Switched

Walter Carlos (1970)/Wendy Carlos (1979)

Wendy Carlos (Am., b. Walter Carlos, 1939) came to prominence in 1968, when her debut album Switched on Bach, became an instant classic of electronic music, it won her three Grammy Awards. The album popularized the Moog synthesizer, a craze of the 1970s. More importantly she helped to raise awareness of transgender issues when she revealed she was living as a woman since 1968 and had reassignment surgery in 1972. The tune in the Top 100 is Dialogue for Piano and Two Loudspeakers from her 1975 album (still as Walter Carlos) By Request. The album was less of a commercial success than some other that followed Switched on Bach, but contains a bit more experimentation. I feel a bit self-conscious about this painting as I wonder if Ms. Carlos would approve. 

Doàn Van Chop Và Kän Xua/Dan Tao

If I understand the Vietnamese words in a video from the Vietnamese Institute of Musicology in Hanoi correctly, Doàn Van Chop Và Kän Xua and Dan Tao are the performers of the A'bel. They belong to an ethnic group called Pako Tà Ôi, while the type of song is called A'bel. The instrument used, a simple bamboo flute with one finger hole, is an A'reng. The location is the Huong Läm community in the Loui district of the Thua Thien Hue province. A'reng is a simple reed instrument played by two players, one blows into the mouth of the second (who features as the resonace chamber) and is traditionally performed by a mixed couple. The tradition may be extinct. The painting shows the two performers who, in the video, stand very close together, they touch. They are separated in the painting.

Kiyo Kurokawa/Kazuyuki Tanimoto

Ihumke is a lullaby (nursery song) performed by Kiyo Kurokawa. The song features a strange vocal technique that involves a high-pitched trill and a rolling tongue. It comes from the UNESCO album Japan: Ainu Songs, which was recorded by Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Kazuyuki Tanimoto in Hokkaido, Japan in 1978. Tanimoto is like Kurokawa from Hokkaido.