Monday 8 June 2020

Tristram Cary - "Soundings: Electroacoustic Works 1955-1996" (Tall Poppies -TP139) 2005


Tristram Cary was among the earliest electro-pioneers.He worked as a radar engineer in World War II and at this time conceived ideas of early electronic and tape music. After the war he developed his first electronic music studio and studied composition, piano, horn, viola and conducting at Trinity College of Music in London. He became well known for his music for several episodes of 'Doctor Who', and for his music for many films,among them the fantastic 'Lady Killers'(the Alec Guiness Version NOT the shite Tom fucking Hanks/american version),which was his big break. 
Cary was also responsible for a number of 'Firsts' in Electronic Music,as co-producer of the first concert of live computer music at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, in 1968,he was also a partner in EMS' production of the 'Putney', one of the first generation of synthesizers,and made the music for 'The Children of Lir' (1959), the first major BBC television program with an entirely electronic score.
'Soundings' includes music Cary composed with makeshift WWII surplus in the 1940s, with the first tape recorders in the 1950s, with analog synthesizers in the 1960s and 1970s, and with computer-based systems between 1979 and 1996. It includes Cary's deeply affecting music for the radio version of Ray Bradbury's 'Leviathan 99' (1972) .Also 'Birth is Life is Power is Death is God is ...' (1967), a major concert work which integrates electronic sounds, recorded sounds, and sounds of musical instruments drawn from Cary's soundtrack to a film shown at the British Pavilion at EXPO '67 in Montreal. It includes 'Soft Walls' (1980), an early work for Synclavier; excerpts from 'The Impossible Piano (Homage to CN') (1994), a tribute to Conlon Nancarrow for sequencer and sampled piano. And it includes 'Continuum' (1969); '3 4 5 - A Study in Limited Resources for Stereo Tape' (1967); 'Suite - The Japanese Fishermen' (1955 / 1996); 'Stream Music' (1978); 'Nonet' (1979); 'Soft Walls' (1980); 'Sine City II' (1979 / 1996); 'The Clockpieces' (1983/1996), and 'Trellises' (1984). Also: 'Black, White & Rose', for marimba, gongs, woodblocks and tape (1991) and 'Narcissus', for flute and two tape recorders (1968); with performances by Ryszark Pusz (percussion) and Douglas Whittaker (flute).
Basically Tristram was there from the year zero of musique Concréte,early electronics,all the way through the dawn of the Synthesiser, to Computer music to sampling.He did it all,and fitted in a few works for Doctor Who as well!?

Tracklisting:

DISC ONE: Analogue Works 1955-1978 
Continuum
Suite - Leviathan '99
345 - A Study in Limited Resources for Stereo Tape
Suite - The Children of Lir
Birth is Life is Power is Death is God is ...
Suite - The Japanese Fishermen
Narcissus (Flute: Douglas Whittaker)
Steam Music 

DISC TWO: Music for Computer 1979-1996 
Nonet
Soft Walls
Sine City II
Black, White & Rose (Percussion: Ryszard Pusz)
Three Clockpieces
The Impossible Piano 

DOWNLOAD some sound soundings HERE!

2 comments:

Neolithic Mind said...

Yesss this is the stuff. And the Zinovieff recordings are a great surprise too! There's a pithy documentary on EMS here: https://youtu.be/sOw42WQIXog Now that the police have backed off (somewhat) from playing soldier here in Oakland, it's quiet enough to have a proper listen…though indeed I have been getting some pretty crazed sounding field recordings out of this time. Jonny, ever since your Trump-Mussolini comment I've been having visions of grooving to the Cab's "Do the Mussolini (Headkick)" and practicing my dance moves on our would-be Fuhrer's orangenkopf. It's already happening in some alternate dimension, I just need a TARDIS to get there. Meanwhile…cheers man, I really appreciate the downloads.

Bodhi Amol said...

Hello,here is another great compilation of this inventive bloke:"Tristram Cary_It's time for Tristram Cary - Works for film, television, exhibition and sculpture (2010)"
https://workupload.com/file/TFhgtUCe5Z5