A Life in Waves is a feature-length documentary film that explores the life and innovations of electronic music pioneer, Suzanne Ciani. Now a Kickstarter project has been started to fund this documentary.
A Life in Waves will be a biographical look at Suzanne’s dynamic and colorful career, from her earliest days learning the piano, to her multi-million dollar advertising ventures, to her innovations in the world of New Age music, to her recent connection with Finders Keepers records and re-acquaintance with her beloved Buchla synthesizer. More than this, the film will be a journey into Suzanne’s mind, offering a feminine glimpse into the often-complicated worlds of composition, electronic music, and advertising. Utilizing a wealth of archival footage and Suzanne’s endless catalog of music, we’ll create a nostalgic, visually-compelling look at one woman’s journey, and the trials she had to overcome to succeed in a traditionally male-dominated art form.
Now in her sixties, Suzanne reflects on her life from her home on the beach, recalling a turbulent time in the 1960s, when a rapidly changing culture gave way to creative movements like electronic music. It was also during this time that she met and worked with Don Buchla, a man she calls “the consummate designer of electronic instruments.” Flash forward a few years and she remembers herself in New York, sleeping on friend Philip Glass’s floor, going from studio to studio with her blinking, metal machine in tow, searching for an opportunity to record her music. A hugely successful advertising venture would follow, along with a bout with breast cancer, several Grammy nominations, concerts across the globe, the establishment of her own record label, and a retreat to the coast of Northern California where she finds herself today. Despite the ups and downs, Suzanne reflects on these events with an ever-romantic, often philosophical tone, always connecting the waves in her music to the waves in her life.
See the project’s Kickstarter page here.