Jean-Jacques Perrey, Electronic Music Pioneer, Dead at 87

Jean-Jacques Perrey, the French composer and electronic music innovator, has died of lung cancer, Rolling Stone reports. He was 87.

Perrey travelled the world demonstrating the electronic keyboard the Ondioline in the 1950s and 1960s—a forerunner to the synthesizer that could famously re-create the sounds of symphonic instruments. Perrey was also an early adopter of the Moog synthesizer.

His first album was 1957’s Prélude Au Sommeil. Alongside Gershon Kingsley, he recorded two influential albums in the 1960s as Perrey & Kingsley: The In Sound From Way Out! (1966) and Kaleidoscopic Vibrations (1967). His music was sampled by the Beatles, A Tribe Called Quest, Ice Cube, Dr. Dre, Gang Starr, and more. The Beastie Boys’ 1996 instrumental album The In Sound From the Way Out was named and designed after the Perrey and Kingsley album.

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