ROBERT MARGOULEFF
Record Producer | Synth Pioneer | Surround Expert
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Making Headlines since 1967
VARIETY
“Freedom of Choice” is where the gods smiled on Devo. Everything came together for that record. Our experience at the Record Plant with Bob Margouleff was great, and he brought just the right kind of tone and energy to the fact that we were using mini-Moogs. I was playing synthesized bass rather than real bass and it all just started sounding right. It was an election year (1980) and the feeling in America was just lining up with Devo. There we were in silver suits, with red energy domes on an album cover of a record called “Freedom of Choice” where we looked like conformist mannequins — and that was the joke! I have nothing but fond memories of recording and touring behind the record. We were innovative and we found something in “Freedom of Choice” with those songs that also was commercial.
ROLLING STONE
Stevie Wonder wanted to meet TONTO. He had just turned 21, was flush with cash and had all these songs and sounds in his head that he couldn’t get onto tape. A friend had loaned him a copy of an album called Zero Time that had been recorded using the world’s largest, most advanced music synthesizer: TONTO, an acronym for “The Original New Timbral Orchestra.”
SOUND ON SOUND
Armed with a subversive view of society and a command of catchy synth-pop, DEVO burst into the charts in 1980 with weird classic 'Whip It'. Producer Robert Margouleff talks de-evolution...
BILLBOARD
In the exclusive electrifying clip from the fourth episode below, producers Malcolm Cecil and Bob Margouleff describe working with Stevie Wonder.
“We let him in the studio and we didn’t wake up for another five years,” Margouleff says, as they captured an extraordinary phase in Wonder’s creativity.
THE GUARDIAN
Wonder recast himself as an auteur with something powerful to say – and, thanks to a fruitful creative relationship with early synthesiser pioneers Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff, a revolutionary way of delivering that message.
PBS
While researching his use of synthesizers, and specifically a device called “Tonto,” I came across two names I hadn’t heard before, Bob Margouleff and Malcolm Cecil. Intrigued, I spoke to the incredible archivist Amy Schewell about Stevie and the Tonto, and she found some footage of him performing against it -- a gigantic, science-fiction like device, with two wild haired, mad professor types, Malcolm and Bob, nodding their heads in the background. We knew right away this was the story, and sought out Bob and later Malcolm to tell their story of spending almost 5 years working alongside Stevie.
OKAY PLAYER
In celebration of Stevie Wonder’s 70th birthday, we spoke with two of Fulfillingness’ First Finale’s most important collaborators, producer Robert Margouleff and assistant engineer Peter Chaikin, who provided granular details on how this timeless record was recorded.
FAMILY BEAUTIFUL
Perhaps his name is not as familiar as the stars and superstars he has produced and worked with; however his legend is in the music. The details that may go unnoticed to the untrained ear, are never cast aside. Robert Margouleff has been recognized as a pioneer in the field of electronica. He was an early adapter of the genre of music and worked with Robert Moog and was one of the earliest users of the ubiquitous Moog synthesizer. His revolutionary sound with Tonto included the high tech (at the time) collection of modules of electronic music merged into 1st analog Eurorack of 6 synthesizers.
