Pamelia Stickney (formerly known as Pamelia Kurstin) is an American

theremin The theremin (; originally known as the ætherphone, etherphone, thereminophone or termenvox/thereminvox) is an electronic musical instrument controlled without physical contact by the performer (who is known as a thereminist). It is named aft ...

player. She has performed and recorded with many artists including

David Byrne David Byrne (; born May 14, 1952) is an American musician, writer, visual artist, and filmmaker. He was a founding member, principal songwriter, lead singer, and guitarist of the American New wave music, new wave band Talking Heads. Byrne has ...

Marisa Monte Marisa de Azevedo Monte (; born 1 July 1967) is a Brazilian singer, composer, instrumentalist, and producer of Brazilian popular music and samba. As of 2011, she had sold 10 million albums worldwide and has won numerous national and internat ...

Yoko Ono Yoko Ono (, usually spelled in katakana as ; born February 18, 1933) is a Japanese multimedia artist, singer, songwriter, and peace activist. Her work also encompasses performance art and filmmaking. Ono grew up in Tokyo and moved to New York ...

Béla Fleck and the Flecktones Béla Fleck and the Flecktones is an American jazz fusion band that is known for its eclectic style and instrumentation, combining jazz Musical improvisation, improvisation with progressive bluegrass, Rock music, rock, Classical music, classical ...

, David Garland,

Seb Rochford Sebastian Rochford is a Scottish drummer and composer. He has recorded and released music as leader of the British band Polar Bear, as Kutcha Butcha and as part of numerous collaborations. Early life Rochford was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, a ...

, Otto Lechner and Simone Dinnerstein, and was instrumental to the final design of

Robert Moog Robert Arthur Moog ( ; May 23, 1934 – August 21, 2005) was an American engineer and electronic music pioneer. He was the founder of the synthesizer manufacturer Moog Music and the inventor of the first commercial synthesizer, the Moog synthe ...

's Etherwave Pro Theremin, for which she was the primary test musician. Kurstin has made various film, television and radio appearances, most notably on

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

. and in the 2004 documentary '' Moog''. Stickney has also presented talks at events such as TED. Her background as a jazz musician on the

upright bass The double bass (), also known as the upright bass, the acoustic bass, the bull fiddle, or simply the bass, is the largest and lowest-pitched string instrument, chordophone in the modern orchestra, symphony orchestra (excluding rare additions ...

has led to develop a "

walking bass Bassline (also known as a bass line or bass part) is the term used in many styles of music, such as blues, jazz, funk, dub and electronic, traditional, and classical music, for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played (in jazz and ...

" theremin technique. She was based in New York until 2005; she now lives in Vienna, Austria. Stickney was first introduced to the theremin during production of the album ''Into the Oh'' in 1999 by

Luaka Bop Luaka Bop is a New York–based record label founded by musician David Byrne, former lead singer and guitarist for the art rock– new wave band Talking Heads. What began with Byrne making cassettes of his favorite Tropicália tracks for his fr ...

duo Geggy Tah – singer/writer Tommy Jordan and keyboardist

Greg Kurstin Gregory Allen Kurstin (born May 14, 1969) is an American record producer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter. He has won nine Grammy Awards, including Producer of the Year, Non-Classical in 2017 and 2018, and contributed to five songs that pe ...

. She recorded ''Gymnopedie'' in 2000 as a member of the theremin/keyboard duo called "The Kurstins" with her then-husband, Greg. Her first solo album ''Thinking Out Loud'' was released in 2007 on John Zorn's

Tzadik Tzadik ( ''ṣaddīq'' , "righteous ne; also ''zadik'' or ''sadiq''; pl. ''tzadikim'' ''ṣadīqīm'') is a title in Judaism given to people considered righteous, such as biblical figures and later spiritual masters. The root of the word ...

label. In 2011 the London-based label Slowfoot released ''Ouch Evil Slow Hop'', a collaboration between Pamelia and

. In 2013, Stickney formed Blueblut with Mark Holub and Chris Janka. The Vienna-based trio released their first album ''hurts so gut'' on

Bandcamp Bandcamp is an American online music distribution platform founded in 2008 by Oddpost co-founder Ethan Diamond and programmers Shawn Grunberger, Joe Holt and Neal Tucker, with an office and record store in Oakland, California. Acquired by Epic ...

in 2014.

Discography

;Albums *2007: ''Thinking Out Loud'' *2013: ''Promotional Copy'' *2017: ''Transcendental Dissonance'' ;Collaborations *2020: ''Vulneraries Vol. 5'' (with

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

and Kenji Garland, credited to The Garlands with Pamelia Stickney) *2011: ''Ouch Evil Slow Hop'' (with Sebastian Rochford) *2011: ''Tunisia'' (with

Pat Mastelotto Lee Patrick Mastelotto (born September 10, 1955) is an American rock drummer and record producer. He has been a member of King Crimson, Stick Men, Mr. Mister and O.R.k., as well as working as a session drummer with XTC, The Pointer Sisters an ...

) *2011: ''Besides Feldman'' (with Patrick Pulsinger, Hilary Jeffery, and Rozemarie Heggen) *2000: ''First Visit'' (with Gerry Gibbs and the Third Trio from the Sun, featuring Gerry Gibbs and

) ;Blueblut *2014: ''hurts so gut'' *2016: ''buttbutt''

References

External links

Official site

Blueblut Bandcamp site
* ** TED Talk
The untouchable music of the theremin
(TED2002)

American electronic musicians Theremin players 1976 births Living people American women in electronic music {{US-electronic-musician-stub