Pierre Henry: Machine Danse (1972)

Machine Danse simply contains some of the finest music ever composed by Pierre Henry, even by his very own high standards. The late Sixties/early Seventies deserve to be called his golden era, with releases such as the two Cortical Arts (find them on Creel Prone), his collaboration with Urban Sax, and, well, Machine Danse. Here, Henry displays a yet unmatched sense for rhythmic sound/language, e.g. on Exorcisme or on the second half of Erotica. I can't think of any music which so excitingly blends introspection & extroversion. Pierre Henry's music is complex and never boring.

----------------------------------------------------------------

Arne Nordheim: Selected Electroacoustic Works (1963-1987)

You may know Arne Nordheim's powerful electronic works (recorded back in the 1960s and 70s in Warsaw, Stockholm and Utrecht) from two releases on Rune Grammofon (where you can also find the amazing electronic/jazz supergroup Supersilent). If you, like me, have fallen in love with Nordheim's electronic music, you will have certainly wondered if there are any other electronic/electroacoustic works available by him. Yes, there are, but they are well hidden on the expensive/hard to find box Listen to the Art of Arne Nordheim. There you'll find those pieces presented here. Unfortunately it doesn't contain any purely electronic works, but a few hybrid orchestral/electronic pieces. Hence, I have labelled this generic release Selected Electroacoustic Works, which will hopefully find some old & new friends of Arne Nordheim.
----------------------------------------------------------------------

José Luis de Délas: Eilanden (1968)

Spanish avantgarde composer José Luis de Délas is virtually unknown to the general public, and even to the contemporary connoisseur. This little contribution, his hybrid piece Eilanden for ensemble and tape will hopefully change this pityful situation a little bit. Luckily, the fantastic German musicologists Heinz-Klaus Metzger and Rainer Riehn have published a book about de Délas (Musik-Konzepte Vol./Bd. 78) which is still pretty much the only public information available about him.
------------------------------------------------------------------

Pierre Henry: Maléfices (1962)

Pierre Henry - the legend, the wizard, the hermit, the guru, the best of the best. It is a shame that there is so little music available by the father of musique concrete and an even bigger shame that most of it are vinyl-only releases. Such as this short yet wonderful musique concrete soundtrack Maléfices, composed in 1962 at his Studio Apsome (if I'm not mistaken). Sorry, no tracklist is available here - we have to accept this little shortcoming in exchange for some simply amazing timbres, almost an electronic lullaby...

---------------------------------------------------------

Luigi Nono: Musica-manifesto (1969)

Today we are discussing a great tapework by Luigi Nono which is (to my knowledge) not available yet on disc:

Musica-manifesto per nastro magnetico a quattro canali/for 4-channel magnetic tape (1969)

Part 1: Un volto, del mare [Text by Cesare Pavese]

Part 2: Non consumiamo Marx [based on documentary texts]

It was recorded on April 24, 2004 at the Wittener Tage für Neue Kammermusik (Soprano: Petra Hoffmann; Speaker: Isis Krüger; Sound supervision: Bryan J. Wolf - who is, by the way, Karlheinz Stockhausen's assistant). Sorry for the short mobile phone distortion in the first track!
E.g. like Vangelis' "Fais Que Ton Rêve Soit Plus Long Que La Nuit" this piece is dealing with the student riots in Paris in 1968. Like most of Nono's tape pieces this is wonderful, ethereal musique concrete, using a lot of pre-recorded elements. Make sure to also get Nono's recently released "Complete Works for Solo Tape".

--------------------------------------------------------

Günter Schickert: Somnambul (1980-94)

Do you need to know Günter Schickert? Yes, you do! His 1974 electro/guitar album Samtvogel (which still hasn't been published on CD; get it from Mutant Sounds by the way) is probably on of the milestones of early trippy electronics (and, I think, even a little better than Manuel Göttsching's Inventions for Electric Guitar). Schickert's CD Somnambul, released on the German label Musique Intemporelle is now out of print (and really hard to find) and compiles some previously unreleased works from 1980-94, some of which is of ethereal beauty (and some of which isn't). In an interview from 1995, Schickert described his "Somnambul" method like this: He was sleeping next to his equipment (some electronics, tape machines, conch shells etc.) and whenever he woke up after a dream he played his music straight onto tape, which gives it a spacey touch.

------------------------------------------------------------------

Walter/Wendy Carlos - Moog 900 Series Electronic Music Systems Demonstration Record (1967)

OK, one last for May. Thought you might be interested in a rare & unpublished demonstration of an early Moog Modular system that Wendy Carlos (at the time when she was still Walter) made for Bob Moog in 1967. Find it, well hidden, on Roger Luther's "Moog Archives" site: http://www.moogarchives.com/moogdemo.htm. Unfortunately, audio quality is low (22 kbps) which however isn't that painful as most of the recording is made of speech (speaker is Ed Stokes).
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Roland Kayn: Elektroakustische Projekte (1966-1975)

The third link in our Orpheus series (="avantgarde" electronics) goes to a digital world premiere, ie. a recording that has previously only been available on vinyl. Roland Kayn is a less known German composer living in The Netherlands. Since the Sixties he is focussing on what he calls cybernetic music: Kayn just sets the basic parameters and then lets his equipment play alone...not unlike David Tudor's live electronic music, which reminds more of a living garden of electronic circuits rathen than conventional compositions. Take your time to get into this one, it's certainly not as easy as your typical Britney Spears, but more rewarding...

Next releases in June 2007: Günter Schickert: Somnambul (1980-94) & Luigi Nono: Musica-Manifesto n.1

---------------------------------------------------------------------

Rolf Trostel: Narrow Gate To Life (1983)

Rolf Trostel's calm & beautiful electronic improvisation Narrow Gate To Life, based on the Book of Hiob, was recorded in a church somewhere in Spain back in 1983. Listening to this non-stop composition will certainly be a very good investment of your time, especially if you are into ambient, Berlin school and things like that.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Edward Artemiev - Solaris [Toei Music]

The second edition of Orpheus Records features some of the most beautiful music ever: Edward Artemiev's original electronic soundrack of Tarkovsky's legendary Science Ficion movie SOLARIS (1972). The music is composed entirely on the ancient Russian ANS Synthesizer and simply gorgeous. Its rough beauty is a perfect match of Tarkovsky's sparse, intense images. Despite the relative success and fame of the movie the soundtrack is - officially - still unavailable. What you get here is the CD bootleg release on the Japanese Toei Music label, which sometimes pops up on Ebay. Unless you're into painfully mellow new age easy listening, avoid the re-recorded release on Electroshock, labelled Solaris-The Mirror-Stalker.

---------------------------------------------

Jean Michel Jarre: Music for Supermarkets (1983)

Harmonia's first link is goes to an album, which, appropriately, has only been pressed ONCE. Yes, here we have Jean Michel Jarre's famous and ultra-rare Music for Supermarkets. Only one vinyl copy exists; the mastertape was destroyed. But: Before the single existing album was auctioned, it was played once on Radio Luxemburg (I think it's a short wave station) - hence, recording quality is bad, but you won't probabyl find any better copy. If you do, let me know.
---------------------------------------------------------

Jean Michel Jarre: La Cage/Erosmachine (1969)

At last, our Electronic Music Time Machine is ready to travel back to Paris of the late Sixties, to discover this rare gem of Jean Michel Jarre which has not yet seen the digital light of the day. There is no better way of starting our rediscovery of lost electronic music than with this superb example of electronic crossover. Jarre, later popularised through his timeless Oxygene chart breaker, is still carrying a sense of experimentation here, after just coming from the hallowed halls of the Parisian GRM.
-------------------------------------------------