Charles Cohen was a Philadelphia, Pennsylvania area-based free jazz musician and composer. Creating music since 1971, his music was entirely improvisational and produced solely on a vintage Buchla Music Easelsynthesizer, an extremely rare integrated analog performance instrument made by synthesizer pioneer Don Buchla. He has been increasingly recognized for his artistry performing internationally and was one of a handful of musicians who has mastered the Buchla Music Easel, an extremely rare instrument. Only twenty-five of the instruments were produced in the early 1970s and only a few have survived. He was also considered a pioneer in synthesizers and performance music. In 2011, Cohen was named a Pew Fellow by the Pew Center for Arts & Heritage for his contributions to improvised and electronic music. He says he was inspired by free jazz pianistCecil Taylor. Cohen worked for many years with musician Jeff Cain in their group The Ghostwriters. He works with other media artists in improvisational settings such as the Red Room, Knitting Factory and Tonic. Cohen concentrates on creating electronic music in the setting of the live performance space. He was openly gay and has performed in LGBT-specific performances, events and venues. In September 2015, Cohen was arrested and charged with crimes including criminal attempt of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 16. Cohen was released on $100,000 bail, and in August 2016, Cohen pleaded no contest to the charges. He was released on 29 July 2017 and 2 months later, on 29 September, he succumbed to natural causes at the age of 71.
Synthesizer usage
's instruments, such as the Music Easel, use a different method of timbre generation than Moog synthesizers. Moog units use oscillators with basic function generator type waveshapes and rely heavily on filtering with 24 dB resonant low-pass filters, while Buchlas are geared toward complex oscillators using frequency modulation, amplitude modulation, and dynamic waveshaping to produce other forms of timbre modulation. Many of Don Buchla's designs, including the Low-Pass Gates contain vactrols that contributed to a very "natural" perception of Buchla sound.
I've been playing the Buchla Music Easel since 1976. With its color-coded slide pots, its musically logical panel layout, and its almost sculptural patching system, I can comprehend the state of the instrument with a fleeting glance.
In September 2015, Cohen was arrested in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania during a police operation when according to police he posted on Craigslist seeking consensual sex via online correspondence with an undercover police detective. He was charged with criminal attempt of involuntary deviant sexual intercourse with a child under the age of 16, unlawful contact with a minor and criminal use of a communication facility. On August 12, 2016, Cohen pleaded no contest to the felony charges against him due to poor health and lack of energy to contest the charges.
