Obituaries
PETER ZINOVIEFF
Synth pioneer (1933-2021)
EVENING STANDARD/HULTON ARCHIVE/GETTY IMAGES
Engineer and composer Peter Zinovieff (below) playeda major role in shaping the course of modern music when he co-founded Electronic Music Studios with David Cockerell and Tristram Cary in London in 1969. One of the first companies to make synthesisers commercially available, EMS developed the VCS3 and Synthi A, employed in the ’70s by Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk, Brian Eno, Hawkwind, Jean-Michel Jarre, The Who, Todd Rundgren, King Crimson and countless others. The son of Russian aristocrats who’d fled the revolution, Zinovieff began creating electronic music with Unit Delta Plus, featuring BBC Radiophonic Workshop members Delia Derbyshire and Brian Hodgson, in 1966.A year later they performed at a showcase gig at the Roundhouse, alongside Paul McCartney (a visitor to Zinovieff’s studio in Putney), who unveiled the still-unreleased avantgarde piece, “Carnival Of Light”. Zinovieff reignited his interest in composition in recent years, working with various sound artists, musicians and poets, including regular collaborator Katrina Porteous.