The strange sounds – and history – of the theremin

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From left: Sean Michaels, Eban Schletter, and Steve Chiotakis practice their theremin skills at KCRW.
From left: Sean Michaels, Eban Schletter, and Steve Chiotakis practice their theremin skills at KCRW. (The original image is no longer available, please contact KCRW if you need access to the original image.)

If there’s any instrument that gets misunderstood and under-appreciated in music, it’s the theremin.

Countless bands have employed the warbly, eerie-sounding electronic instrument, from The Pixies to the White Stripes. It was perhaps most famously used by The Beach Boys in “Good Vibrations.”

The theremin was created by a Russian physicist, Lev Sergeyevich Termen. He’s the main character in “Us Conductors”, the debut novel by Montreal-based writer and music critic Sean Michaels, who spoke with KCRW’s Steve Chiotakis. Also in the studio is Eban Schletter, a composer and thereminist.

They’ll be part of a theremin tribute night on Wednesday at the Largo at the Coronet.