I want to highlight recent music that may have fallen under the radar for those who love electronic music from the seventies and eighties - scores and ablums by Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, John Carpenter, et al.
My focus here is not so much on artists who have made it into movie scoring but those whose own albums evoke electronic soundtracks and albums.
I'm starting with PAUL ELLIS - a Seattle based musician who loves analogue synthesis and a sense of drama that makes his music sound like extended movie soundtracks. I've got about a half dozen of his albums, which are not the easiest to find, though a few are available digitally at least in the USA. I love his stuff - both his solo albums and his earlier work with the band Dweller at the Threshold.
Paul Ellis - Into the Liquid Unkown
Trillium from Silent Conversations
Cascade from The Sacred Ordinary
And an early summary of music from Dweller at the Threshold
I'll add more artists that appeal to me as time permits, and would love to hear from others who share this interest.
Hmmm.... I know this is tangential at best, but I thought at least Thor and First Breath might have a bit of interest in this, maybe one or two others....?
I also like (and own) that CD by Dweller at the Threshold. I don't have any of Paul's solo albums, but I own plenty by others: Tangerine Dream (of course), Synergy (of course), Emerald Web, Roger Powell, Mark Shreeve, Arc, Robert Schroeder, Steve Roach, etc.
SBB is a great Polish progressive rock decade with a career spanning four decades, and then some. Their keyboardist Jozef Skrzek has recorded many solo albums and doesn't skimp on the Moog solos. He recently issued a CD of previously unreleased instrumentals he recorded circa the late '70s. It's awesome. It's entirely electronic, with drums on one track courtesy of SBB's drummer. Hear the whole thing here: http://skrzek.bandcamp.com/album/moja-muzyka
In the 1970s-80s, a musical collective that consisted of guys like Alan Hawkshaw, Francis Monkman (the keyboardist of Curved Air, the prog rock band Stewart Copeland was in before The Police), Brian Bennett, and many others, collaborated on many albums' worth of electronic library music. Many of them have yet to see a CD reissue. While much electronic goodness lurks on these platters, real guitars, basses and drums pop up (just like in Tangerine Dream), but even Bennett, originally a drummer, emphasized synthesizers in his compositions.
This is an elegant theme, in the realm of Vangelis' style.
"Vintage" electronica (for me) are the works from the late-1950s, all throughout the 1960s & into the early 1970s done on magnetic tapes or via radiophonic workshops. This is a decidedly different area than the focus of your thread topic because such early electronic music by 'serious' composers did not seek out to create ambiance of the kind which we now associate with terms like 'new age'.
I nonetheless deposit the names composers such as Tristram Cary and Arne Nordheim as leading examples of my kind of vintage electronic music.
Music from classic DOCTOR WHO serials also comes to my mind regarding this area.
However, the only electronic music albums which I own are those by Florian Fricke's Popol Vuh which served as the musical inspiration for a number of films directed by Werner Herzog (Herz aus Glas, Nosferatu, etc.)
Drop, I have some but not all by any means of what you're talking about, so more to look into, thanks! I was actually going to focus on Ian Boddy / Arc next, but I got sidetracked into some Klaus Schulze, who is still my favorite in this mode.
Zardoz, I'm also an aficionado of early electronic music, and recently downloaded the Tristram Cary collection...and also have the early Doctor Who and BBC RAdiophonic stuff...the great Tomorrow People album. Morton Subotnick is my favorite go-to listens for this period, along with Gil Melle's Andromeda Strain. I know the name Arne Nordheim but I'll need to seek out his music, and I've only heard one of the Popul Vuh albums, so more work to do there!
What inspired this thread was listening to Paul Eliis albums this weekend on some bike rides. I love extended, mostly-pulse-based electronics like this when I'm riding solo.
I want to give a shout out to this gentleman, Raymond Scott.
Apart from the way "Powerhouse" (among others) was appropriated in dozens of different ways, he never actually scored any movies--to the best of my knowledge. And although he was primarily a jazzer, no conversation about vintage electronica would be complete without mentioning him.
Drop, I have some but not all by any means of what you're talking about, so more to look into, thanks! I was actually going to focus on Ian Boddy / Arc next, but I got sidetracked into some Klaus Schulze, who is still my favorite in this mode.
Arc's pretty awesome. My favorite of theirs is Fracture, which has to be hands-down the best derivation of Rubycon ever.
Another guy you should check out is the late Michael Garrison. He released albums in the early 80s through the 90s before he passed away, and if you can find his first three without paying too much money (they're all OOP), they belong in your collection. In chronological order, those are In the Regions of Sunreturn, Prisms, Eclipse. Bitchin' analog sounds, Berlin School sequencing, sweeping vistas, the works. IMO, he beat Klaus Schulze at his own game. Klaus did some cool stuff in the 70s, but by the mid-80s he sounded like he was on autopilot.
Another classic from the '80s: Wavestar's final album, Moonwind. It was released on Larry Fast's label, Audion (named after his 1980 album).
Speaking of Arc/Ian Boddy, here's a nicely representative track, working with Michael Shreeve - Relay
And here's one from another group on his DiN label, Mazmoneth, from their album, Music by Mirrors - from a few years ago, a recent favorite album. (some drums and other stuff too, not just synths I think....)
Ian Boddy has a good site and bandcamp for his label.
I've recently purchased some software that will allow me the opportunity to actually make this kind of music, which is something I've always wanted to do.
With plugins and virtual rack extensions these days you can emulate these old synths pretty well.
Though it's not really my focus in this thread, I've got to second Octoberman's call out to Raymond Scott - I LOVE this guy, can't believe I got through the first 45 years of my life without his early jazzy work or his electronic stuff. May not be recent, but it is classic and sounds like it was written yesterday:
drop_forge - love the vintage clips you posted, and loving the Polish musician Józef Skrzek's album you linked to even more. Man, he gets some mileage out of his equipment - if you go for this sort of thing at all, have a listen right now!
Arc's done some great stuff. So has Ian. Before Mark Shreeve formed Redshift with his brother Julian, he recorded solo albums all through the 80s and early 90s. He progressed from archaic, atmospheric, textural music to straight-on Berlin School before he found himself recording in a style I can most succinctly call "electronic rock."
The three studio albums in question are Legion (1986), Crash Head (1988), and Nocturne (1995). Then, a live album from the 1994 EMMA concert, released a year later as Collide.
(There are at least five Bruton library albums by Mark: Oracle, Energy Fountain, Riding the Edge, Power House and Pulsar. Some of these albums contain earlier versions of tracks with different sounds, that appeared on the first three mentioned above.)
The live version of Legion's "Storm Column" from the '94 concert trumps the earlier studio cut (which is awesome, nonetheless).
Also from Legion, the pensive, dirgelike "Domain 7," with a beautiful, bluesy guitar solo by Pat McManus, guitarist of Mama's Boys.
The stupendous title track from Crash Head.
"Black," from Nocturne.
Three live tracks released as a live EP called Zoom in 2010, all Mark's compositions, but the first was performed with Ian under their Arc guise, the second two with his group Redshift. At 19:56 begins a unique version of "Assassin," his interpretation of John Carpenter's theme from Assault on Precinct 13. Previous live versions are shorter, hyper, more rockin.' For this, he returned to the spatial aesthetic of his original 1984 recording, but still cuts loose on the lead line towards the end.
drop_forge - love the vintage clips you posted, and loving the Polish musician Józef Skrzek's album you linked to even more. Man, he gets some mileage out of his equipment - if you go for this sort of thing at all, have a listen right now!
Hmmm.... I know this is tangential at best, but I thought at least Thor and First Breath might have a bit of interest in this, maybe one or two others....?
I love this, but I'm taking my time listening through all these YT videos. Thanks for the heads-up!
I have lots of recommendations of my own, but I'll wait a bit. Will post soon. Too drunk right now.
Being a huge fan of Tangerine Dream and electronic music in general ( "berlin school" in particular ), those Paul Ellis clips are very tasty, thanks.
People have already mentioned a number of artists I'd mention, good to see Wavestar's Moonwind get a mention. That sucker has been released a number of times, most recently in a digital deluxe edition from musiczeit.com.
Steve Roach is hot and cold for me. Some of his sequencer based albums, Traveler/ Now/ Stormwarning are nice, his world music doesn't catch my interest, and I think he's kind of beaten the ambient/immersive thing into the ground Although, I DO love his Quiet Music albums, the original 3, and you can get the original 3 in a collected edition at a nice price.
Schulze did some nice stuff ( X is a favorite ) but he seems to release any and everything he's ever done, anytime anywhere for any reason. Some recent albums like In Blue were good, but for the most part, but I love his original run of albums, beginning with Irrlicht, Cyborg, continuing into the 80s with Trancefer.
Other albums I'd recommend :
Richard Burmer - Bhakti Point
Kevin Braheny - The Way Home and Lullabye For The Hearts of Space ( the latter hasn't been issued on CD, although Braheny said a few years ago it was being restored and remastered, but is still MIA )
Michael Stearns - Planetary Unfolding. Another album which is out of print and supposedly being "restored" for release, but seems to be dead in the water.
Free System Projekt - lots of good TD inspired stuff to choose from
Perge - a newer group who make no bones about wanting to recreate TD's sound from the 80's, and they do it very well. But they also pretty much steal some signature TD melodies to riff on. It really treads a fine line between paying homage and um, kinda cloning. But they have done some really good TD styled tracks. MP3 albums can be had on Amazon, iTunes and their Bandcamp site.
Gert Emmens & Ruud Heij also have created some sequencer heavy albums, Journey is maybe their best TD influenced disc.
Sometime back in the late mid to late 90's, there was an indie band, called Orbital Decay, who did a handful of very nice analog Berlin School type digital albums and homemade CDR's.. But over the years I've lost their MP3 albums and now can't find them anywhere, and am not sure if they're still available anywhere.
Steve Roach is hot and cold for me. Some of his sequencer based albums, Traveler/ Now/ Stormwarning are nice, his world music doesn't catch my interest, and I think he's kind of beaten the ambient/immersive thing into the ground ....
Schulze did some nice stuff ( X is a favorite ) but he seems to release any and everything he's ever done, anytime anywhere for any reason....
MikeP, thanks for all the name checks and recommendations - some I know, some are new to me. This thread is turning into a great little compendium of Electronica new and old, better known and obscure. Lots to listen to and seek out.
Your description of Steve Roach hit the nail on my head - very much my general sense (though maybe a little more tolerance for the world music). For me, the best way to think of Klaus Schulze is as the electronica equivalent of a jazz artist - each recording represents a different facet - a different improvisation - from the same artistic sensibility and captures where he was at that point in time. I enjoy dipping into all periods, but have found that his album Babel with Andreas Grosser, which is piano based, is my very favorite.
My favorite work of Michael Stearns is the Lyra Sound Constellation album, where he plays a room-sized electronic harp/art installation that's like an enormous combination of the blaster beam and Spock's Vulcan harp.
And circling back to Paul Ellis, he's done some sequencer-influenced collaborations with Steve Roach in recent years, on Silent Conversations sampled above, and also on the album Life Sequence. Here's a live track they did together a few years ago:
Although, I DO love his Quiet Music albums, the original 3, and you can get the original 3 in a collected edition at a nice price.