The Tunegirl shows us all that age is just a number

Electronic music is young, and techno, even younger. So much, in fact, that Andrea Gill, known professionally as The Tunegirl, was born before it, in the 60s, at what was West Germany back then.

Techno first appeared in Detroit, USA, during the 80s, when Andrea was already a young adult. It is a genre that focuses on rhythm and the use of sound synthesis to develop new timbres, which means that it is heavily reliant on sound technology. Electronic instruments, digital audio workstations, software emulators and synthesizers are what allow techno artists to build their music across long periods of time —sets, rather than songs.

Andrea was captivated by the genre and its possibilities. She spent that decade and the next exploring minimal techno and working as a DJ. Then, she had a long pause, during which sound technology developed at great speeds and changed the field for electronic musicians. By the time she came back, the use of music software was so widespread that it looked inescapable. She learned her way around different programmes fast enough, but found them inflexible and frustrating.

The solution to her dissatisfaction was the modular synthesizer, more specifically, the Eurorack. As the name indicates, these synthesizers are made of modules that can be combined in a myriad of ways. While most electronic musicians use samples or prepare their sound in advance, those who work with Euroracks sculpt the sound and timbre of their music in real time by patching different elements of their synthesizers. This means that the sets are always improvised, and impossible to replicate exactly.

 

 

 

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Modular techno is a niche subgenre that nonetheless offered Andrea what she was looking for. This year, at age 63, she debuted in the Awakenings Upclose festival under the name The Tunegirl. Her set caused a deep impression, and gathered numerous positive reviews. Although she keeps a "day job", her schedule grows busier by the day.