[CP 044 CD] Electronic Music, University of Melbourne; Full Spectrum, Australian Digital Music

2021 reédition, now including the intensely relatable "Full Spectrum, Australian Digital Music" compilation to the proceedings, including canonic Early Computer Music pieces & realizations of works by Percy Grainger, Tristram Cary, Warren Burt, Barry Conyngham, & Darius Clynes on a second disc!

Remarkably consistent collection of pieces composed / executed between 1973 and 1979 by students at the University of Melbourne on the megabeast of modulars: the EMS Synthi 100 - now residing, unplugged and finally at peace, at the Percy Grainger museum. Why is the Synthi 100 so impressive? Simply put, volume; I can only imagine the amount of headaches and brain-stem rot that went on went on whilst Uni students tried to get their heads around the twin patch-matrices.

The 6 composers on this disc all put in fine efforts making sense of the intricacies of this then-new technology, with all turning in excellent pieces ranging from the tick-tock Krautrock of Gary Wright’s “Impulse” to the Kosugi / Kraftwerk-ish Violin-noise / Synthi freak out of Chris Wyatt’s “Conversations” to ... however the hell one would describe / compare the dense / freaked-out analogue mess of Ken Guntar’s “Three mobiles” - okay; I'll try... Douglas Leedy’s ghost bathed in Balvenie 17 year “Very Old”, imbibed by Akos Rózmann - is that esoteric enough for you.