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Above - the analog synthesizer used to create The Secret Life of Semiconductors.

The basic idea behind of what has become to be known as the Secret Life of Semiconductors began over 25 years ago. Originally entitled X, I had been toying with completing this abandoned work for some time, although it wasn't until the turn of the 21st century that I had an opportunity to do just that. The entire piece runs 28 minutes, with a shortened performance version just under 10.


SLOS is entirely analog, created mostly on instruments of my own design. I began developing modular analog synthesizers in 2003 after tiring of trying to bend digital instruments in like manner. It's not the sonic differences between these two extremes which put me to this task. While different, both are viable and I think it's good to have these choices. It was the control limitations of the closed architecture associated with most digital instruments which presented the challenge. For many composers this wouldn't be an issue. For me however it made the creative process, my schick, quite laborious.

Peter Grenader studied composition with an emphasis in electro-acoustic music at the California Institute of the Arts under the guidance of Barry Schrader and Morton Subotnick.

In 2002, Grenader's Electrolux won the Periòdic Experimental Music Festival in Barcelona, Spain. Other appearances include an evening performance at the 2003 SEAMUS National Conference, the University of North Texas, California Institute of the Arts, Stony Brook University, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champagne, University of Texas at Austin, Georgia State University's Pulse Field, the Florida Electro-Acoustic Music Festival, the Electric Rainbow ; at Dartmouth and the 2008 Sonic Odyssey Festival in Los Angeles. His music has been featured on CKCU-FM, Ottawa, Canada; WOBC in Oberlin, and Resonance FM, London, and on various podcasts including Sonic State and KCET and as guest host for Los Angeles based KCSN-FM's Galactic Voyager radio program .

Further palmares include The Institute of Sonology in Utrecht, Holland and GMEB in Bourges, France as well as two wins at the Virginia Commonwealth University Music Festival.

More recently Grenader was a featured composer at the 17th American Composer's Forum Salon in Venice and at the invitation of composer and sound artist Steve Roach served as a panel speaker at the fifth annual TapeOpCon in Tucson, AZ along with Dave Wright of Not Breathing.

In 2007 Grenader contributed to a Library of Congress project with Morton Subotnick and returned as a TapeOpCon panelist with Steve, Dave and Alessandro Cortini of Nini Inch Nails. Other performances included AnalogLIve! - a large-scale collaborative ensemble performance with composers Gary Chang, Alessandro Cortini, Richard Devine, Chas Smith, Thighpaulsandra of Spiritualized and video artist Paul Tzanetopoulos at the REDCAT Theater, located in the Disney Music Hall in Los Angeles.

A past member of the SEAMUS board of directors (Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States), he is the co-founder of the Electro-Acoustic Research which produces analog electronic music instruments under the guise of Plan B, as well as custom gear for Nine Inch Nails, Chilli Peppers guitarist John Frusciante, Guns N' Roses, film composer Gary Chang and Steve Roach. More info on Grenader can be found in prrint interviews on Tokafi.com, Synthtopia.com and Beat Magazine, Germany

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