VIA PRESS RELEASE | Shimmy-Disc shares the posthumous reissue of Bruce Haack’s 1975 album This Old Man (Shimmy-2029). This is the second Bruce Haack LP that Shimmy-Disc has re-released, following Captain Entropy (Shimmy-2019), in August 2023. This reissue is the first time This Old Man has been released on vinyl since 1975, originally via the artist’s own label, Dimension 5.
Bruce Haack (1931–1988) was a Canadian composer and electronic music pioneer whose creative output from the 1950s through the 1970s has been tragically under-appreciated. Now considered to have been decades ahead of his time, Bruce Haack forged his music from glittering “new” computer landscapes of his own invention, long before the world was aware that such things were even possible. Welcome to his beautiful crucible of electronic sounds, wherein he illuminated his myriad of interests in science, the wonders of childhood, and the human condition, woven into a musical tapestry that shimmers like an exploding sun.
Alongside the vinyl reissue, Shimmy-Disc is sharing a video for the single, “Thank You.” Bruce Haack’s greatest genius resided in his humble vision combined with a ferocious curiosity and idiosyncratic approach to musical experimentation. The directness of his prose and his ability to wear his heart on his sleeve is never more apparent than in this sweet apparition of a song. He means what he says, and he knows you know….who You are.
Most of the music on this album was programmed on a polyphonic music computer built by Bruce Haack from surplus parts furnished by Ver-Tech Radio of Philadelphia. The machine was made in 18 months—without diagrams or plans (Bruce Haack has never studied electronics) and will produce up to twelve simultaneous voices in changing sequence via a memory holding over four-thousand bits of information. It will also compose at random.
Bruce Haack (1931–1988) Canadian musician, composer, inventor, polymath, electronic music maverick, Bruce Haack composed his works and invented instruments on which to play them and bring them to fruition. He held a degree in Psychology, which would later influence his explorations into electronic music and the way children process and absorb information.
He had a brief stint of study at Julliard School in NYC but that environment proved too restrictive as Haack wanted to explore a myriad of musical forms and cultures simultaneously. He wrote for dance and theater productions, as well as pop tunes for Coral Records and Dot Records, sometimes shopping his work in the legendary Brill Building in NYC.
An early proponent of Electronic Music and synthesizers, in the 1960s he appeared on TV shows like I’ve Got a Secret and The Tonight Show, often playing his own invention—The Dermatron—a touch/heat sensitive synthesizer using the foreheads of guests. He continued to write serious compositions and had his “Mass for Solo Piano” performed at Carnegie Hall in the early ’60s.
Haack developed his own instruments, including effects pedals, synthesizers, and modulators along with his own recording techniques to capture their unique cadences. He created instruments capable of 12-voice polyphony and random composition. Ahead of his time and beyond categorization—Haack continued to create trying to find new platforms in order to promote his electronic music. He scored many commercials during the 1960s and promoted electronic music on TV, even demonstrating his inventions on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1968. He self-released his first children’s music album later that year.
Haack constantly added new genres and inspirations to his compositions and was greatly influenced by the psychedelic rock of the era. He constantly created new work that reflected not only his varied interests, but his shifting musical horizons. He created multiple youth oriented albums, dipping into science fiction, psychedelia, and electronica, using traditional song structures in order to capture children’s attention to educate them, while wrapped in one of his many personas.
Bruce Haack wanted people to know him through his medium—music. He dedicated his life to exploring, inventing, and sharing his eclectic brand of humor and many musical points of view. In failing health, he never stopped pursuing his distinctive musical dreams. His swan song was recording a hip-hop tune “Party Machine” in collaboration with Def Jam’s Russell Simmons.
