Prospective 21e siècle releases generally stand out in record bins thanks to the series’ distinctive (and reflective) metallic cover designs. But the music pressed onto these vinyl records is also deserving of attention.

“Prospective” albums served as a vehicle for the dissemination of experimental electronic music. Pierre Schaeffer, Iannis Xenakis, Luc Ferrari, Edgard Varèse, John Cage and many others contributed material to the series (most of it performed by Les Percussions de Strasbourg). Yet only one composer – Pierre Henry – features prominently in the Prospective 21e siècle catalog.

A number of ground-breaking electroacoustic works by Henry were released on vinyl as parts of the series. This includes Variations pour une porte et un soupir, Le Voyage, Apocalypse de Jean and Mise en musique du corticalart. The latter is a particularly original and perplexing piece of electronic music.

Mise en musique du corticalart documents Pierre Henry’s exploration of the sonic possibilities contained within the cerebral cortex. On this album, the composer becomes the source material of a very peculiar improvisational exercise.

The sound masses heard on this LP were recorded live at the Musée d’Art moderne de Paris between February 15 and February 21, 1971. This corticalart music was made possible by the use of electrodes designed and positioned to detect signals/waves originating from the outermost layer of the composer’s brain. Seven electronic generators were put at Henry’s disposal during the performances. He used the equipment to  amplify and process the sounds thus made audible.

Needless to say, this “art du cortex” occupies a very narrow zone between intuitive art and cerebral music.

“électro-genèse”

Unfortunately, Mise en musique du corticalart has never been officially reissued (Creel Pone did release a limited CDr back in 2005).

More Pierre Henry here: Réminiscence apocryphe

The above Electronic Music by Canadian Composers compilation was released in 1975 on the small-independently-run Melbourne record label. Melbourne’s parent company, Rodeo Records, made its name producing and releasing albums by country and folk music artists. Rodeo established its Melbourne division in the mid-1960s but close to ten years elapsed before the label began releasing compilations dedicated to electronic music.

Volume 2 must have generated a certain amount of interest because it was reissued in 1980 as parts of the label’s New Music Series. The compilation features compositions by Michel Longtin, Peter Huse, Reinhard Berg and Don Druick. The latter’s “Cellophane Wrapper” is a particularly enthralling piece of psychoactive electronic music:

“Cellophane Wrapper” was composed at the Simon Fraser University Studio. It was mastered on a four-track Ampex and involved the use of a custom white noise unit, buchla enveloper, variable speed looper, and moog bode ring modulator. The music is concerned with the exploration of nonsymetric intensity contours which peak at a point one-third the distance from the beginning. (Liner notes – Electronic Music by Canadian Composers Vol. 2)

Druick, a Montreal-born multidisciplinary artist, spent the first part of his prolific career composing and performing various types of musical works – that is before he turned to performance and visual arts as well as writing. Between 1960 and 1973, Druick completed four film scores, one of which was selected by Melbourne for inclusion on its Electronic Music by Canadian Composers compilation.

The composition featured here serves as a soundtrack to a short film by Canadian experimental filmmaker David Rimmer. Variations on a Cellophane Wrapper is one of many exemplary experimental works made in Canada since the 1960s.

“cellophane wrapper”

The late 1960s and early 1970s produced more than a few interesting meetings between jazz and electronic music. From Sun Ra to Archie Shepp and Miles Davis, jazz expended into new territories situated beyond the contours of bebop, hard bop and post-bop. It is not an overstatement to say that Sing Me a Song of Songmy (1971), Freddie Hubbard and Ilhan Mimaroglu’s “fantasy for electromagnetic tape,” represents one of the most potent manifestations of this new music.

Hubbard, an established band leader in his own right, spent most of the sixties working in New York City alongside innovative artists such as Don Cherry, John Coltrane, Eric Dolphy and Ornette Coleman. The jazz trumpeter moved between the positions of leader and sideman with ease and proficiency. A prolific musician, he released dozens of albums – some of which were more commercial than others – during a career that spanned half a century.

On this 1971 release, Hubbard benefited from the vision of Mimaroglu, a Turkish-born electronic musician and a producer at Atlantic Records. Mimaroglu performed most of the work at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center. Using the equipment at his disposal, he infused a considerable amount of musique concrète, tape-based music and electronic sounds into Hubbard’s jazz piece. Mimaroglu was consequently accorded composition, arrangement and production credits on the album.

Sing Me a Song of Songmy is a 41-minute jazz opus augmented with tape collages, string orchestras, recitations and electronic interventions. It is a powerful musical statement with strong political undertones. It is meant to resonate loud and clear. Section titles such as “Threnody for Sharon Tate”, “This is Combat I know” and “What a Good Time for a Kent State” (and poems such as Lullaby for a Child in War as well as Before the Bombs Struck the Dark Breasts) help situate this collaborative effort within its post-1968 context.

This is one record that should not be overlooked.

“sing me a song of songmy”

The sixties were a time of change and turmoil when everything seemed possible. In Paris, art and politics merged into a potent critique of the establishment. Free Jazz – before and after May 68 – echoed the voice of the discontented. But the music also offered a means of articulating an alternative to reactionary social orders.

The Parisian art scene welcomed jazz vanguards and offered plenty of opportunities for improvised collaborations. It benefited from the zeal and energy of critics, musicians and independent record label owners who encouraged Free Jazz artists from the US to migrate eastward across the Atlantic. Archie Shepp, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, Sun Ra, Albert Ayler, Sunny Murray and many others found in Paris an enthused and receptive audience.

François Tusques, one of the leading figures of French Free Jazz, played a key role in preparing Europe for the sound of American experimental jazz. Tusques was born in Paris on the eve of World War Two. Because of his nomadic childhood, he was never able to receive formal musical training. Tusques taught himself to play the piano and quickly established his reputation as an innovative musician. In 1965, he contributed to the birth of a French experimental jazz scene by releasing the aptly titled Free Jazz.

Tusques once remarked that he learned to play his instrument by listening attentively to drummers. It should, therefore, come as no surprise that he chose to team up with Murray when the latter arrived in Paris in 1968. Murray’s singular drumming style provided the perfect barrage of sound for Tusques’ insistent piano work.

In 1971, Tusques and Murray recorded Intercommunal Music for the French record label Shandar. The two musicians were accompanied by Alan Silva, Beb Guerin, Steve Potts, Alan Shorter, Bob Reid and Louis Armfield. Several hours of studio time had been booked but thirty-some minutes was all that was needed to record this masterpiece of improvised jazz (I should add that Murray and Silva arrived considerably late for the session).

This is politically charged music performed with urgency and conviction.

“intercommunal music”

DEDICATED TO THAT GREAT COSMIC UNSEEN  (World Galaxy liner notes)

On January 12, 2007, Alice Coltrane was reunited in death with her late husband John Coltrane. The two had been married for less than two years when he passed away in 1967. During the four decades that followed, Alice released a stream of stunning albums, many of which paid tribute to the visionary spirit of the jazz saxophonist.

Alice played piano for the Terry Gibbs quartet when she met John in 1963. She quit performing for a couple of years and eventually secured a place for herself within John Coltrane’s group. The band was then undergoing a musical transformation. John’s playing had become infused with spiritual urgency. This was a time of experimentation and it is within that context that Alice began to explore the sonic possibilities of the harp.

Alice’s first solo effort was released in 1968. The album was meant as a tribute to her late husband. But it is with World Galaxy – recorded in autumn of 1971 – that she most eloquently celebrated the richness of his legacy. The session produced five songs: three original compositions and new interpretations of John Coltrane’s “My Favorite Things” and “A Love Supreme.”

World Galaxy opens with a poignant rendition of “My Favorite Things.” The band’s performance is augmented with a string section which helps elevate this John Coltrane signature piece to new heights. The fragile arrangements hold together superbly well. This is music from beyond this world.

Alice’s music often served as a vehicle for spiritual pursuits. She believed that her husband’s music served similar purposes.

A higher principle is involved here. Some of his (Coltrane’s) latest work aren’t musical compositions. I mean they weren’t based entirely on music. A lot if it has to do with mathematics, some on rhythmic structure and the power of repetition, some of elementals. He always felt that sound was the first manifestation in creation before music. I would like to play music according to ideals set forth by John and continue to let a cosmic principle, or the aspect of spirituality, be the underlying reality behind the music as he did (Quoted in Bill Cole’s John Coltrane).

Alice’s sixth solo effort closes with “A Love Supreme.” This last song is based on the landmark four-part suite John Coltrane released in 1965. On this album, the saxophonist performed a devotional poem (using his saxophone instead of words). On World Galaxy, Alice substitutes a poem of her own which is read out by her spiritual leader Swami Satchidananda.

Let that Love Supreme reign over the universe
Om shanti
Shanti
Shanti
Hariom

No discontinuations allowed on this Stereo 8 version of World Galaxy. This is profoundly beautiful music and it is meant to flow with a graceful intensity.

World Galaxy is but one of many splendid albums Alice Coltrane left behind before departing for another world. It is music for the great cosmic unseen.

“Program A: My Favorite Things / Galaxy Around Oludumare”

Stereo 8 (Impulse Records V 8027-9218) – Track Listing:
Program A: My Favorite Things – Galaxy Around Oludumare
Program B: Galaxy Around Satchidananda
Program C: Galaxy in Turiya
Program D: A Love Supreme

LP – Track Listing:
Side A: My Favorite Things – Galaxy Around Oludumare – Galaxy in Turiya
Side B: Galaxy Around Satchidananda – A Love Supreme

The Red Crayola (aka The Red Krayola) formed nearly 50 years ago but this in no way means that the band has lost its pertinence in today’s music landscape. Mayo Thompson, founding member of The Red Crayola, has dedicated much energy to preserving the band’s enduring legacy. During the last two decades, he has teamed up with different artists and released a number of astounding albums, including Fingerpainting which features the original line-up of 1966 and two handfuls of guest musicians.

The band’s first effort, The Parable of Arable Land, was recorded in 1967. It launched a sonic revolution that surpassed that of their label-mates,  the 13th Floor Elevators. The two bands released a series of albums in the 1960s on the Houston-based International Artists record label. The latter was owned and run by a small group of music industry entrepreneurs, one of which was the brother of country singer Kenny Rogers – the 13th Floor Elevators and The Red Crayola might actually have had something to do with Kenny Rogers recording the 1968 psychedelic hit “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In).”

The Parable of Arable Land kicks off in a free-form freak-out that resurfaces obstinately throughout this first effort by The Red Crayola. Much emphasis has been placed on the 50-person noise ensemble responsible for the cacophonic episodes interspersed throughout the album. But it is when the noise dissipates that the disorienting yet enthralling sound of The Red Crayola is most effective.

This is the unfamiliar landscape of Texas 67 and it lies somewhere between Arthur Lee’s Love and Richard Hell’s Voidoids.

Listen for yourself.

hurricane fighter plane

pink stainless tail

Don Van Vliet (aka Captain Beefheart) secured for himself a seat in the pantheon of modern music with the release of Trout Mask Replica in the summer of 1969. Few people, however, understood what he and his Magic Band were up to at the turn of that decade. This did not stop Lester Bangs from claiming that Captain Beefheart was “one of the giants of 20th century music.” Bangs was an ardent supporter of Don Van Vliet and – like many others – he perpetuated certain myths about the man and his musical output.

Many books and articles have been published recently in an effort to describe more accurately the processes behind the making of Captain Beefheart’s albums. A recent noteworthy book is Kevin Courrier’s Captain Beefheart’s Trout Mask Replica. This short yet highly engaging and informative 33 1/3 publication is the perfect companion for Don Van Vliet’s seminal album. Steve Froy, “Beefheartologist” and core member of The Captain Beefheart Radar Station, agrees with me – he recommends the book to both “long-time fans” and “Trout Mask virgins.”

Trout Mask Replica is a bizarre amalgamation of various sounds ranging from delta blues and free jazz to psychedelic rock and experimental music. Courrier enthusiastically describes the album as “a scrapbook collection of songs and poems, impishly acted out with Dadaist abandon and jack-in-the-box hijinks, performed with jagged rhythms and sharp conflicting atonal melodies.”

Courrier discovered Trout Mask Replica in the early 1970s. At first, he felt intimidated by the album cover. He was already familiar with Zappa’s strange artwork but this Straight Records release was something else. “The front cover of Trout Mask Replica didn’t seem funny at all,” writes Courrier in his book. “It was earnest rather than satirical. It exuded a quiet comfort about its own weirdness which just added to my discomfort looking at it.”

I sent Courrier a scan of the Stereo 8 version of Trout Mask Replica and asked him if he would have reacted differently to the music had he discovered the album on 8-track instead of vinyl. He looked at the cartridge and noted that the format made the trout mask look like a minnow’s head. “Hardly overwhelming,” he added.

As was usually the case with 8-track tapes, songs had to be reorganized to fit into four programs. Record labels generally shuffled the material around in order to minimize song discontinuation. Reprise Records got it right with this one – the label was able to maintain the integrity of each song.

But still, how serious of an offense was it to change the song sequence of Trout Mask Replica?

“Although the changes aren’t dramatically jarring, it does change the integrity of the record,” replied Courrier. “Both Beefheart and Zappa had reasons for putting the songs in the order they appear on the album. In this manner, the 8-track alters the album’s concept and listening experience in a way that doesn’t reflect the true intentions of the artists.”

In the end, most people probably failed to notice the changes considering that cartridges usually ended up being fed into defective or unreliable car 8-track players. “It’s hard to imagine anyone back then playing this album in their car while driving on the highway,” Courrier wrote in one of our email exchanges. But is it really?

Lester Bangs once acquired a copy of Lou Reed’s Metal Machine Music on 8-track so he could play it while on the road. He must have had a copy of Trout Mask Replica stashed somewhere in the glove compartment or under the front seat of his car.

I should also add that I own two versions of the album on 8-track.

28 songs played in a continuous loop – that’s enough to take anyone anywhere.

PROGRAM B (see track listing below)

Stereo 8 (Reprise Records 8RJ-2027) – Track Listing:
Program A: Frownland – The Dust Blows Forward ‘N The Dust Blows Back – Dachau Blues – Ella Guru – Hair Pie: Bake 1 – Moonlight in Vermont – Sweet Sweet Bulbs
Program B: Pachuco Cadaver – Bills Corpse – Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish – China Pig – My Human Gets Me The Blues – Dali’s Car – Sugar ‘N Spikes
Program C: Hair Pie: Bake 2 – Pena – Well – Ant Man Bee – Orange Claw Hammer – Wild Life – The Blimb (mousetrapreplica)
Program D: When Big Joan Sets Up – Fallin’ Ditch – She’s Too Much for My Mirror – Hobo Chang Ba – Steal Softly Thru Snow – Old fart at Play – Veteran’s Day Poppy

LP – Track Listing:
Side A: Frownland – The Dust Blows Forward ‘N The Dust Blows Back – Dachau Blues – Ella Guru – Hair Pie: Bake 1 – Moonlight in Vermont
Side B: Pachuco Cadaver – Bills Corpse – Sweet Sweet Bulbs– Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish – China Pig – My Human Gets Me The Blues – Dali’s Car
Side C: Hair Pie: Bake 2 – Pena – Well – When Big Joan Sets Up – Fallin’ Ditch – Sugar ‘N Spikes – Ant Man Bee
Side D: Orange Claw Hammer – Wild Life – She’s Too Much for My Mirror – Hobo Chang Ba – The Blimb (mousetrapreplica) – Steal Softly Thru Snow – Old fart at Play – Veteran’s Day Poppy

Kraftwerk launched its machine music revolution in 1974.

Autobahn, the band’s fourth album, offered the means of penetrating and transforming the rigid English and US markets. However, it should be noted that Kraftwerk’s initial success was made possible by truncating Autobahn’s title track – a 23-minute opus – to make it fit on a 7”. The single charted in many countries and served to establish Kraftwerk as the precursor to a new wave of popular electronic dance music.

It has since become commonplace to associate the birth of tanzmusik (dance music) with Kraftwerk’s fourth studio effort – that is despite the fact that the band’s first “Tanzmusik” appeared a year earlier on an album which has yet to be officially re-issued.

Kraftwerk’s third effort, Ralf und Florian, was recorded during the summer of 1973. The album has often been overlooked due to its position between the more experimental Kraftwerk 2 and the more commercially successful Autobahn. It also did not help that Kraftwerk’s founding members, Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider, generally avoided promoting and discussing the band’s early recordings. A certain silence has, therefore, been maintained concerning the 1970-1973 period.

There was, however, no room for silence on the Stereo 8 version of Ralf und Florian. Vertigo Records divided and reorganized the six songs to make them fit into four programs of 9 minutes and 51 seconds each. As was usually the case with 8-tracks, a number of songs had to be cut into two parts. It would have been possible to change the song order to limit discontinuation to “Ananas Symphonie” but not without leaving moments of silence at the end of two of the four programs (this was usually avoided since most early 8-track players did not have fast forward buttons).

Considering that song discontinuation was inevitable, it is surprising that Vertigo chose to reorganize the material instead of leaving the song sequence as is. On the vinyl version, the sequence alternates between synth/beatbox-driven songs and more abstract pieces. The 8-track cartridge, on the other hand, pairs some of those songs (see track listing below) creating a somewhat more fluid and coherent feel.

The Stereo 8 version of Ralf und Florian opens with “Elektrisches Roulette” (a disorienting song characterized by a circling succession of motifs that multiply and never really seem to resolve). This opening piece enwraps the listener and sets the mood for the album’s four programs. Ralf und Florian is definitely a transitional album in the way it artfully combines drum machines, various synthesizers, guitars, percussion instruments, flutes and a prototype vocoder to create anachronistic sonic collages. Vertigo’s cartridge concludes with an ethereal piece of machine music (“Tanzmusik”) and an ambient-like postscript (“Tongebirge”) which prefigure the sound of Kraftwerk’s Autobahn.

This is the first true tanzmusik and you can find it on vinyl or tape (or compact disc if you don’t mind unauthorized reissues).

Listen to program D: “Tanzmusik” & “Tongebirge”
——————————————————————
Stereo 8 (Vertigo VC8 – 2006) – Track Listing:
Program A: “Elektrisches Roulette” / “Kristallo” (beg.)
Program B: “Kristallo” (conclu.) / “Heimatklange” / “Ananas Symphonie” (beg.)
Program C: “Ananas Symphonie” (conclu.)
Program D: “Tanzmusik” / “Tongebirge”

LP – Track Listing:
Side 1: ““Elektrisches Roulette” / “Tongebirge” / “Kristallo” / “Heimatklange”
Side 2: “Tanzmusik” / “Ananas Symphonie”

English titles: “Electric Roulette” / “Mountain of Sound” / “Crystals” / The Bells of Home” / “Dance Music” / “Pineapple Symphony”

From the Tangerine Dream you’ve never heard before … cyclone.

Tangerine Dream disciples insist that Cyclone is a bastardized album which sprung from a questionable marriage of influences and motives. The band’s sixth album with Virgin Records does sit uncomfortably among TD’s other pre-1980 releases. Yet this – I would argue – is reason enough to let Cyclone stubbornly spin under the needle until some of it makes sense.

This 1978 release features the Virgin Years core members, Edgar Froese and Christopher Franke, with drummer Klaus Krieger and English vocalist Steve Jolliffe. Cyclone contains Floyd-inspired themes and fragments that betray an obvious penchant for English progressive rock – on this album, Tangerine Dream diverts a totality of means toward creating decadent epic prog-rock moments. And all of this is enriched by German motorik digressions that should leave you perplexed.

You might enjoy it.

I do.

Tangerine Dream – madrigal meridian

Get the 1978 Tour Programme on Jacob’s Tangerine Dream blog.

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MUSIC OF THE NFB: PART ONE

… and more on La musique de l’ONF below because this double album is a truly remarkable collection of early Canadian electronic music.
—————————————————

DIMENSION SOLEILS 1970, 04 min 46 s
Film by Raymond Brousseau and music by Gilles Tremblay

Brousseau, in Dimension Soleils, bring together mathematical theories and experimental cinema as a means of exposing the poetic potential of systems and structures. The music that accompanies the film represents one of the highlights of this double album. Tremblay writes, “I opted for the simple solution of editing/mixing a selection of concrete sounds divided into two families: even tracks and unevenly oscillating groups. These two families served as my point of departure and corresponded to the dialectic of the film with, however, a wide door left open for associational ideas, graftings which could bring about that “géométrie effervescente”.

dimension soleils

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METADATA 1971, 08 min 30 s
Film by Peter Foldès and music by Alain Clavier

Metadata represents one of the earliest documented efforts to produce animation films using computer-generated images. The 1971 film pertinently features Clavier’s bastardized instrumental pop music – jazz-rock drenched in treated electroacoustic sounds.

metadata

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NEIGHBOURS / VOISINS 1952, 08 min 06 s
Film and music by Norman McLaren

“This work by McLaren illustrates a dispute between two neighbours and uses photographed sound produced by an animation method – frame by frame – employing cards each of which carries the black-and-white pattern of a particular sound pitch, and combining these to give the desired music.”

CDR reissue available through Mimaroglu Music Sales.