Alwin Nikolais (1910-1993) started out by playing the organ in the silent films. When sound came in, he needed to expand his horizons, and he did so by studying scenic design, costuming, acting, puppetry, and music composition. These field of interests led him to dance choreography where he could combine all his different mediums in one space. He founded the Henry Street Playhouse in New York City in the 1950s, where he started to do multi-media presentations. Nikolais wrote electronic music go with his performances, and here we have the aural results of sounds he made in the 1950s.
In a similar situation as John Cage/David Tudor (and Eno), Nikolais' partner-in-crime David Berlin, operated and manipulated the sounds from the sound booth that looked over the stage. Some of the music/noise were played by the dancers with such instruments as drums, bells, wood blocks, gongs, and rattles but all played through Nikolais/Berlin's electronic filters. The music now is just as fresh as it must have been in 1959.
When I was in the ARTBOOK store, I played this album, and I sold copies there and then. By no means is it ambient, due to it being originally used as modern dance music - but a total pleasing listening experience, where the sound brings a sense of rhythm and dynamics. It's interesting to note that Nikolais was the first person to purchase the first Moog analog synthesizer system. Another electronic composer of great importance, yet I never heard of him till recently and when I bought this album "Choreosonic Music of the New Dance Theatre of Alwin Nikolais."
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