Modern Longhair Egghead Electronic Works

[Teasing the Korean]

I'd like to start a thread on "serious" electronic works the 50s, 60s, maybe early 70s. Subotnick, Varese, Carlos, Raaijmakers, Reich, Badings, Cage, the Princeton/Columbia/Yale crowd - anyone who was using synthesizers or their oscillating, filtering predecessors to make "serious" music.

Over the years, I've accumulated several of these LPs, many of which have not been reissued on CD. Columbia and Nonesuch issued quite a few, but there were of course other labels.

Lately, I've been spinning them, and they've been producing radically different reactions. Some of them come off as tedious and ponderous, while others really grab me.

Here is what I've been playing. Some of my descriptions are vague simply because I haven't spent enough time with some of these albums.

Badings and Raaijmakers pieces on the "Popular Electronics" CD box set (Basta)- This stuff has movement, direction, variety, color, texture, and humor. I can give it my undivided and also have it on in the background without getting annoyed. Utilizes purely electronic sounds as well as manipulated sounds of conventional instruments.

"Tragoedia" by Andrew Rudin (Nonesuch) - came off as academic and dull, but I'll have to listen again.

"Time's Encomium" by Charles Wuorinen (Nonesuch) - Couldn't get into it at first, then I started feeling it. Also on the academic side.

"Electronic Music" collection (Turnabout), with Cage, Mimaroglu and Berio - The Berio piece on side 2, for magnetic tape with the voice of Cathy Berberian, almost sounds like a precursor to Ursula Dudziak (who I LOVE) so this was right up may alley. The other two were very jarring and harsh - maybe that was the point - and I was probably listening at the wrong time (trying to put away Christmas decorations, which is challenging enough without music).

My favorite full album thus far is "New Sounds in Electronic Music" (Columbia/Odyssey), with Reich, Maxfield and Oliveros. The latter, which takes up a whole side, almost sounded like a blueprint for some of Brian Eno's longer ambient works. The Reich piece, "Come Out," is tape manipulation work involving the voice of a New York kid describing a police beating, and it is riveting.

I have several others which I haven't gotten to yet.

I would be interested to hear anyone's thoughts on these albums or others. Also, we can talk about how this music related to what was happening in concurrently in other genres, such as electronic pop music, orchestral music, etc.

Edited January 10, 2009 by Teasing the Korean

[Guest Bill Barton]

In addition to the Princeton/Columbia/Yale crowd I'd definitely include Jon Appleton at Dartmouth on the "short list" of important composers. He also was instrumental in the development of the Synclavier. The World Music Theater of Jon Appleton on Folkways is a good place to start when it comes to recordings.

[Teasing the Korean]

Is that piece available? I understand that everything in the Folkways catalog has to (theoretically at least) remain in print.

[7/4]

My favorite full album thus far is "New Sounds in Electronic Music" (Columbia/Odyssey), with Reich, Maxfield and Oliveros. The latter, which takes up a whole side, almost sounded like a blueprint for some of Brian Eno's longer ambient works. The Reich piece, "Come Out," is tape manipulation work involving the voice of a New York kid describing a police beating, and it is riveting.

That record is a classic and influential.

Come Out and it's sister piece It's Gonna Rain are my favorite pieces by Steve Reich. Too bad he pretty much abandoned electronic music except for samples in his later pieces.

Also too bad is how Maxfield's legacy is being handled. The folks who have control over his music are holding tight to recordings and not releasing anything.

[Teasing the Korean]

Now I listened to Varese's "Poem Electronique," composed for the Brussels World Fair and realized at the Natlab Studios, where Raaijmakers and Dissevelt would later produce "Song of the Second Moon" and "Fantasy in Orbit."

[7/4]

Now I listened to Varese's "Poem Electronique," composed for the Brussels World Fair and realized at the Natlab Studios, where Raaijmakers and Dissevelt would later produce "Song of the Second Moon" and "Fantasy in Orbit."

In that case you should also check out Déserts for wind, percussion and electronic tape (1950–1954) by Varèse. A landmark in electronic music!

[Guest Bill Barton]

Is that piece available? I understand that everything in the Folkways catalog has to (theoretically at least) remain in print.

at Dusty Groove

Also, when I Googled it some MP3 versions appear to be available.

[Teasing the Korean]

OK, here's a REAL GEM:

"Electronic Music Winners" - First recordings of winning works from the ISCM International Competition (Columbia/Odyssey), 1976 album of works from '73 and '74.

Includes 7 short works by Cann, Gressel, Kreiger, Lansky, Semegen, Wright and Zur.

Everything on here is great. The most stunning, I thought, was the 18-minute "mild und leise" by Paul Lansky. Sounded kind of like Leonard Rosenman writing for synthesizers. Gorgeous sustained chords which gradually change timbre and rhythm.

Does anyone know this album? It's killer.

EDIT: Radiohead sampled the piece I was discussing:

http://www.music.princeton.edu/paul/radiohead.ml.html

Edited January 10, 2009 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

Thanks Bill and 7 for the replies.

[7/4]

"Tragoedia" by Andrew Rudin (Nonesuch) - came off as academic and dull, but I'll have to listen again.

"Time's Encomium" by Charles Wuorinen (Nonesuch) - Couldn't get into it at first, then I started feeling it. Also on the academic side.

That analog academic side is what this is all about!

Love them beep 'n' boops....especially when I found all the ones I own on vinyl for $1.99 ten years ago.

[Teasing the Korean]

That analog academic side is what this is all about!

Love them beep 'n' boops....especially when I found all the ones I own on vinyl for $1.99 ten years ago.

OF COURSE! That's how I got all this stuff over the years.

Still, the album I just posted is mostly academic stuff, but it came off better than some others.

Again, to be fair, I have to spend more time listening to these...

[7/4]

Charles Dodge's Earths Magnetic Fields is an excellent 'un. I'm pretty sure it came out on CD a few years ago. I probably even on it on CD too.

[Teasing the Korean]

Just spun this one:

Provocative Electronics, under the direction of Emerson Meyers of Catholic University of America (Westminster), 1970. Overall, very interesting, with some tape-manipulation pieces involving voice, organ, and bassoon, along with the usual bloops and bleeps.

Edited January 11, 2009 by Teasing the Korean

[Teasing the Korean]

Just played:

Morton Subotnick - Touch (Columbia)

A really nice one. Lots of percussive segments that almost sound like boo bams or kalimba, alternating with more static ambient sections. Lots of surprises, including a sustained high-pitched squeal near the end of side 2!

[Teasing the Korean]

Just listened to a rare one:

Edward M. Zajda - Independent Electronic Music Composer (Ars Nova Ars Antiqua)

Which noun is the adjective "electronic" modifying?

Gotta love any album that samples both the Apollo moon landing and "Let's Hang On" by the Four Seasons!

[7/4]

Charles Dodge's Earths Magnetic Fields is an excellent 'un. I'm pretty sure it came out on CD a few years ago. I probably even on it on CD too.

Oh yes...here's the CD version:

Columbia- Princeton Electronic Music Center 1961- 1973

Works by Bülent Arel, Charles Dodge, Ingram Marshall, Ilhan Mimaroglu, Daria Semegen, Alice Shields

[Teasing the Korean]

I has to finds teh vinyls then.

[Teasing the Korean]

Now playing "Switched on Ashanti" by Roy Travis (Orion label), for percussion, synths, tape and flute.

I'm digging this, kind of like 70s PBS bumper music with African percussion.

Edited November 20, 2009 by Teasing the Korean

[clifford_thornton]

My favorite American electronic LP is still the Sonic Arts Union on Mainstream. Pretty damaged.

[Teasing the Korean]

For Christmas I got the 3-CD set "The Complete Electronic Music of Dick Raaijmakers" on Basta. Great stuff.

[7/4]

For Christmas I got the 3-CD set "The Complete Electronic Music of Dick Raaijmakers" on Basta. Great stuff.

Sounds interesting!

Also sounds like something I'd like.

[Teasing the Korean]

For Christmas I got the 3-CD set "The Complete Electronic Music of Dick Raaijmakers" on Basta. Great stuff.

Sounds interesting!

Also sounds like something I'd like.

I've been through the first two of the three discs. There is some overlap between this and the 4-CD "Popular Electronics" which features Raaijmakers along with other composers like Tom Dissevelt. Truth be told, of what I've spun so far, the best stuff is on the "Popular Electronics" set, based on one listen at least. If you don't already have it, I would recommend "Popular Electronics" before springing for this. Just the opinion of one guy who likes abstract bloops and bleeps.

[Joe]

Important Records have recently reissued two discs worth of early / long-unavailable works by Elaine Radigue, TRIPTYCH and VICE VERSA ETC.. Though I'd still recommend ADNOS I - III or TRILOGIE DE LA MORT over these, they are nice additions to her discography.

Also "meditative"... I'm not sure exactly how I would classify his work (there seem to me to be are some prog-rock / New Age elements floating about in it) but J. D. Emmanuel, though relatively obscure, is a pretty fascinating manipulator of synthesized tonalities.

[clifford_thornton]

I scored an original of the first Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Co. LP. It's way better than I expected, from Behrman-esque improvisational Moog damage to more minimal stuff.

You can get it on CD here.

[Teasing the Korean]

I have been listening to Gil Melle's score for "The Andromeda Stain" non-stop. While this does not strictly fit the sub-genre I was addressing with this thread, it fits in nicely. A range of stuff from proto-ambient to things with melodic phrases and definite rhythmic pulses. Uses electronic instruments along with manipulated sounds of drums, bass, alto flute, piano, maybe more. I think this limited edition CD has already sold out.