Tonto's Expanding Head Band

Tonto's Expanding Head Band was a British-American electronic music duo established in the early 1970s by National Music Centre in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

T.O.N.T.O.'s development began with two Serge Tcherepnin. Soon after, Serge and Rex designed a "New Timbral Oscillator" (NTO) module; to preserve T.O.N.T.O.'s visual consistency, NTOs had Serge Modular's iconic white s with bright-colored connectors replaced with "faux" Moog-styled black decals. Collaboration with Serge inspired Malcolm Cecil to expand T.O.N.T.O. with modules from other manufacturers, all hidden under unified black s: four Oberheim SEM units, two ARP 2600, and other components by EMS, Roland, Yamaha, and Blacet Research. In later years, some digital synthesizers and an array of MIDI-controlled sequencers enhanced TONTO's purely analog circuitry.

In June 1971, Cecil and Margouleff presented their debut album as "Tonto's Expanding Head Band," Little Feat.

In December 1974, TONTO's sophomore album, Tonto Rides Again CD compilation came out on Viceroy, featuring tracks from Zero Time and It's About Time albums. (Ten years later, Malcolm Cecil privately reprinted it as a limited edition CD with a bonus track).

In late 2013, the Canadian John Leimseider at NMC completed a multi-year restoration in 2017, repairing all broken components and worn-out jacks so the instrument is fully playable.