The Lothars

Jon Bernhardt and Kris Thompson drew their initial spark for the Lothars from a viewing of the documentary Theremin: An Electronic Odyssey. That film chronicled the trajectory of Leon Theremin and the instrument he invented, an invention that later proved indispensable to the broader development of electronic music. In 1996 the pair assembled the group around a core lineup of three theremins plus electric guitar. The Lothars’ aesthetic sits at the earliest, most rudimentary stage of electronic sound. Their debut album, Meet the Lothars, arrived in 1988 and consisted chiefly of live improvisations captured at Camera Obscura. The recording featured Bernhardt, Thompson, Ramona Herboldsheimer, and Brendan Quinn.