Various - "Satan's Sermon and Other Electronic Fantasies" Vinyl, LP, Album, 1980 (Composers Recording Inc)

I just did a Tosh Talks episode with my friend and translator Paul Knobloch, and he brought this album over to the house as a gift.  He knows that I'm crazy about electronic music from the 1950s to 1970s.    This is an album with music by four composers, who to this day, are unknown to me.  George Todd, Saria Semegen, Thomas Wells, and Jan Greenwald.  Looking up their names on Discogs website I don't find that many other recordings by these composers, which is a shame because the album is a delight. 

"Satan's Sermon" is a work by Todd that is mostly done on a synclavier, invented in 1977-1978.  A lot of bands in the 80s used the synclavier, especially in the recordings produced by Trevor Horn.  Here, its use is totally expansive and driven by an Able 40 computer.  It's digital meets analog.  The music is dark since it is called "Satan's Sermon."  

My favorite work on this compilation is Greenwald's "Duration 2" which was composed on the Nova 1200 Data General computer attached to Buchia 500 digital-to-analog synthesizer.  It's a very slow piece that's meditative but has textures that reflect sinister or even cinematic touches of an Alfred Hitchcock piece of work.  

Mel Powell/Vladimir Ussachevsky/Otto Luening - "Music For Electronic & Older Instruments" Vinyl, LP, 1968 (Composer Recordings Inc)

I have an addiction to music that was recorded in the 1950's/1960s that deal with electronic tape manipulations.  My favorite composers, and who often worked together is Vladimir Ussachevsky and Otto Luening.  Both were with the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center in New York.  Which is a cell in NYC that was devoted to making new sounds.  This album, "Music for Electronic & Older Instruments" was released in 1968, but most of the music was composed in the early 1960s.  

Side one is devoted to my heroes, and the first piece is a collaboration between Ussachevsky and Luening.  "Concerted Piece" is a dual of sorts with a full orchestra and tape manipulated sounds.   They have done this before, and it never fails.  The tension between live and real music being performed with the addition of a 'future' technology is pretty incredible.  

"Wireless Fantasy" is the masterpiece on the album, and it's by Ussachevsky.  It goes back to the origin of radio sounds, and it's kind of a nostalgic piece of work because it is both a tribute but also a source of that noise that was made in the early 20rh century.   When I heard it for the first time, I immediately thought of Kraftwerk's "Radioactivity" album.   Which is also a throwback to a sound or at the very least a tribute to early technology.  

The second side is devoted to Mel Powell who I don't know.  The works on this album are electronic or tape orientated but with some pieces that are the total real instrument - although very 20th century modern.  "Two Prayer Settings" is voice by Charles Bressier, with text by Paul Goodman, and music performed by the New York Soloists.  It's a beautiful piece of music, and Bressier does his work with great voice and skill.   The electronic piece he does is called "Events, a nice" and it is text by Hart Crane, read by actors.  He prerecorded the actors and does a cut up with them, and it's a  beautiful piece but not essential for my taste.  His other tape piece is "Second Electronic Setting, " and it's hardcore tape music.   I like it.

What is great about this album is that it's a collection of works that were at the time modern and new, and I like to think of myself drinking a martini in a mid-century home with my hi-fi listening to this album.  Bland yes, but it feels great.