1.1 Icon: Jean-Jacques Perrey

Jean-Jacques Perrey (1929-2016) was a French composer and an early adopter of the electronic genre. From the early 1950's onward (about a decade before the availability of analog synthesizers), Perrey created a vast sample library with only two tape recorders, tape and scissors, using a tiny piece of tape per note. His sounds were recorded outside (from traffic, voices, etc.), then re-recorded in a studio to be used for different samples.

Perrey was a dedicated user of the Ondioline, a forerunner of the synthesizer; in the 1960's he switched to the Moog synthesizer, becoming one of the first artists to use Robert Moog's invention.

Although Perrey's career stretched more than half a century, his upbeat and cartoonish signature sound didn't change over the years.