Panorama Patchwork

Root Mix - Voyages Futurs

2012-01-30T11:15:00.000-08:00

I just made a mix for the Root Blog and you can check it out here

Dieter Schütz - The Comet (1986)

2012-01-25T21:32:00.000-08:00

The follow-up to 1985's Voyage, The Comet is definitely just as odd and seemingly out of step with the rest of what was happening at the time than its predecessor.

For sure this sounds like a mid-80's record, but it's got more of a home-recording kinda vibe all throughout, full of tape hiss and spring reverb, pretty far from the super glossy big studio gated drums and digital reverbs more symptomatic of the times, and this kind of gives The Comet a bit of an outsider/loner feel, halfway between 80's radio pop, new age, kosmische and psychedelic rock, but definitely more on the pop side of things = Schütz certainly had a knack for catchy hooks and the poppier tracks here are catchy as hell!

The only other musician I can think of exploring a similar zone would have to be Adelbert Von Deyen, so if you're not familiar with Schütz's previous LP and dig Von Deyen's 80's output, like Planetary or the fantastic Impressions, you should pick this one up here.

Activated Memory I & II

2011-12-30T19:39:00.000-08:00

ACTIVATED MEMORY I from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

ACTIVATED MEMORY II from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

These videos are also part of a solo show starting today on bubblebyte.org.

Matteo Silva - Rasa (1991)

2011-12-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

Clara Mondshine - Luna Africana (1981)

2011-11-19T07:34:00.000-08:00

This is a killer LP. Pretty much unlike anything that came before it.

I've wanted to hear this LP in all its glory for a while now; Mutant Sounds have had it up on their blog for sometime already, but unfortunately they posted it at the 33rpm speed, and this is a 45rpm.

If you're not familiar with Clara Mondshine AKA Walter Bachauer, he released two LPs in the early 80's, Luna Africana, his first, and the fantastic Memorymetropolis, both a pretty singular blend of crazy futuristic computer controlled sci-fi proto-techno, with a touch of 4th world influences. The closest comparison for me would be Doris Norton, but this is weirder...

It's also interesting to note that Bachauer was involved with the group Between, performing electronics on their record Dharana, and even synthesizer on Peter Michael Hamel's Nada. He also produced two pieces on David Behrman's amazing Leapday Night record from 1987.

Luna

Serge Blenner - La Vogue (1980)

2011-10-22T13:40:00.000-07:00

Amazing first LP by Serge Blenner.

Serge Blenner was born in France but ended up moving to Germany in the 70's to study composition and harmony at the conservatory of Mulhouse. He eventually hooked up with the Hamburg based label Sky and released this first LP in 1980.

Definitely taking cues from the Berlin School, but more repetitive and proto-techno, with a slightly darker dystopian OST sci-fi feel on some tracks, this record is full-on sequencer action and synth washes to infinity...

Highly recommended!

Adelbert Von Deyen - Planetary (1982)

2011-10-04T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here is another fine LP by Adelbert Von Deyen. This one finds him dropping the acoustic guitar and vocals, after trying that out on Eclipse, and getting back into thee instrumental zone, with full-on drums and distant oceanic Solina strings, somewhere between Atmosphere and the Killer Impressions.

All the tracks are named after planets in our solar system, and oddly enough, the one titled Earth is credited to Dieter Schütz, who apparently "played and recorded" it, predating their collaborative LP Inventions from 1983.Planetary

Bernard Xolotl - Journey to an Oracle (1981)

2011-09-23T17:28:00.000-07:00

Now this is a sweet one...

Got my first taste of this through NRC, who initially turned me on to this tape a while back but for some reason never decided to post it up on his own stellar blog, Lunar Atrium, and ever since I heard it I've been hoping to find a physical copy of it and finally just did.

Bernard Xolotl is a french musician, artist and painter. You may not be so familiar with his music but some of his work can be found on record covers by the likes of Terry Riley and Iasos, the most famous one being Riley's Shri Camel from 1980. He was also an excellent musician and released a number of kosmische works in the early 80's, collaborating with Cyrille Verdeaux and Daniel Kobialka, among others.

Journey to an Oracle was actually recorded between 1977-79 but not released until 1981, and to my knowledge hasn't been reissued since, which is truly a travesty, as this surely ranks among the best damaged Sci-fi New Age Psych I have ever heard. This tape rules, and more people need to hear it...Venusian Aurora, my favorite track here, eerily sounds quite close to some of Oneohtrix Point Never's earlier stuff, but even more out there, on a plane of it's own. Serious loner synth zone...Another stunner is the second track, Morning Glory, with its gently plucked psych guitar vibes and space synths. Pure candy. The rest of the tape occupies a similar territory to Ash Ra Tempel's soundtrack to Philippe Garrel's film "Le berceau de Cristal", or a more messed-up Klaus Schulze on acid...

Journey

Age Maze

2011-09-07T12:21:00.000-07:00

Le Révélateur

AGE MAZE from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

FICTIONS DVD coming this fall on Root Strata

Fictions Mix

2011-08-25T09:18:00.000-07:00

For anyone interested, I was asked by french writer/musician/music journalist Joseph Ghosn to make a mixtape for his blog. You can find the track listing and download the mix tape over there...

STATION BALNÉAIRE /// VARIATION I

2011-08-01T11:14:00.000-07:00

STATION BALNÉAIRE / VARIATION I from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

JoAnn Gillerman & Jean Piché - Whispers in a Plane of Light (1983)

2011-05-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

Whispers in a Plane of Light from Jean Piché on Vimeo.

Pretty awesome video by JoAnn Gillerman with music by Jean Piché.

The video was made using a Sandin Image Processor, an analog video processor and synthesizer for electronically altering video. JoAnn Gillerman describes the video as "An erotic piece using midi-like techniques prior to the invention of midi!"

The music was composed by Montreal composer Jean Piché, and it's a pretty amazing bit of extreme sequencer use! The piece develops very slowly and explodes into something ressembling a weirder, more experimental Zoolook.

If you're curious to hear more by Piché, I would strongly suggest checking out his first LP Heliograms over at the ever amazing Continuo's blog; it's a real trip through early 80's computer music, similar in some ways to Maggie Payne and Laurie Spiegel's work from the same time.

Compos Mentis - Elektronische Musik (1981)

2011-05-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

Just stumbled upon this by chance on youtube while looking for some JD Emmanuel clips. Never heard of this before. Sun-drenched waves of electronic tones and organ...

Luckily for us the always great Mutant Sounds already has the full album up for download on their blog.

Edit: The link over at Mutant Sounds is dead and since I've had a couple of requests for a fresh link I've decided to share my file here until this gets fixed...

Thanks go to Mutant Sounds for making this available in the first place!

Bleu Nuit

2011-05-10T15:27:00.000-07:00

BLEU NUIT from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

Video Sabrina Ratté
Music Le Révélateur

FICTIONS LP coming this summer on GNEISS THINGS

Nik Tyndall - Zeitenwende (1987)

2011-05-03T18:14:00.000-07:00

MUSIK ZUR ZEITENWENDE - MUSIC FOR MEDITATION

The subtitle says it all; this is some pretty heavy 80's New Age action we have here. If preset digital synth sounds from the late 80's ain't your thing, then you should stay away from this one!

Nik Tyndall, real name Jurgen Krehan, formed the band Tycoon with Rudolf Langer in the late seventies, eventually renaming themselves Tyndall and recording 4 LPs for Sky Records between 1980-83.

Zeitenwende is Nik Tyndall's 4th solo record and it's quite a departure from earlier Tyndall output; this is beat-less, ambient, meandering digital synth music with the occasional birdsong, Mellotron or acoustic percussion to throw things off a bit. It's not all fantastic, but a couple of tracks, like Schwingungen and Zeitenwende just hit the right spot...

Musik von Nik Tyndall

Conrad Schnitzler - Con 3 (1981)

2011-03-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Another classic Sky release, this is Schnitzler's second try at a more "pop" direction, coming hot on the heels of his fantastic 1980 RCA ep, "Auf Dem Schwarzen Kanal".

We are very far from his work with Kluster or Tangerine Dream! The vibe here can sometimes feel like a weirder "Gold und Liebe"-era DAF, with all those arpeggiated synth motifs and live percussion, but Con 3 has a more organic feel and is a bit rougher around the edges. Everything here is quite dark and gloomy, but some tracks like "Coca" and "Tanze im Regen" have a quite dreamy, almost psychedelic feel to them, as if Schnitzler's voice was bathing in washed-out waves of synths.

Essential.

This is the 2006 Captain Trip CD version with 6 bonus tracks.

Transit

2011-02-23T09:54:00.000-08:00

Video Sabrina Ratté
Music Roger Tellier-Craig

TRANSIT from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co.

2011-02-09T16:05:00.000-08:00

Sweet clip of the great Mother Mallard performing...

Dieter Schütz - Voyage (1985)

2011-01-25T11:54:00.000-08:00

Here's a bit of an odd one.

Voyage was released by Sky records in 1985 and it was Dieter Schütz's 2nd solo LP, following TransVision on Innovative Communication from 1981. In between these two records he collaborated on a pretty stunning LP with Kosmische synth wizard Adelbert Von Deyen called Inventions. If you've already heard Inventions, then you'll have a good idea what to expect.

This is kind of an instrumental pop record with a bit of a New Age haze, New Wave drum machines, acoustic lead guitars and tons of synth arpeggios and pads. Some parts expand on the poppier side of Eno/Moebius/Roedelius' After the Heat, but my fave track here, In Dreams, actually reminds me more of Ennio Morricone's sense of harmony and arrangement than anything...

Some of it definitely conjures up 80's TV soundtracks, where people were still dreaming of Exotic Nights, but it's a nice listen overall.

Sadly, Dieter Schütz died in 1991 at the age of 36.

Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Selbstportrait II (1980)

2010-11-08T17:28:00.000-08:00

So here we have the second volume in Roedelius' Selbstportrait series, compiling music recorded between 1973-1977 in Forst and Blumau. If you don't already have the first volume, grab it here.

This pretty much continues in the same sun-soaked dreamy haze as volume 1, though the rhythmus maschine driven Aufbruch was a nice surprise, similar to the motorik tracks on Musik von Harmonia, definitely a more upbeat take on the usual Roedelius aesthetic.

Freundliche Musik

Lena Platonos

2010-10-03T19:34:00.000-07:00

Mirages

2010-08-22T18:26:00.000-07:00

Video - Sabrina Ratté
Music - Le Révélateur

MIRAGES from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

On Land Festival

2010-08-05T16:50:00.000-07:00

In less than a month I will be in San Francisco for the 2nd edition of the On Land Festival, an event curated by the fine folks at the label Root Strata. If you've been enjoying some of the stuff I've been posting on this blog and happen to be in the area from september 2nd to the 4th you should come by. This will be AWESOME!

Here's the complete lineup:

September 2nd

Barn Owl
Starving Weirdos
Pulse Emitter
Danny Paul Grody
Rene Hell
En

September 3rd

Oneohtrix Point Never
White Rainbow
Pete Swanson
Operative
Golden Retriever
Aster (Eli Keszler &
Ashley Paul)
Robert A.A. Lowe

September 4th

The Alps
Zelienople
Xela
Date Palms
Grasslung
Metal Rouge
Le Révélateur

September 5th

Charalambides
Grouper
Dan Higgs
Bill Orcutt
Ilyas Ahmed
Common Eider, King Eider
Higuma

With Super8 Film & Video by:

Paul Clipson
Nate Boyce
John Davis
Sabrina Ratté

More info on the festival website
here

Morton Subotnick - Until Spring (1976)

2010-07-27T09:33:00.000-07:00

Electronic Music as sound sculpture.

Just got this one late last winter and was quite surprised by it. My knowledge of Subotnick's work pretty much limited itself to his more famous compositions, Silver Apples of The Moon and The Wild Bull, both pretty awesome late 60's electronic compositions in their own right but pretty far from what we have here! Until Spring is a much more sober composition. This piece was entirely created on the Buchla Electric Music Box seen below, and it seems that by this point Subotnick was more interested in the pure sound of electricity and its various textures and colors as Until Spring oozes with a multiplicity of varying pulse rates and dry tones.

Until Spring was actually composed in 1975 for Columbia/Odyssey records. For this piece, Subotnick was interested in using the tape recorder as a control voltage, placing a complete stereo gesture on two of the tracks off an eight track tape machine and using that result as "control" tracks. As the liner notes on the back of the sleeve clearly indicate: these tracks contained the following information...

1...at what precise moment did an event begin
2...when did it stop
3...if pulsed, at what rate
4...what voltage did it take to produce-
-pitches
-position in space
-duration
-etc.

This meant that when a gesture was performed, the controls were recorded-but not the gesture itself, enabling Subotnick to alter and sculpt an event as many times as was necessary before committing it to tape. Nowadays this process can easily be done with a home computer, but it's interesting to hear the results of a technology that was still in development at the time.

Until Spring

Zanov - In Course of Time (1982)

2010-07-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Zanov, real name Pierre Zalkazanov, was a french electronic musician. He released 3 albums between 1976 and 1982 with In Course of Time being the last of the bunch. His music has often been compared to the Berlin School approach of Tangerine Dream or Klaus Schulze, but to someone like me who wasn't old enough to listen to this stuff when it actually came out, I find Zanov's music to be much stranger and harder to actually pin down. It's definitely cosmic and spacey but that's exactly it, to my ears this stuff sounds more abstract and out-there than what the germans were doing at the time; melodies come in and out of the mix in a random fashion, almost by accident, volumes fluctuate like the wind, and sequences disappear almost as soon as you hear them. His music sounds very loose and improvised and it can take a while to understand everything that's actually happening, but if you listen closely and patiently you will discover brief flashes of beauty that reveal themselves in a glimpse...

In Course of Time was recorded in France but first released in 1982 on a small label from around here, from Verdun to be precise, by the same folks who also released that Neuronium record I posted a while back, Les Disques Solaris...

In Course of Time

Earthstar - French Skyline (1979)

2010-07-04T18:07:00.000-07:00

OK, so it's been a while since I last posted anything on this blog, but here we have the second LP by Earthstar, and first for Sky, French Skyline, released in 1979 after the band had relocated to Germany from Utica, New York. Founding member Craig Wuest was apparently encouraged to move Earthstar to Germany through a correspondence he had with Klaus Schulze, who actually ended up producing the LP.

This is a craaaazeeeeeee Berlin-school influenced LP but shouldn't solely be seen in this light as it was after all made by a bunch of american expats living in Germany; the pulsating sequencers are there, the kosmische washed-out synths and minor key soloing is all over the lp, but there's something rougher happening here; it's got more of an epic and mad-intense energy, like the sound of people driving towards a dream at all cost, as though this was their one chance at some beautiful opportunity...Yeah, it's pretty intense...

Their 2nd LP for Sky, AtomKraft? Nein Danke!, pretty much abandoned the Berlin-school aesthetic for a more pastoral new age vibe and is even better in my books, though this is a great LP and worth a listen for anybody interested in the late 70's electronic music scene.

French Skyline is also a great opportunity to hear the Birotron, a variation on the Mellotron tape sample approach, but using 8-track tape loops. The LP relies heavily on Mellotron and Birotron choirs, so if you're into that kind of stuff you'll have lots of fun here...

ATEM 1975-1979: Une sélection d'articles et d'interviews

2010-05-13T08:56:00.001-07:00

This should be sweet:

ATEM 1975-1979: BOOK, 564 pages. Published by Camion Blanc June 15th 2010

SOMMAIRE/CONTENTS
Agitation Free
Kevin Ayers
Tim Buckley
Can
Ingrid Caven
Chrome & Throbbing Gristle
Kevin Coyne
Nick Drake
Brian Eno
Faust
Robert Fripp
Philip Glass
Peter Hammill
Hatfield and The North
Heldon
Henry Cow
Hugh Hopper
Michael Hurley
Incredible String Band
Kraftwerk
Lard Free- Urban Sax
Magma
Phil Manzanera
Albert Marcoeur
John Martyn
Nico
Yoko Ono
Pearls Before Swine
Steve Reich
The Residents
Bridget St John
Suicide
This Heat
Tom Waits
Robert Wyatt
ZnR

Popol Vuh - Affenstunde (1970)

2010-04-28T13:39:00.000-07:00

Ok, I imagine most of you folks reading this are already familiar with the mind-altering Affenstunde, Popol Vuh's first ever effort and one of my all-time favorite electronic records. I was recently lucky enough to find an original copy on LP and was extremely surprised to find out when first listening to it that the first track, Ich mache einen Spiegel - Dream part 4, is a completely different mix than the version I'm more familiar with from the 2004 SPV reissue. Not only is it a different mix but it's actually a different version, with a part I never heard before starting at around 2min30 and lasting until 4min30 where it then returns to the initial piece! The rest of the album seems to be exactly the same as the 2004 reissue. I did a bit of research on the subject and couldn't find any info on this. For all I know maybe the original Liberty version was used for the Spalax reissue or any later one...

Anyways, enjoy the beauty of Affenstunde as it was originally meant to be here.

I've also included the SPV remaster version of Ich mache einen Spiegel - Dream part 4 for those who are curious about the differences...

And if anybody has any more info on this please get in touch!

Robert Schröder - Paradise (1983)

2010-04-20T10:50:00.000-07:00

This was Schröder's fifth LP and I believe his last for Schulze's Innovative Communication label.

The first side is one long continuous mid-tempo track anchored by a sharp, metallic-sounding sequencer riff characteristic of Schröder's own custom-built synthesizers. Günther Beckers adds a touch of gorgeous, almost balearic acoustic guitar and some amazing sci-fi guitar synthesizer here and there while the track is continuously bombarded by weird electronic glitches until it finally collapses into the more quiet last section. This is a fantastic bit of 80's Berlin school electronic music!

The B-side starts off with the poppier Skywalker, which is slightly reminiscent of Champs Magnétiques era Jean-Michel Jarre and a bit less memorable, but Time Machine rapidly brings us back to Schröder's soundworld and atmosphere with its distinct metallic sequencer riff and Günther Beckers again lending a hand on guitar synthesizer. The last track here, Timeless, is the absolute highlight of the record for me; it's a hazy, sundazed acoustic guitar number punctuated by strange tones and otherworldly synths that oddly enough wouldn't sound too out of place on Milton Nascimento's 1970 psych-folk nugget, Milton. This track alone was worth the price of this baby...

Schröder's Paradise

Bil Vermette - Katha Visions (1984)

2010-04-08T07:15:00.000-07:00

Very strange private-press synthesizer LP from a certain Bil Vermette. Got this via Mimaroglu who managed to get their hands on a couple of sealed, original copies of this baby. Now, I wouldn't normally post something that is still available but I really want people to hear this since I think it's a great record that might appeal to folks who dig stuff like JD Emmanuel's sunblasted sounds, particularly the title track who simply kicks ass! But also Long Trail Down who almost sounds like Boards of Canada or Oneohtrix Point Never...

It's not all dazed-out synthesizer visions though, as the second side can be quite surprising at first; when I first heard it I even thought that there might have been a mistake in the pressing plant and that this was some obscure cold wave band! But now that I've listened to it quite a lot I can actually hear how the two sides work together.

Listen to it here

Get it while you can from Mimaroglu here

Tangerine Dream: antiques & curios

2010-04-06T09:28:00.000-07:00

Love this pic? Want more?

Check this amazing blog for more TD treasures, I could spend hours there! There's a ton of old interviews, pictures, tour books and other curiosities...

Wolfgang Bock - Cycles (1980)

2010-03-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

Magnificent and epic. One of my favorite synth record to come out of germany in the late 70's/early 80's.

Enormous mercury minor chords, a certain rhythmic drive that reminds me more of Silver Apples than anything german from that era, mellotron choirs and rich sequencer pulses; this sounds like the record Klaus Schulze never managed to make. Don't get me wrong , I love Klaus Schulze and I have a ton of his LPs, but Cycles is something magical to my ears, it just seems a bit more refined than some of Schulze's releases. And those opening chords, ah those majestic ice-cold mercury synth chords, they just make my mind melt and bring me back to those days when I was a kid and would stare for hours at my parent's copy of Tomita's Kosmos in absolute fascination and fear, wondering how it would feel to find myself in that cover's futuristic nightmare world.

I wanted to rip my own copy but since the nice folks at The Growing Bin already have it up, I just thought I'd link you directly to it here. Check out their blog while you're at it 'cuz there's a lot of sweet gems to be discovered there...

Paul Clipson & Jefre Cantu-Ledesma - Moth and Moon

2010-03-17T09:30:00.000-07:00

Taking a break from posting records but will soon be back.

In the meanwhile here's a nice clip from Paul Clipson with music by Jefre Cantu-Ledesma.

Here's some info on this baby:

"An experimental visual menagerie of insects, arachnids and minute arthropod life, seen through images and sounds of curiosity and contemplation. In the stillness of a pond or forest, a steady record of unknowable activity is repeated in variation, within terrestrial and aquatic environments by a myriad of tiny beings, as silence and sound, darkness and light, surrounds. Paul Clipson works with Super-8 film, capturing lush colors, reflections, and movements of natural landscape, in collaboration with sound artist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, to create "a journey into nature, via music, sound and image, within the intimate immensity of a daydream."

Another experiment

2010-02-23T07:31:00.000-08:00

LA LUNE

Video by Sabrina Ratté
Music by Roger Tellier-Craig

LA LUNE from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

Peter Michael Hamel - Nada (1977)

2010-02-19T07:10:00.000-08:00

Peter Michael Hamel was born in Munich where he studied musical composition, psychology and sociology. Like many musicians at the time, he attended workshops with Karleinz Stockhausen and later on got heavily involved in Indian classical music. He co-founded Between with Roberto C. Détrée and Robert Eliscu, who later played with Popol Vuh, in 1970. In parallel to his work with Between in the 70's, he released a string of solo records for Vertigo, Wergo and later Kuckuck. He also guested on Agitation Free's first LP, Malesch, providing Riley-esque organ.

This is Hamel's 4th solo LP and it's sometimes similar to some of Terry Riley's work, and to some extent Charlemagne Palestine's strumming piano drones, but somewhat more melodic.

Go beyond the wall of sleep here

L'entre-deux

2010-02-17T07:41:00.000-08:00

Video by Sabrina Ratté
Music by Roger Tellier-Craig

L'ENTRE-DEUX from Sabrina Ratté on Vimeo.

Laurie Spiegel - The expanding universe (1980)

2010-02-12T07:25:00.000-08:00

This is a serious brain burner.

Laurie Spiegel is a pioneer in computer aided electronic music. During the 70's she worked at Bell labs and composed music using GROOVE, a computer music system designed by Max Matthews, and one of the first in it's field. The Expanding Universe compiles material recorded between 1974-76 with the GROOVE system.

It's a mystery to me that Spiegel isn't yet more recognized as being central to the development of electronic music. Her works were groundbreaking as much in her approach to composition as with the equipment she was using to express her ideas. When this record was released in 1980 she was already thinking of computer music in grassroots terms, seeing the computer itself as a tool that could be accessible to a larger amount of people and facilitate the realization of complex music with simpler means. I guess you could say she was spot-on with that statement...

Colorful timbres, complex rhythmical patterns, pure electronic tones and slowly changing microtonal drones make The Expanding Universe THE sound of electricity. Discover this gem here

PS: Continuo has a better rip here

And for more info on Laurie Spiegel, visit her website here and be sure to get your hands on Obsolete Systems, it's a fantastic overview of her works from 1972-1983 and even better than The Expanding Universe in my opinion...

Roberto C. Détrée - Architectura Celestis (1982)

2010-02-02T07:25:00.000-08:00

Had no idea what this was when I picked it up last week, really glad I did though since the music on this LP has been filling up the rooms of our apartment now for the whole week...

Roberto C. Détrée was born in Argentina but moved to Munich in 1967 where he founded the improvisational group Between with Peter Michael Hamel and Robert Eliscu. They released a good amount of records for Wergo during the 70's, none of which I've had a chance to hear yet. Détrée went in the studio and recorded this LP in january of 1982. The whole record consists of modal improvisations on one note, D, where he plays guitar and what he calls "self-made additional instruments".

This is not just any guitar record though; Détrée here drenches the guitar in a sea of FX, and if it is still discernible on the first side's three tracks, even if cloaked in hall reverb and full of sustain, by the time we've reached the majestic title track on the flipside it has fully given way to the shimmering harmonics and overtones that envelop it. The 20 minute Architectura Celestis is the highlight here, not too far from some of Olivier Messiaen's organ music but even more ethereal, organic and continuously shifting and shimmering. I could listen to this one for hours...Unfortunately the vinyl here craps out in places...

Architectura Celestis

Peter Mergener/Michael Weisser - Beam-Scape (1984)

2010-01-26T09:49:00.000-08:00

Just got this yesterday for really cheap, so it's not in the best shape, but I thought I should still share it since it's so good! Peter Mergener and Michael Weisser are better known as Software, but that's pretty much all I know about them since there's not a lot of info on these guys in english on the web, I do know that they were using mostly digital equipment at the time, hence their name, and that this was their first record.

Their sound reminds me a bit of Klaus Schulze or Robert Schröder's early output, but since they were using MIDI equipment there's something more mechanical and robotic in the way their sequences play out.

Beam-Scape

Harald Grosskopf - Synthesist (1980)

2010-01-23T17:45:00.000-08:00

After spending most of the 70's playing drums on some of the most important german records from that era, the infamous Cosmic Jokers sessions, Walter Wegmüller's Tarot, a bunch of Klaus Sculze LPs, Ashra and Wallenstein, Harald Grosskopf finally dropped this baby on Sky records in 1980. Somewhat similar in spirit to parts of Göttsching's gorgeous New Age of earth record from 1976, but definitely more upbeat and rhythm based, and on a planet of it's own, Grosskopf here plays live drums, wanky double-synth solos and arpeggiated synth sequences, so you get this odd motorik/New Age juxtaposition. Some songs, like "1847 Earth", almost predate techno. You can basically hear the tail end of the 70's morphing into the 80's...

Synthesize

Michael Hoenig - Departure from the Northern Wasteland (1978)

2010-01-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Classic Berlin School LP.

Although not released until 1978, this first solo outing by Hoenig was actually conceived and realized in 1976-77. Michael Hoenig by then had already done time in Agitation Free, Tangerine Dream and played with Manuel Göttsching and Klaus Schulze. The music on this LP ain't too far from what Tangerine Dream where doing at the time they recorded Ricochet, but the compositions here strike me as being a bit more refined and highly thought out. You can also hear a bit of Terry Riley here and there, mixed in with the rigidity of sequencer riffs and synth solos, although Voices of Where, my favorite track here, really gets close to Riley's all-night tape delay dreaminess for most of it's length, that's until it actually explodes into repetitive vocal loop patterns à la Reich near the end...

Blow your mind...

Neuronium - Chromium Echoes (1982)

2010-01-14T08:54:00.000-08:00

We had this LP at the store I work at for 6 months before I decided to listen to it. I guess I wasn't too attracted by the abstract progressive-metal artwork, and my co-workers had put this in the prog section so it didn't strike me as being something I'd be interested in, but one day I decided to check it out and opened the gatefold cover which revealed an array of synthesizers and electronic percussion. I had to try it out. I was quite surprised to find out I had Neuronium all wrong, this wasn't really a prog band but more like a Kosmische Musik thing. Parts of this record remind me a bit of Fetus/Pollution-era Battiato, but in general it's closer to the work of Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze, if maybe less polished. Really quite nice...This is actually their 5th record and was the last one recorded as a band since Carlos Guirao left Michel Huygen to be the sole remaining member of the band once the record was completed.

Chromium Echoes

Hans-Joachim Roedelius - Selbstportrait (1979)

2010-01-11T20:32:00.000-08:00

This is the first volume in Roedelius' Selbstportrait series and it's a fantastic compilation of secret gems recorded at Cluster's home studio in Forst between 1973-1977. Most of the material on this record is similar in spirit to some of the music that Cluster and Harmonia were recording at the time, which makes sense since most of it was apparently recorded between those two bands' recording sessions. It's definitely more rough around the edges though, which is something I like, and some of it sounds a bit unfinished; you can basically hear Roedelius developing the music as he records it, like on the track Inselmoos which contains segments that'll later end up on Luftschloss, a track from Eno/Moebius/Roedelius' After the Heat.

This music is the sound of the Sun burning you into a hazy daze...

Richard Pinhas - Iceland (1979)

2010-01-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

Iceland, the name says it all: this is Cold New Age.

Recorded in Paris in 1979, this was Richard Pinhas' 3rd solo record. Nightmarish, sombre and heavy on synths, this is the sound of a frozen wasteland filtered through slowly pulsating neon electronics. Oh, and there's some Fripp-esque hyper-processed guitar noodling here and there, but it all fits rather nicely with the rest. I don't know what was in the air in 1979 but just like Schröder's Harmonic Ascendant, Iceland parts 2 & 3 also feature a rather fucked and delirious electronic voice communicating with the higher levels of it's consciousness. It adds a level of creepiness to the whole thing. The record finishes with the track Greenland and it's a very sweet ending; full of lush psychedelic synths, a dreamy sequencer riff that's really hypnotizing, vibes, live drums and what seems like electronic percussion, this track is immense. The whole record is immense.

Get it

Robert Schröder - Harmonic Ascendant (1979)

2010-01-07T20:52:00.000-08:00

Produced by Klaus Schulze and released on his own label Innovative Communication sometime in 1979, Harmonic Ascendant was Robert Schröder's first LP. The title track's romantic New Age grandiosity takes up the whole of side A and it's a mixture of acoustic instruments and Schröder's very own custom-built electronic synths. Nice, but not the reason I'm posting this. The B side's two other tracks are where it all happens for me; both pieces seem built around some weird Vocoder with tourette's going on and on and on, leading into Berlin School type keys and sequencers riding the laser skies. It's quite an odd juxtaposition and really brings a singular twist to your average synth record from the era.

Blow up...

Brigitte Fontaine - Le goudron/Les beaux animaux 7" (1969)

2010-01-06T10:28:00.000-08:00

Here's a pretty awesome 7" from Brigitte Fontaine, released sometime between her fantastic pop record "Brigitte Fontaine est...folle" and the more radical explorations of her early 70's output with Areski. This single kind of acts as the middle ground between these two worlds, taking the best out of her capacity for writing a catchy hook while pushing the envelope of what a song can be. She's still writing songs but they are more drone-based and minimalist...

Voilà

Franco Battiato - Zâ/Café-Table-Musik (1977)

2009-12-31T08:20:00.000-08:00

Can you ever really know what to expect from Battiato? After the electronic abstractions of M. Elle le "Gladiator", here he goes all acoustic, at least on Zâ, where he pushes the limits of repetition using the piano as his only source, rigourously played by Antonio Ballista. There's something really fascinating in hearing how Battiato was digesting USA minimalism, all the way from Charlemagne Palestine to Robert Ashley and even back to Italy's own answer via Cramps records. He really had a personal take on the stuff and it's an amazing and worthwhile period in his work.

The second side's Café-Table-Musik is something else: part pretty piano melodies, part absurdist papier-mâché sound collage, operatic female vox, theater-like dialogues and a bit more, it kinda continues Battiato's collage/ready-made/composition technique which he started exploring on his earlier efforts "Pollution" and "Clic". There are some pretty strange and poetic moments here, like that part with barely audible whispering on top of a very pretty piano melody; it's creepy and gorgeous at the same time! And then Alide Maria Salvetta's soprano voice soars on top of it all...

Yes, quite a nice and bizarre trip...

Tyndall - Reflexionen (1982)

2009-12-26T13:38:00.000-08:00

Another classic release from the Sky label, which in recent years I've discovered to be full of hidden gems.

I first heard this via Mutant Sounds so I'm very grateful to them, but since then managed to get a hold of an LP copy at a reasonable price and thought I would share my own copy since the last 3 tracks on side 2 of their rip sounded pretty bad.

For those who love the vocoder you're in for a real trip since almost every track has vocodored vocals! The amazing thing here is that Tyndall make good use of the vocoder and manage to get really interesting sounds out of it. This LP has a bit of a homemade vibe, full of primitive sequencers and rhythm machines smothered in nice warm synth tones that sound very much played by hand. It's actually not too far from Cluster at the time of their third LP Zuckerzeit and also Giorgio Moroder's Einzelganger project from 1975, sharing the same inclination for over-the-top sweet melodies...

Reflexionen

Adelbert von Deyen - Atmosphere (1980)

2009-12-20T18:51:00.000-08:00

Judging by the awesome sun-drenched back cover picture of sir Adelbert von Deyen sitting on some faraway beach in front of a dozen synths, I was expecting something more in tune with Thee good old New Age "kosmische" Sky records vibe. Instead the record starts off with "Timemachine" and the sound of nicely plucked floating Star Synths which quickly give way to pulsating sequencer Neu-Age! Yet another variation on the motorik aesthetic that doesn't sound like anybody else...

The second track, "Silverrain", sounds like nothing I have ever heard; a dreamy psychedelic ballad drenched in vibrating harmonics, like a New Age version of Les Rallizes Dénudés, if such a thing was even possible; near the end a gong shifts the whole song into a highly dramatic Solina & guitar finale, reminiscent of early Tangerine Dream...

The rest of the record is dedicated to the pièce de résistance "Atmosphere"; a full blown psychedelic synth orgy, full of sustained chords, laser bubbles, sunblasted keyboard leads, liquid sequencer riffs and even some odd ghost-like vocals on the aptly titled segment "Voices of Infinity". You can almost imagine Adelbert von Deyen and his sun-drenched synths on the beach merging with the rays of laser infinity...

Voilà

Michel Redolfi - Immersion/Pacific Tubular Waves (1980)

2009-12-16T10:28:00.001-08:00

OK, this is something else. Released in 1980 by INA-GRM, this is some serious neon sunlit Synclavier orgy! Redolfi is cofounder of the Groupe De Musique Expérimentale de Marseille and has been working in the field of Tape music since 1969. The endless possibilities of Electro-acoustic composition have inspired him to imagine his music in terms of what he calls a "utopia of the senses", as much in the works themselves as how they are transmitted, and this LP is a very beautiful manifestation of this approach. "Immersion", the first piece on this LP, was actually composed using "Pacific Tubular Waves", the track on the B-side; "Pacific Tubular Waves" was played and re-recorded underwater, under the same waves that had been it's initial source of inspiration. The piece in itself is a mixture of those underwater recordings and new parts composed for the Synclavier. The Synclavier was also used to generate the totality of the timbres for "Pacific Tubular Waves". It's a gorgeous electronic ode to the inner dynamics of the sea...

Get it here

Kosmische Musik on Pop 2, 1973

2009-12-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

You gotta love Pop 2, a french tv program that regularly featured pretty out-there bands on tv, stuff like Lard-Free, Catherine Ribeiro + Alpes, Amon Duul II and early Floyd. Here they are doing a feature on then up-and-coming bands Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream, who were in France for what I think was their first ever concert there, a big event organized by french magazine Actuel and also featuring Ash Ra Tempel, Guru Guru and Klaus Schulze...

Franco Battiato - M. Elle le "Gladiator" (1975)

2009-12-11T20:24:00.000-08:00

OK. So I'm finally gonna start posting stuff here as often as I can. This is my first post and it's a real gem.

This is Battiato on a real out-there electroacoustic/drone/improv bent. If you really got into "Sulle corde die Aries" and "Clic", then this is for you. It's one step further into the experimentation of those two fantastic records and wouldn't have been too out of place on the Italian label Cramps...

Get it here

Lillian Schwartz

2009-01-20T10:40:00.000-08:00

From wikipedia:

Lillian F. Schwartz (b. 1927), an American artist, is known for some of the first use of computers in computer developed art. Her best-known work is Mona Leo, her morphing of the image of a Leonardo self-portrait with the Mona Lisa.

Schwartz is an artist who has a long history of using computer technology to experiment with ways of creating and manipulating works of art. She has also written extensively about the topic of computer influence in art, and about art produced by computers.

Schwartz made many experiments with computer art during her career. She was one of the first artists to experiment with computer images and computer effects on art. She worked closely with scientists in the 1970s in the early stages of computer development, and developed one of the first rock music videos. She also made one of the first digitized films to be shown as a work of art, her video Pixillation showing diagonal red squares and other shapes such as cones, pyramids on black on white backgrounds. This video is regarded as one of the most important early works of computer film art.

She worked in the early stages of her career with scientists at Bell Laboratories developing mixtures of sound, video and art. Later on, during the 1980s, Schwartz made many experiments with artworks manipulating images using computer technology and creating some artworks of her own.

Pixillation (music by Gershon Kingsley):

UFOs (music by Emmanuel Ghent):

Computer Psychedelia! Absolutely amazing visuals! And the electronic music on both clips is stunning and on a plane of it's own...