Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center 1961-1973

An Interesting Listen

     

The first piece in this album, Postlude from Music for a Sacred Service used digital synthesized sounds to create two separate soundscapes - one in your left ear and the other in the right. The left gives the distinct impression of a vast empty space, such as a cave, which is emphasized by the occasional drip of water. The right scape has the sound of a fast and hectic, bright lit area, like watching a city in a stop motion.

The second piece uses similar sounds to create a single soundscape. Earth's Magnetic Field has you in a crystal cavern, where each stalactite and stalagmite resonates with its own high tone when hit by waves of sound emitted from other chimes, as well as from a source that flits around, from left to right, varying in sound from something like an oboe, to more like a flute, and then perhaps a trumpet, but never actually being one of these things.

The third piece, Prelude No. 8 is a slow plodding piece, with deep and resonant, sorrowful almost, chimes sounding to the left and right, like drops of water. The occasional dark spike of a string instrument (or what sounds like one) gives the eerie music a darker undercurrent. It is easy to imagine oneself walking slowly through a dark wood on a rainy, moonless night while listening to this music.
The fourth song, Out of Into uses clicks, pops, resonant whirs and other electronic noises to divide your attention three ways - left, right, and center. At each location it sounds as if a different series of events is happening - usually more resonant and "bouncy" in the center, and more cog-like and ratchety to the sides.

The fifth piece, Cortez, uses the same recorded voice, muttering an incomprehensible sound, manipulated to different speeds, pitches, and synthesized in other ways. The voice almost sounds frog-like, and then even insect-like (think cicadas), but certainly not human. Partway through a man begins speaking and reads out poetry. However, soon after the initial voice returns and again gives the impression of wind, insects, frogs, and a vast outdoors in front of us.
The sixth piece, Electronic Composition No. 1, uses loud sudden noises that quickly grow louder, all synthesized. These sounds give the impression of objects flying past ones head, electric saws and razors moving in to cut your face, and similar disturbing sounds. And then suddenly it becomes vibrantly tonal, with only the occasional fast pop. However the tones slowly move in closer to the listener, almost menacingly so, until we are reliving the discomfort of the initial parts of the piece. Finally the havoc returns, the sinister calm replaced by a dangerous ferocity.

The seventh piece, Dance Piece No. 3, is, notably, not at all suited for dancing. Ranging from blasting brassy tones in the users ear to sounds reminiscent of swishing water in the distance, this piece startles and then calms and then startles and then calms, all the way to the very end.

The eighth and final piece, Study for Voice and Tape, seems to use a mix of both synthesized and sampled sounds. An opera singer, accompanied by beeps, whirs, and a periodic crash give the impression of an opera gone horribly wrong. At times the singer seems to be competing against the synthetic sounds, while at others she sounds to be singing in concert with them.
The entire album is almost completely synthesized, either creatively, algorithmically, or using samples so distorted that they may as well have been synthesized. No sounds are recognizable as being from our own world, and the each piece has an eerie ambiance. Some pieces are more hostile than others, and make the listener feel almost threatened, while others are amazingly passive pieces, being relaxing while at the same time intimidating in their complexity. This album is not for those looking for something to simply listen to while working out or doing another activity - the music engages the listener and FORCES them (sometimes brutally) to focus solely on the piece.