Paul Lansky, a composer from New York, has been composing electronic pieces for the better part of his life, although he hadn't released an album until the 1990s. He's not exactly a household name, but he is known for his role as a pioneer of "computer music." By utilizing techniques such as granular synthesis (viewing sound as streams of particles rather than waves) and speech analysis, he inspired scholars of computer music to conduct their own experiments. Although computer music has been around since the early-mid 20th century, it was not really implemented into popular music until the turn of the millennium. Musical artists such as Radiohead were sampling Lansky and utilizing similar synthesis techniques, thus influencing even more popular musicians to follow in suit.

Got any favorite tunes that feature synth?