For me, at least. This might be a bit of a long post and for that, I apologise.
Some of you may know from conversations we've had my father was a consummate pianist, composer, musician but also experimenter in the early days of electronic music. I am incredibly lucky to come from parents who lived and breathed music and they, of course, actively encouraged myself and my brother to also enjoy it which we both do. I just chose the noisiest instrument! I am a musician because of my parents. I am a musician because, when I was young, my father - realising my interest in the drums (I was a trumpeter at the time) - videoed Buddy Rich on the Parkinson show in 1980-something. I was hooked.
Anyway, my father has now been gone 9 years. Sadly he was gone long before he actually died due to his Alzheimer's, diagnosed in 1991 when I was only 18. By 2000, very little of my father remained, just a vague look of recognition in his eyes or a tiny smile. But it took until 2007 for it to finally kill him. But I digress as I'm not here to tell a sob story. Everyone has equally important and influential moments in their life.
But most of what I knew of my father's prolific output and the sheer scale of his musicianship has been second-hand - told to me by family friends or peers as anecdotes. Recently though, the British Library has accepted some of dad's compositions as music of historical or musical significance. From that the following has occurred and is now about to release:
Dad's early electronic music experiments has been remastered by a low-key label called 'Public Information'. They have taken his original 4-track reel-to-reel masters and made an LP of his early experiments in oscillators, etc., and made it available for all. In particular, they considered his experiments with a home-made synthesizer he co-designed with Doug Shaw for Practical Electronics of interest for this compilation. It was all recorded between 1973 and 1975 on 4-track reel-to-reel machines.
[url=https://soundcloud.com/public-information/malcolm-pointon-electromuse-lp-sampler]This link to Soundcloud [/url] gives a short demo of the upcoming compilation of his electronic experiments. It's all pure '70s analogue! A good synopsis of his work can be read by clicking the 'show more' link on the page. It opens with my father talking (it's sad I don't remember what he sounded like!) when he was a BBC Radio announcer.
I must stress this is not a sales pitch - I'm not asking anyone to buy the album. I'm just stating my pride that finally some of my father's work is getting recognition for its experimentation and innovation. It's really not for everyone but if you like your early synth stuff, these experiments in sound may interest you.
For me, I'm just so damn proud that his work is getting some attention for its innovation and creativity.
Incidentally, over the months lots of you have asked what all the stuff is on the shelves behind my drum kit in my photos. To the right of my kit on the shelves in the photo below is the very cassette and 4-track reel-to-reel masters on that album.
[img]http://www.wikiloops.com/images/galleries/23012/g_wl-gal-1-1460627511.jpg[/img]
Sorry for the diatribe but I wanted to share.
Some of you may know from conversations we've had my father was a consummate pianist, composer, musician but also experimenter in the early days of electronic music. I am incredibly lucky to come from parents who lived and breathed music and they, of course, actively encouraged myself and my brother to also enjoy it which we both do. I just chose the noisiest instrument! I am a musician because of my parents. I am a musician because, when I was young, my father - realising my interest in the drums (I was a trumpeter at the time) - videoed Buddy Rich on the Parkinson show in 1980-something. I was hooked.
Anyway, my father has now been gone 9 years. Sadly he was gone long before he actually died due to his Alzheimer's, diagnosed in 1991 when I was only 18. By 2000, very little of my father remained, just a vague look of recognition in his eyes or a tiny smile. But it took until 2007 for it to finally kill him. But I digress as I'm not here to tell a sob story. Everyone has equally important and influential moments in their life.
But most of what I knew of my father's prolific output and the sheer scale of his musicianship has been second-hand - told to me by family friends or peers as anecdotes. Recently though, the British Library has accepted some of dad's compositions as music of historical or musical significance. From that the following has occurred and is now about to release:
Dad's early electronic music experiments has been remastered by a low-key label called 'Public Information'. They have taken his original 4-track reel-to-reel masters and made an LP of his early experiments in oscillators, etc., and made it available for all. In particular, they considered his experiments with a home-made synthesizer he co-designed with Doug Shaw for Practical Electronics of interest for this compilation. It was all recorded between 1973 and 1975 on 4-track reel-to-reel machines.
[url=https://soundcloud.com/public-information/malcolm-pointon-electromuse-lp-sampler]This link to Soundcloud [/url] gives a short demo of the upcoming compilation of his electronic experiments. It's all pure '70s analogue! A good synopsis of his work can be read by clicking the 'show more' link on the page. It opens with my father talking (it's sad I don't remember what he sounded like!) when he was a BBC Radio announcer.
I must stress this is not a sales pitch - I'm not asking anyone to buy the album. I'm just stating my pride that finally some of my father's work is getting recognition for its experimentation and innovation. It's really not for everyone but if you like your early synth stuff, these experiments in sound may interest you.
For me, I'm just so damn proud that his work is getting some attention for its innovation and creativity.
Incidentally, over the months lots of you have asked what all the stuff is on the shelves behind my drum kit in my photos. To the right of my kit on the shelves in the photo below is the very cassette and 4-track reel-to-reel masters on that album.
[img]http://www.wikiloops.com/images/galleries/23012/g_wl-gal-1-1460627511.jpg[/img]
Sorry for the diatribe but I wanted to share.