Gil Millé

In 1969 Rod Serling unveiled what was effectively an updated version of The Twilight Zone, his iconic series that gave Americans a distinct sense of unease throughout the first half of the 1960s. This new series, Rod Serling's Night Gallery, was The Twillight Zone for a generation that had already experienced hippiedom and the Summers of Love and '68. Night Gallery's characters wore bell bottoms and turtlenecks. In one episode, "Hells Bells", John Astin plays a full on hippie with shoulder length hair and a mustache worthy of Lemmy Kilmister, decked out in velour pants tucked into checkered brown leather boots, his speech peppered liberally with "man", "beautiful", and "bummer". The opening theme for the pilot episode was a relatively traditional horror theme with brief flashes of dissonant electronica composed by Billy Goldenberg. Given that the theme for The Twilight Zone had been positively radical when it first aired Serling and crew were obviously capable of stretching the limits a bit further. Once the series went into regular production in 1970 the theme had been replaced with one composed and performed by John Gilbert "Gil" Mellé, a sometimes avant-garde jazzman who had drifted into electronica. Supposedly the first all electronic theme music for a nationally televised program in the US (if anyone has any earlier candidates we'd love to hear about them), Mellé's piece was a warbling, wafting bit of surreality that told the viewer that he was entering a darker realm for the duration of the program. While not as catchy or even as memorable as the Twilight Zone theme, it was just as effective.

Gil Mellé was born in the New York City area (one source says Jersey City, New Jersey) in 1931, and was abandoned by his parents at the age of 2. He was raised by a family friend and began showing artistic tendencies early on, both in the visual arts and music. He began playing saxophone in the Greenwich Village jazz clubs while still in his teens. At 19 he signed to the legendary Blue Note label, becoming the first white musician on their roster. He began releasing records on the label, many featuring his own artwork on the covers. This led to his artwork being used on records by other musicians including Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, and Sonny Rollins. In 1956 he signed with the Prestige label and recorded three well regarded, somewhat experimental LPs for them. 

By the 1960s Mellé was living in Los Angeles and composing scores for television and film. This period also saw his initial pioneering work in electronic music. Most early electronic musicians had to be as much technical wizard as musician and Mellé was no exception. He built his own synthesizers and an early version of the drum machine, according to some sources the first ever built. He began to perform electronic music with his band The Electronauts and then went on to record an all-electronic jazz album for Verve in 1967, Tome VI. 

A milestone in Mellé's career was his score for the 1971 film The Andromeda Strain. Based on Michael Crichton's 1969 novel of the same name, the film deals with an impending biological apocalypse of extraterrestrial origin. Mellé's all-electronic score for the film was groundbreaking in that it was practically unheard of at the time to score a film completely on synthesizers without the use of any traditional instruments. It also managed to create a taut sense of futuristic doom with its angular, jagged tones arhythmic amid washes of white noise. The original soundtrack LP in its original "octagon" sleeve (which has folded cut-outs that when pulled back create an octagonal opening through which the record can be seen) trades among collectors for relatively high prices. The album is a quality example of early dissonant electronica. Given the relative obscurity of most releases in the genre it's all the more surprising that it was released on a major label (Kapp) to a mass market audience, and would've been available for purchase at the local Kresge's or Woolworth's.

During the course of his career Gil Mellé wrote over 125 scores for television and film. Besides those already mentioned, he penned scores for Columbo, Frankenstein: The True Story, Kolchak: The Night Stalker,  and The Six Million Dollar Man. In later years Mellé spent more of his time focusing on his computer based digital painting and less on formal musical endeavors. He was also an avid hobbyist: collecting musical instruments, and restoring old cars and airplanes (as well as piloting them, a hobby shared by 2nd generation electronics artist Gary Numan.) Gil Mellé died of a heart attack in Malibu, California, in 2004, at the age of 73.