[CP 222 CD] Steve Dunstan; Magnetic Fields
Reproduction of this obscure 1977 Private Press stunner by Extradition, Company Caine, & Phyl Vinnecombe sideman & early 18th Century Quartet member Stephen Dunstan, a key part of Australia's Electronic Music history alongside Val Stephen, Bruce Clarke, Keith Humble, Felix Werder, & Ian Bonighton.
Steve was a tragic figure; operating across multiple disciplines before disappearing under suspicious circumstances in the mid-80s while out retrieving a Moog Modular system, Dunstan was both a creative outsider & financial insider. This, his lone outing as a bandleader. starts off with a couple of Electronic-Psych moves that come squarely out of the 50 Foot Hose / Silver Apples / Spoils of War / United States of America playbook; fairly bog standard singer-songwriter heavy-psych flourish is cut with increasingly aberrant Electronic touches; a few tracks in, all traces of the original structures have been eroded, and by side two the machinations are purely synthetic in nature.
Owing perhaps to Tod Dockstader's late-night home-spun solutions, the proceedings across both the extended "Space Journey" & "Autumn In Antares" show a mature, fully fleshed-out approach towards sound-assemblage that breaks free from the era-appropriate Berlin school trappings, offering a far more complex & diffuse approach of which there were far fewer participants, making Dunstan's relative obscurity & mystery all the more tragic.
This Creel Pone replica edition recreates the original pressing, down to the quite visibly ring-burned sleeve, adding nothing but charm.