... Serge Gainsbourgh and Jane Birkin`s Je T` Aime, moroder decided to record something a little "sexy."
The result was Love To Love You Baby.
Originally released as a three-minute45, Love To Love You Baby didn`t start the Disco deluge until Moroder had the brainstorm to remake it as a seventeen minute heavy-breathing marathon.
"Some friend in Los Angeles were playing the 45 over and over again at a party. but they didn`t like having to change the record all the time. they suggested i make a long version. i did, and that`s when Disco took off."
Moroder`s next break through came with Summer`s I Feel Love. instead of making love to a microphone, Donna got it on with a machine; Moroder replaced all conventional instruments with droning synthesizers.
Progressive German rock has been using electronic instruments since the mid-60's, but Moroder`s I Feel Love was the first pop song to be completely synthesized. some critics have seen this as a reflection of industrial German society, the new muzik for Robby the robot, but not Moroder.
"It may sound repetitive and mechanical, but i don`t think it is. A musician still has to sit sown and play synthesizer. I use tape loops to write to as a basic rhythm track. One thing essential to Disco is a continuous rhythm, and i use electronic drums to guide the musicians so that they keep an exact tempo."
Moroder has now turned his distinctive style to writing and producing scores for films. His first, the music for the adventure flick Midnight Express, has won him a Golden globe award for best soundtrack of 1978. He is also the leading Oscar contender. In addition, Giorgio produced Last Dance, the song Donna Summer sings in Thank God It`s Friday. Last Dance also won a Golden Globe as best song, a Grammy for Donna, and another Oscar nomination. His next score is for the new Jodie foster picture, Twentieth Century Foxes.
Perhaps Giorgio`s strangest work, even beyond his all-electronic solo albums From here To Eternity and his latest Battlestar Galactica discorama, is his production of the new Sparks album, Number One In Heaven.
Have Sparks gone disco (after all, this is the Mael`s third or fourth attempt at a comeback), or has moroder gone Sparks?
"Well, it`s an electronic album, but not like kraftwerk or Neu. It`s a Sparks electronic disco record, with a little help of myself. I wrote one of the songs and co-wrote three others with the guys.!
Giorgio Moroder has been the leading stylist in record production for the past two years. his work ranges from disco to film scores and borders on the avant garde of electronic music.
Ant it sells and it sells...
"All the signs i see, especially in North America, say Disco will go forever. Everyday, radio stations change formats to Disco. It`s becoming more pop. the name will probably change, but this kind of music will continue to grow."

April 1979, The New Music

Go to page one

Complete article appear on The New Music - April 1979