Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey

Long before Wendy (or Walter, depending on when you looked) Carlos switched on Bach with the Moog synthesizer, an odd Russian émigré named Leon Theremin was making electronic music during the Jazz Age with a strange box that he played by waving his hands through the air. The "Theremin" was later used to make that weenie-weenie sound like you hear in The Twilight Zone, for the soundtrack of films such as The Day the Earth Stood Still. Interviews with the late Theremin (who was kidnapped back by the KGB) and his early associates, as well as generous samplings of his music, make this an entertaining documentary about an interesting forgotten figure. Recommended. (R. Pitman)