Customer Reviews

Ohm: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music Special Edition 3CD + DVD

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Back in 2000, Ellipsis Arts released OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, a fantastic and essential three CD set tracing the evolution of "electronica" from Messiaen, Cage, and Xenakis to Schulze, Eno, and Hassell. This set was recently reissued (as OHM+) along with a bonus DVD (which is thankfully now available separately for those of us who already have the CDs.) You can read plenty of excellent reviews of the original 3CD set on Amazon (and elsewhere), so I'm going to focus on the new DVD in this review.

The OHM+ DVD is jam-packed with over two hours of archival and more recent footage that runs the gamut from engrossing to mildly interesting to unwatchably dull.

If seemingly endless "talking head" interviews with Milton Babbitt and Bebe Barron are your idea of video entertainment, you've come to the right place. An interview with John Cage digitally altered beyond all recognition? Check. Swirling psychadelic colored dyes right out of a Saucerful of Secrets-era Pink Floyd concert? No problem.

There are some tastier goodies to be found on this DVD, however...

The segments with Clara Rockmore and Leon Theremin have an appealingly amateurish home movie quality to them. It's also a real treat to see the 1978 footage of underappreciated minimalist guru David Borden and Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company "on the road" hauling around their truckload of big old analog synthesizer equipment. Laurie Spiegel is fun to watch as she tinkers with a big grey metal box called a "Concerto Generator" with an extremely serious expression on her face. And Alvin Lucier's "Music for Solo Performer," where he hooks up wires to his head and produces sounds using his brainwaves and two tympani, simply must be seen to be believed.

The Pixar-ish computer animation accompanying Paul Lansky's "The Dust Bunny" is sort of cute, but it goes on for about 10 minutes too long. Surely most of the OHM target audience already has the DVD of Steve Reich's Three Tales, but it's nice that they included the best part - the ominous yet goofy "Dolly" segment. Many have also probably seen Hans Fjellestad's documentary Moog before, but the six minute excerpt provided here is really about all you need.

It's too bad there isn't a more interesting John Cage segment, and regrettable that there aren't any Stockhausen videos (those would certainly be a riot!)

Overall, though, while the OHM+ DVD is not as consistently engaging as the CD set of the same name, it is a worthy companion to it. And if you don't have either of them yet, the complete OHM+ 3-CD & DVD "special edition" box set is a no-brainer.

For those who are unacquainted, this set is the gateway into an entirely new experience of sound. Few listeners, and likely not many practitioners, for that matter, of dance, techno, and trance fully appreciate the extent to which "electronic music," as we know it, was borne from the world of avant-garde classical music...

...and don't expect a killer drum and bass rhythm section on any of these pieces. As you'll soon learn from listening to this box set and reading the ample liner notes (with intro by Brian Eno, no less), the origins of electronic music were anything but simple, or dull. The set takes off by introducing a couple standard-ish classical pieces which put to use some of the first electronic instruments invented. The theremin and ondes martinot (a small keyboard-based instrument which was a distant precursor to the synth) are featured in the first two tracks, respectively, and after that the set moves into some of the different movements and styles developed throughout the middle part of the 20th Century.

Track three is by Pierre Schaeffer. For all you dance and techno buffs out there, this was the first man ever to loop a track, play a track back in reverse, or use a host of other effects which are all common tools for musicians of today. His "Etude Aux Chemins de Fer," or "Railroad Study," is a field recording of various train sounds which was manipulated by Schaeffer in his Paris studio. He developed this method of documenting found sounds and applying various effects to them, dubbing it "Musique Concrete." The process caught on fast. John Cage uses the same method in "Williams Mix," but organizes the sounds in random, rapid succession according to complex principles of chance. This piece is absolutely jarring. Another amazing example of musique concrete is Hugh le Caine's "Dripsody," a virtuosic piece composed from the repetition and manipulation into different pitches of the sound of a single drop of water.

Before entering the age of synthesizers, there is some fine tape-music in the form of Varese's "Poeme Electronique," a fantastically subtle blend of found sounds and instruments grossly manipulated by tape cuts, as well as Richard Maxfield's "Sine Music," a sort of pointillist tape piece which rearranges the sound of a sine wave.

Shortly following the era of musique concrete, synthesizers were being brought into development. One of the first synth pieces on the Ohm set is an excerpt from Milton Babbitt's "Philomel," a complex serialist work scored for female voice and the Mark II synthesizer, (one of the earliest ever developed, to which Babbitt had sole access for a time). "Cindy Electronium" by Raymond Scott is another highlight, which uses Scott's own "Electronium," a "spontaneous composing and performing machine," as he described it, developed half a century ago. As you will notice when hearing this track, the Electronium was capable of producing electronic sounds which sounded as modern as anything churned out by the electronic musicians of today. Also provided in the synth category is a sample of Morton Subotnick's infamous "Silver Apples of the Moon," one of the most popular electronic pieces ever recorded.

The later tracks on this box set delve into digital computer pieces and soundscapes. Paul Lansky's "Six Fantasies" is a rather haunting piece for robotic-sounding voices harmonically enriched using early computer technology, and David Behrman's "On the Other Ocean," is a brilliantly thought-out improvisation between a solo cellist and a computer program written by Behrman himself, which reacts to the soloist's performance. The four or five tracks rounding out the set can be considered some of the earliest forms of New Age, as these artists used combinations of the earlier techniques to make some of the first intentionally ambient and hypnotic music.

The DVD included in this box is a nice supplement to the musical content. One can actually see a few of these artists at work, or being interviewed in person. The vintage Behrman performance, as well as an edit of the stunning light and dance piece by Max Mathews (which I really wish was longer) are two of the best segments.

To me, the most fascinating aspect of all of this music is not only the lack of conventionally-produced sound, but also in many cases the complete abandon of traditional compositional form. In 90-95% of the pieces, there exists either no recurring themes, introductions, crescendos, counterpoint, etc., or there exists merely a complete distortion of these standards. This music truly represents everything new and revolutionary we have come to expect from the beginnings of the postmodern era.

The Ohm box set serves as a fantastic historical document and THE definitive entrance point for anyone interested in the origins of electronic music. The fact that edits are occasionally used can be a bit frustrating (the original versions of many of these pieces are loooooong), but some of this music is not available anywhere else, and let's face it: after being infected by the incredible sounds encased here, you'll be searching for all of the artists' original albums, anyway.

Ohm... Ohm... Ohm...

Back in 2000, Ellipsis Arts released OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music, a fantastic and essential three CD set tracing the evolution of "electronica" from Messiaen, Cage, and Xenakis to Schulze, Eno, and Hassell. This set was recently reissued (as OHM+) along with a bonus DVD, which is thankfully now available separately for those of us who already have the CDs.

The OHM+ DVD is jam-packed with over two hours of archival and more recent footage that runs the gamut from engrossing to mildly interesting to unwatchably dull.

If seemingly endless "talking head" interviews with Milton Babbitt and Bebe Barron are your idea of video entertainment, you've come to the right place. An interview with John Cage digitally altered beyond all recognition? Check. Swirling psychadelic colored dyes right out of a Saucerful of Secrets-era Pink Floyd concert? No problem.

There are some tastier goodies to be found on this DVD, however...

The segments with Clara Rockmore and Leon Theremin have an appealingly amateurish home movie quality to them. It's also a real treat to see the 1978 footage of underappreciated minimalist guru David Borden and Mother Mallard's Portable Masterpiece Company "on the road" hauling around their truckload of big old analog synthesizer equipment. Laurie Spiegel is fun to watch as she tinkers with a big grey metal box called a "Concerto Generator" with an extremely serious expression on her face. And Alvin Lucier's "Music for Solo Performer," where he hooks up wires to his head and produces sounds using his brainwaves and two tympani, simply must be seen to be believed.

The Pixar-ish computer animation accompanying Paul Lansky's "The Dust Bunny" is sort of cute, but it goes on for about 10 minutes too long. Surely most of the OHM target audience already has the DVD of Steve Reich's Three Tales, but it's nice that they included the best part - the ominous yet goofy "Dolly" segment. Many have also probably seen Hans Fjellestad's documentary Moog before, but the six minute excerpt provided here is really about all you need.

It's too bad there isn't a more interesting John Cage segment, and regrettable that there aren't any Stockhausen videos (those would certainly be a riot!)

Overall, though, while the OHM+ DVD is not as consistently engaging as the CD set of the same name, it is a worthy companion to it. And if you don't have either of them yet, the complete OHM+ 3-CD & DVD "special edition" box set is a no-brainer.

This package is mind boggling. The DVD includes over 2 hours of rare footage too. If you want to know about the roots of electronic music, look no further.

I enjoyed listening to the CD and watching the videos. Some of the selections, however, were not quite what I would call musical quality, but were interesting sound samples. I was glad that I heard them, but once heard they would not be something I would want to listen to as music or for a background when reading a book. Some tracks had a very good ambient environmental quality that would be good for creating a warm background, meditating or deep listening. Some showed that synths could do classical very well compared to the older instruments. As a collection, they were not categorized so that all the ones that would make ambient listening are grouped together, so I plan to do a mix of my own from this collection. It is PBS special quality as far as the DVD presentation, though some of the selections seemed more about the animation than the music in the background. I was very impressed with the presentation on STRIA and tried to find more on the internet afterwards. The idea of the a new musical scale from the phi ratio seems exciting to me. Clara on the Theremin, both on the DVD and on the CD was impressive and shows how well the Theremin can replace a violin. Having done a lot of healing work, it would be nice for violinists to know this option, because it is easier on their bodies. The neck kinking and tight shoulder throws the body out of balance a lot and sometimes leads to headaches or even migraines. It would be interesting to see a Theremin tweaked slight more to make it even sound more like a violin, but it is close already. All in all, I enjoyed the old collection and can organize the selections on my own from what they have given.

This is an excellent collection of pre-1980s electronic music. It probably goes without saying, but just to be clear, the music here is part of the academic/experimental music tradition and more popular forms of electronic music such as Kraftwerk or Jean-Jacques Perry are not represented here.

There is a great selection of composers here from early musique concrete pioneers like Pierre Schaeffer to technical innovators like John Chowning to unclassifiable geniuses like Iannis Xenakis. There are a few curious omissions such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, but the curators explain in the extensive liner notes that they were not able to acquire the rights to many works that they wanted to include.

Ohm is particularly useful for a broad overview of the development of electronic music. I carry it to my Intro to Sound Synthesis class everyday to play examples for my students. It's pretty handy in that way.

My biggest criticism is that many of the selections are excerpts. While it's great to have some 42 works all in one place, it's a shame to modify a composition without the composer's input or consent. It would be difficult to include the entire work in some cases such as "Philomel," which is a little over 20 minutes (if memory serves) and you may not mind having excerpts. It does make extended listen a bit easier. Since not everyone is used to hearing this sort of electronic music, these highlights may actually make the music slightly more accessible.

The DVD has a variety of material. There are quite a few "visualizations" created recently for early works. I'm not exactly sure how I feel about this. I really think, for example, Xenakis should have signed off on the project before they superimposed some visual material on his "Bohor". I can't really see what this adds, as many of these visualizations end up looking similar to the iTunes visualizer.

There are some very interesting interviews with pioneers such as Milton Babbitt and Clara Rockmore. Those are probably the most interesting parts of the DVD. There are also a few live performances. These range from a beautiful performance from Rockmore on her thermin to a bizarre performance piece featuring Alvin Lucier and his amplified brainwaves.

The set includes a nice booklet with some great information. It's perfect for someone unfamiliar with electronic music and will give them a good feeling for what it's all about. You get some historical context, some composer background, and brief descriptions of the work and why it is important.

Overall, I highly recommend this. For the beginner, this is an easily accessible introduction. For the expert, this is a handy summary of early work in the field and one that you can easily recommend to students.

I'm kinda shocked a the 5-star ratings.

I found the Babbitt interview interesting (some of the surrounding details of Princeton-Columbia) and some of the Thermin stuff is fun to watch. Mimi Garrard's choreography was incredible - a very successful staging of electronic music, in my opinion.

Pauline Oliveros is someone I "should know more about," so I'm glad I saw her work.

But this is not a curated collection in any sense of the word. It's just a bunch of examples of art/music in an electro/acoustic/visual medium.

It might help to plug a few small holes in your mental library of this stuff. In other words, there are some good things here that you might come across in your other research, listening, exploring, etc. Worth a rental on netflix, not a purchase.

Oh, and the 10 animated short, "Dust Bunny." I mean.... what????

I would encourage anybody with even a remote interest in Electronic Music to check out this set: I did not listen to all the great music on the 3 CDs yet (lots of goodies to digest) but the DVD bonus is well worth it. The box design is great and the luxury linear notes are very informative and well done. Thanks for that release OHM.

Yeah, it's costly, yeah, it quickly skims over 40+ years of electronic music, but its an excellent sample of the range of early uses and experimentations with electronics for creation of challenging and rigorous music. With 3 CDs and a DVD, plus a pretty thick (for a CD set) insert, I thought this was certainly a decent value. While certainly not encyclopedic, this set seems like a good starting point for exploring early electronic music.

This CD set is a much needed collection for all musicians or just audio freaks with an ear for electronic music. The great thing about this set is the DVD that comes with it. If you are into pioneers of electronic music and visuals/video art, then this CD is a must for you. If you listen to electronic pioneers like Morton Subotnic to Joy Electric and visual pioneers like Yoichiro Kawaguchi to Silverlage then Don't delay. Add it to your collection.