Bob Moog Foundation

In his rise as a virtuoso keyboardist in the mid-70s, Patrick Moraz worked closely with Bob on the early testing of the Polymoog and Macromoog. He visited the Moog Music factory, located in Williamsville, NY in 1975 as a musician consultant; in turn Bob visited Patrick in Switzerland to help Patrick with the programming and tweaking of the Polymoog for his upcoming solo album Story of I.

“…It was at the same time a miracle and a wonderful experience”, says Patrick, “that I was able to invite Bob Moog to Geneva, Switzerland, during the first several weeks of the recording and production of my first solo album “I” (a.k.a. “The Story of I”). Bob and I were able to work long hours in the studio, even sometimes during the night, and quite a lot of sounds and textures which are featured on the album came from those sessions. Bob was truly a genius in his own right, and he was always very calm and extremely dedicated to his art, his own inventions and to the future of electronic music as a whole! He also a great sense of humor! These were truly fantastic times!”

Today we are sharing a rare and wonderful photo of Bob and Patrick taken in 1975 behind Moog Music during that period of collaboration. Patrick has autographed 25 of these photographs  and donated 25 copies of  his new “Change of Space” CD in celebration of Bob’s birthday, which we are offering together for a $75.00 donation. All proceeds will go to support our Moogseum and Student Outreach projects.  Make your donation here. Thanks, Patrick, for your support!

Bob Moog and Patrick Moraz and the Macromoog, 1975

Here are a few more photos, discovered in Bob’s archives, that were taken during that same time period.

Patrick with Macromoog 1975

Bob and Patrick Tweaking the Polymoog

Bob working on Patrick's Polymoog

In February, Patrick released his most recent album “Change of Space”. Here is some information and history about the CD, in Patrick ‘s words:

” “COS”, as I call it, is a collection of songs and instrumental pieces never released as yet which I had the chance (the opportunity) to finish composing, recording, mixing and “polishing” over a period of about 14 years. Although I didn’t work on them “all the time” during that long period of time, these pieces reflect very much some of the music I have developed and recorded on my own as well as with other remarkable musicians. *

In the late 80’s and beginning of the 90’s I used to have my own recording studio in Hollywood, on the corner of Vine and Santa Monica Blvd. Since work was slow in “89” with the Moodies, I decided to do some sessions and also compose the music for the 700^th Anniversary of my country of origin, Switzerland.

There was always a lot of cultural and ethnic activities on the premises, with all kinds of local musicians from all styles, like Bunny Brunel, bass player extraordinaire, Kazumi Watanabe, the famous guitarist from Japan, John Wackerman, from the Wackerman family of drummers associated with Frank Zappa’s various groups, Alex Ligertwood, former lead singer with Santana in the 80’s, and Alex Acuna, premier percussionist of Joe Zawinul’s group “Weather Report”. Some of the pieces, as mentioned earlier were recorded in Los Angeles, i.e. “Peace in Africa”, “Change of Space”, “The Power of Emotion” and Stellar Rivers & Streams of lucid dreams”.

The other pieces, the suite entitled “Sonique Prinz” in 3 movements and the very last piece of the album “Alien Spaces” I recorded on my own, playing all the instruments at Audio Playground in Orlando as well. In regards to the technical, sound engineering and mixing aspect of those recordings, I was helped over different sessions by Joseph Rivers, the co-owner of the studio at the time and Eric “Woody” Wood, a Full Sail alumni. Though the studio itself doesn’t physically exist any more, one could find more info added about it and some of the synthesizers available on the premises, as well as the recording gear and the mixing equipment.

In regards to the theme of the music itself, my music generally always has to do with some “causes” pertaining generally to Freedom, in all its facets, and to Change, change for a better world, change for a better situation, Awareness, Spirituality and the Cosmos!”

To read much more about “Change of Space”, go to Patrick’s websites, www.patrickmoraz.net and www.patrickmoraz.com He’ll be posting more about it soon! You can also check out his entire collection of available CDs on the Voiceprint website.

*Please Note : All original names i.e. Patrick Moraz solo Albums, Cds, Dvds and original projects names are all copyrighted (©) and “tm” (Trademarked) as well as “R” (Registered Copyright).