By Keith Walsh
Thought to be the first widely available synthesizer Keytar, the Moog Liberation arrived on the scene in 1980. Based on a platform with elements of the Moog Prodigy for the monophonic section and the Moog Opus for the polyphonic section, the Liberation allowed keyboardists to take center stage for a bit. It’s unclear if Devo ever used the Liberation on a recording, though the band did feature in promotional materials for the instrument. The Moog Liberation was used by the Human League (as recently as 2009) as well as Herbie Hancock, Jean-Michel Jarre and Gary Numan.

It is Gary Numan’s Liberation to which we now turn. European musician Frank Wuggenig acquired one from Numan’s supply in 1987. Wuggenig told me on the Moog Fan Club Facebook  Page: “I was told Gary Numan on his big US tour used two Liberations,” he wrote. “One as backup, while another was being used. He kept one. After the tour, management sold off the other. I was there at the right time at the right place. Instrument hire place ABC Music. It came with the flight case, including all the airline stickers .I cleaned it up, removed them back in the late 80s. Silly me. The case only has the Gary Numan stamp on it.”

Wuggenig says he lost possession of the Moog Liberation, after a move from Germany to the United Kingdom. “I moved countries,” he writes “and back home played with a band called Dreamrunner, on Farfisa, Roland SH1000, Korg MS 20, Korg SQ10. Sold all of them and 30 years later joined a band here, and now play Roland and Korg synthesizers.  I made sure my Roland synthesizers have the Moog ladder filter. Never managed to ship the Moog Liberation to the U.K.”

Wuggenig hopes to be reunited with his Moog Liberation someday. “It is being looked after by my brother, a bass player, in Southern Germany.”

I’m not opposed to running unusual electronic music news on Synthbeat, as this article demonstrates. Thanks to Wuggenig for sharing his story.

Moog Fan Club On Facebook
Moog Music Official Website

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