TONTO (a.k.a. The Original New Timbral Orchestra) is the world’s first and largest multitimbral polyphonic synthesizer. You may have heard it on a bunch of revolutionary albums from the ‘70s. Everyone from the Isley Brothers, Minnie Riperton, Weather Report, Devo, Quincy Jones and Billy Preston to Devo, James Taylor, Harry Nilsson and Steven Stills recognized and utilized its capabilities. Most notably, TONTO and its mad scientist creators were heavily involved in the bulk of Stevie Wonder’s so-called “classic period” albums, from Music of My Mind to Fulfillingness’ First Finale, with recorded echoes rippling on his subsequent releases.

The wood-paneled analog behemoth appears on the cover of the last album that Gil Scott-Heron and Brian Jackson made together, titled 1980, where it looks like the cockpit of the Spaceship Funkadelic. TONTO is also practically considered its own character in Brian de Palma’s Faustian rock opera Phantom of the Paradise by the people of Winnipeg, who kept the 1947 cult Paul Williams film in theaters longer than Jaws during its original run.

Toronto-based composer Robin Hatch originally heard about TONTO from Malcolm Cecil, who co-created the frankensynth with Robert Margouleff in 1968. Seemingly by the will of the universe, Hatch hit up the 2015 NAMM Convention while touring with Our Lady Peace, and miraculously ran into Cecil at the Moog booth, as he was delivering serious Doc Brown vibes. He told her all about his creation, and gave her a Tonto’s Expanding Head Band album, the band that he and Margouleff formed to honor their then-new creation and subsequently got them into the ears of Stevie Wonder.

Unbeknownst to her, Cecil had recently sold TONTO to the National Music Centre in Calgary on the condition that it would be publicly exhibited and be made accessible to contemporary musicians. By then, most of the wiring had turned into cocaine and mouse poop, so TONTO underwent an extensive renovation at the hands of synth whisperer John Leimseider. The makeover took Leimseider about four years, and the great master passed away shortly after its completion.

Meanwhile, Hatch had been a touring pianist, guitarist and/or keyboardist with the likes of OLP, Rural Alberta Advantage, Dwayne Gretzky and Sheezer for years. She’d enjoyed a respectable amount of success, but life is hard for everyone. After being diagnosed with PTSD, health professionals recommended that she go straight edge. Heeding their warning, she quit all the drugs, and turned to the outer limits of music as a healthier way to continue expanding her mind.

While she was in Calgary on tour with Whitehorse in 2019, Hatch discovered that TONTO was being held at the city’s National Music Center. The NMC is literally synth nerd heaven. They have every kind of ARP, Buchla, Korg, EMS, Kurzweil, Linn, Moog, Sequential Circuits, Rhodes, Yamaha, E-mu, Steiner you can imagine, almost every famous or interesting synth ever made. Thankfully, the NMC maintains them and promotes their use, rather than hide them away behind glass never to be played again, so most of them are available to anyone lucky enough to record there.

Hatch began calling in all of her favors to try to get access to TONTO, eventually applying for an artist in residence program. After significant effort and Covid delays, Hatch was gifted access to the old beauty for four whole days. She would be only the second artist after electric powwow outfit The Halluci Nation (f.k.a. A Tribe Called Red) to enjoy one of Leimseider’s grandest restorations.

Digital emulators and plug-ins can create similar sounds as TONTO, but they will never be able to capture the warmth and subtle unpredictability of live wires soldered to old circuits. TONTO has its own unique personality. It’s a half-century old piece of electronic equipment. Even when new, it could go out of tune, as it did in dramatic fashion while Cecil and Margouleff recorded an episode of Midnight Special with Billy Preston in 1975, which led to the breakup of Tonto’s Expanding Head Band and Cecil buying out Margouleff’s ownership stake.

When TONTO was built, it was the cutting edge of music technology, but you can imagine how, shall we say, interestingly a 50-year-old iPod would function if it tried to merely play a music file, let alone organize a bank of voltage controlled oscillators. TONTO has a distinct flair that is impossible to truly replicate, like an acquired patina on an old car found in a barn with original paint. What may have been considered deformities when compared to contemporary factory specs eventually becomes an irreplaceable character that people covet for its own sake.

As a human being, Hatch has character too. She was blessed with absolute pitch, so she was trained as a pianist with the Royal Conservatory. While she has spent much of her professional career playing in various indie rock bands, her classical education comes through in the minimalist electronic and neo-classical sounds explored on her growing catalogue of solo albums, beginning with 2019’s Works For Solo Piano.

As one may easily deduce from the title of her fifth solo album, T.O.N.T.O. is an ode to TONTO. Stylistically, it traces a line around the earliest electronic records like the first couple albums by Wendy Carlos, but the overall vibe is a little funkier and more futuristic like vintage French library music. The cover even had fake vinyl ring wear, to complete the crate digger vibe.

To ground the feeling of the album with earthly concerns, Hatch contemplated mental trauma and its place within ourselves while composing her soundwaves as a sort of micro-dosing neural pathway refresh essential for moving beyond. That spiritual effort makes T.O.N.T.O. more than obscure music geekery or weird sound for the sake of weird sound. She embeds a subtle yet distinct layer of meaning in there, tracing back to her own journey from fog to clarity, during a time when we are all struggling with something and can relate.

Hatch wasn’t completely alone on this album, though. While the bulk of the recording was completed at the NMC, overdubs from the likes of Leland Whitty (Badbadnotgood), Eric Slick (Dr. Dog), Nick Thorburn (Islands) and Joseph Shabason helped flesh out her otherworldly vision. T.O.N.T.O. is even mastered by TONTO co-creator Robert Margouleff, but unfortunately Malcolm Cecil passed away shortly after the album was recorded.

TONTO wasn’t alone on this album either. The majestic monolith was joined by synths such as a Yamaha CS-80, Oberheim Four Voice, Linn Drum, RMI Explorer and ARP Solina. Yeah, it is that good to record at the NMC.

Contemporary in its impact but vintage in its aesthetic, T.O.N.T.O. is essential listening as much for someone looking for a new path forward as anyone who ever wanted a little more out of Bruce Haack, Bernard Fèvre or Jean-Jacques Perry. Hatch has given TONTO a tribute worthy of its impressive legacy, and its continued possibilities. This machine expands minds.

—Arthur C. Shore

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