric Counterpoint,” fetching melodic figures do leap to the ear out of his overlapping arpeggios -- an aural mirage effect. There’s also something endearingly baroque about his music...
But the real saving grace of these elaborately devised, repetitive compositions is the wild card element supplied by woodwind ace Les Thimming...Transcending the rather predetermined nature of Borden’s music, and the built-in pitfalls of soprano sax and clarinet, Thimming’s solos symbolize the triumph of humans over machinery...”
Baltimore City Paper, 3/31/89 “composed between 1986 and 1987...At this point in his project, Borden seems somewhat more adventurous, pushing against the boundaries of his own rules. Consequently, there is noticeable development in Borden’s contrapuntal language on this last disk, with somewhat softer timbres and perhaps a bit more melodic invention...Compared to the tightly controlled structures of the earlier parts, its development is extravagant and occasionally almost giddy. It is certainly the most colorful of all 12 parts in the series. Parts 9 and 10 feature the wordless soprano of Mother Mallard regular Ellen Hargis and at times sound like a combination of Brian Eno’s prototypical Music for Airports ambiance, matched with the underlying rhythmic pulse of early Steve Reich.” Borden composed Parts 9-12 of his Counterpoint series mainly between 1986 and 1987, about a decade after the series' earliest pieces. At this point, he seems somewhat more adventurous, pushing against the boundaries of his own rules. Consequently, there is a noticeable development in the contrapuntal language, with somewhat softer timbres and perhaps a bit more melodic invention. "Part 11" features a continually shifting tonal center and many related (but varying) melodic themes. Compared to the tightly controlled structures of the earlier Counterpoint recordings, this is extravagant and occasionally almost giddy, and almost certainly the most colorful part in the entire series. "Part 9" and "Part 10" feature the wordless soprano of Mother Mallard regular Ellen Hargis and sometimes sound like Brian Eno's prototypical Music for Airports ambience combined with the rhythmic pulse of early Steve Reich. According to Borden, "Part 10" is further distinguished as the only part in the series that includes improvisation, supposedly on alto flute, although solos by tenor and soprano saxes are written in a loose, improvisational style. (Many listeners will probably find the alto solos sounding the most improvised.) "Part 12A" starts with a lovely interlocking mallet pattern, very reminiscent of Reich, from which Borden builds a musical structure, with some vocalese from Hargis and two related patterns of long notes contrasting with the busy mallet progression. In "Part 12B," tuned electronic percussion is prominent for the first time in the series, and the relentless repetition and shrill timbres acquire an urgency that begins to suggest a touch of Gothic prog rock in the manner of Univers Zero. Borden's monumental Counterpoint series is brought to a close with "12C," a limpid, strangely muted piece that Borden indicates is meant to sound "dreamlike" and "inconclusive." by Bill Tilland allmusic http://www.chamber-music.org/sites/default/files/cma-mj-toc-12.jpghttp://www.chamber-music.org/sites/default/files/cma-mj-toc-12.jpghttp://www.chamber-music.org/sites/default/files/cma-mj-toc-12.jpghttp://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/david-borden-continuous-counterpoint/http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/david-borden-continuous-counterpoint/http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/david-borden-continuous-counterpoint/http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/music/2011-10-19/electronic-music-frkwys-7/#http://www.interviewmagazine.com/blogs/music/2011-10-19/electronic-music-frkwys-7/#http://www.nytimes.com/http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/02/arts/music/david-borden-at-issue-project-room-review.html?ref=allankozinnhttp://www.snapshotsfoundation.com/david-borden-interviewhttp://www.counterpunch.org/yearsley07082011.htmlhttp://www.counterpunch.org/yearsley07082011.htmlhttp://www.counterpunch.orghttp://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/classical-opera/1586269/interview-davidhttp://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/classical-opera/1586269/interview-davidhttp://newyork.timeout.com/music-nightlife/classical-opera/1586269/interview-davidhttp://ymlp.com/znwGqWhttp://blogcritics.org/music/article/the-40th-anniversary-of-the-mini/http://blogcritics.org/music/article/the-40th-anniversary-of-the-mini/http://www.counterpunch.org/yearsley04032009.htmlhttp://www.counterpunch.org/yearsley04032009.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/PINANA.htmlhttp://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog/PINANA.htmlhttp://www.counterpunch.org/yearsley04032009.htmlhttp://www.echoes.org/AncientEchoes2007.html#Bordenhttp://www.cuneiformrecords.com/emails/mallard40.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/04/arts/music/04cont.html?ex=1343880000&en=98fd742368c3ea81&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rsshttp://www.playbillarts.com/news/article/6553.htmlhttp://ithacaexperimental.blogspot.com/2007/09/synth-pioneer-david-borden-on-robert.htmlhttp://ithacaexperimental.blogspot.com/2007/09/synth-pioneer-david-borden-on-robert.htmlhttp://www.arbiterrecords.com/notes/136notes.htmlhttp://www.arbiterrecords.com/notes/136notes.htmlhttp://www.arbiterrecords.com/notes/136notes.htmlhttp://www.amazings.com/articles/article0067.htmlhttp://www.strangemusic.com/main_events_123_14.htmhttp://www.strangemusic.com/main_events_123_14.htmhttp://www.starsend.org/mmpmc.htmlhttp://www.starsend.org/mmpmc.htmlhttp://www.news.cornell.edu/Chronicle/00/4.13.00/Moog.htmlhttp://www.news.cornell.edu/chronicle/99/9.30.99/Mother_Mallard.htmlhttp://www.pyracantha.com/contact/http://www.scaruffi.com/avant/borden.htmlhttp://www.soniccuriosity.com/CUNEIFORM/scbordenmmallard.htmhttp://www.soniccuriosity.com/CUNEIFORM/scbordenmmallard2.htmhttp://www.soniccuriosity.com/CUNEIFORM/scbordenmmallard3.htmhttp://anotherworldofsound.blogspot.com/2008/01/mother-mallards-portable-masterpiece-co.htmlhttp://anotherworldofsound.blogspot.com/2008/01/mother-mallards-portable-masterpiece-co.htmlhttp://anotherworldofsound.blogspot.com/2008/01/mother-mallards-portable-masterpiece-co.htmlhttp://anotherworldofsound.blogspot.com/2008/01/mother-mallards-portable-masterpiece-co.htmlhttp://anotherworldofsound.blogspot.com/http://anotherworldofsound.blogspot.com/http://anotherworldofsound.blogspot.com/http://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/borden.htmlhttp://www.cuneiformrecords.com/bandshtml/borden.htmlhttps://www.mothermallard.comhttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:wcfexqu5ldhehttp://www.nytimes.com/1984/05/28/arts/music-edmund-niemann-in-debut.htmlhttp://www.nytimes.com/http://www.answers.com/topic/like-a-duck-to-waterhttp://www.answers.com/topic/like-a-duck-to-waterhttp://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue18/mallard2.htmlhttp://www.lafolia.comhttp://livepage.apple.com/http://www.pyracantha.com/contact/http://allmusic.comhttp://www.aural-innovations.com/issues/issue9/mallard.htmlhttp://allmusic.comhttp://allmusic.comhttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:PARTS%7C9-12http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fjfwxqrgldsehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:anfuxqe5ldjehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:abfuxqe5ldhehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=2:MUSIC%7CFOR%7CAIRPORTShttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0bfoxqlgldjehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fifpxqy5ld0ehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:fifpxqy5ld0ehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:anfuxqe5ldjehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:h9fixql5ldfehttp://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0bfoxqlgldjeArticles_&_Reviews_files/Museum%20of%20Making%20Music%20-%20Apr%2017%3A%20Moog%3A%20The%20Man%20I%20Knew%20and%20the%20Machine%20I%20Learned.webarchiveshapeimage_3_link_0shapeimage_3_link_1shapeimage_3_link_2shapeimage_3_link_3shapeimage_3_link_4shapeimage_3_link_5shapeimage_3_link_6shapeimage_3_link_7shapeimage_3_link_8shapeimage_3_link_9shapeimage_3_link_10shapeimage_3_link_11shapeimage_3_link_12shapeimage_3_link_13shapeimage_3_link_14shapeimage_3_link_15shapeimage_3_link_16shapeimage_3_link_17shapeimage_3_link_18shapeimage_3_link_19shapeimage_3_link_20shapeimage_3_link_21shapeimage_3_link_22shapeimage_3_link_23shapeimage_3_link_24shapeimage_3_link_25shapeimage_3_link_26shapeimage_3_link_27shapeimage_3_link_28shapeimage_3_link_29shapeimage_3_link_30shapeimage_3_link_31shapeimage_3_link_32shapeimage_3_link_33shapeimage_3_link_34shapeimage_3_link_35shapeimage_3_link_36shapeimage_3_link_37shapeimage_3_link_38shapeimage_3_link_39shapeimage_3_link_40shapeimage_3_link_41shapeimage_3_link_42shapeimage_3_link_43shapeimage_3_link_44shapeimage_3_link_45shapeimage_3_link_46shapeimage_3_link_47shapeimage_3_link_48shapeimage_3_link_49shapeimage_3_link_50shapeimage_3_link_51shapeimage_3_link_52shapeimage_3_link_53shapeimage_3_link_54shapeimage_3_link_55shapeimage_3_link_56shapeimage_3_link_57shapeimage_3_link_58shapeimage_3_link_59shapeimage_3_link_60shapeimage_3_link_61shapeimage_3_link_62shapeimage_3_link_63shapeimage_3_link_64shapeimage_3_link_65shapeimage_3_link_66shapeimage_3_link_67shapeimage_3_link_68shapeimage_3_link_69shapeimage_3_link_70shapeimage_3_link_71shapeimage_3_link_72shapeimage_3_link_73shapeimage_3_link_74shapeimage_3_link_75shapeimage_3_link_76shapeimage_3_link_77shapeimage_3_link_78shapeimage_3_link_79

Mother Mallard     David Borden     Robert Moog & David Borden     Music  

  Downloads     Concerts   Photo Gallery     Articles & Reviews    The Piano Thing