Carolina Eyck, renowned superstar of the theremin

Save Log in , register or subscribe to save articles for later. Save articles for later Add articles to your saved list and come back to them any time. Got it Normal text size Larger text size Very large text size Uncanny, spooky, weird. The theremin is a musical instrument with baggage. Depending on your vintage, it’s the aliens landing in The Day The Earth Stood Still or the haunting waltz of Midsomer Murders. It’s the whiplash shriek in the crazy breakdown of Whole Lotta Love, Miss Huang’s instrument of choice during the camping trip in Severance or the trippy wobble in Good Vibrations. The fact that that last example isn’t actually theremin but a soundalike synthesiser only illustrates how entrenched the high-pitched, wide-vibrato, “woo-ooo” sound has become as a signifier of weirdness: a go-to vibe for the modern composer’s quantum leap to Far Out. None of this applied, mind you, to seven-year-old Carolina Eyck, studying classical violin and piano in East Germany in the ’90s. The ... Read full article.