[CP 000.43 CD] The Complete Sound Image; Sound Image Number I 1975, Sound Image Number II Greek Villages, Sound Image Number III Bahia

This was the 43rd of the "Proto Creel Pone" (P.C.P.) titles assembled ca. 2003, collecting the three elaborate titles issued by James Metzner & company between 1975 & 1977 dedicated to in-situ ethnographic documentation & experimental music. Not to be confused with the eerily similarly-titled Alan Coggins & Wendy Cook 2LP (see: [CP 292 CD]) issued the following year, these pair elaborate gatefold & boxed-set editions laden with photographs & all sorts of ephemera (recreated here within reason; let's not have a reprise of the whole See+Hear debacle, [CP 201 CD]) with a selection of Electronic Music (courtesy of the obscure Julie Haines, along w/ the elder statesman Daniel Pinkham; Randall McLellan contributes liner notes) & a hodepodge of approaches ranging from Lo-Fi, overmodulated Aeolian Harp & Raga-Guitar experiments (by Metzner & Paul Dixon), Free-Jazz Oboe (by Bill Cole, whose "The First Cycle" LP was released alongside that "Dartmouth Composers" LP of DDS/Synclavier works), squeaking balloon noises (by Margaret Rebar), Interstellar Radio-Telemetries (by Richard Manchester), and a wonderful Psych-Folk rumination (by J. Rainbow). 

While focused more on in-situ music-making & documenation of colloquial life, the successive volumes ("Sound Image Vol. 2: Greek Villages" & "Sound Image Vol.3: Bahia") present technically brilliant Field Recordings (despite being made with a Nakamichi 550 "Dual Tracer" cassette system, the fidelity is on par w/ anything from the Ocora or Lyrichord catalogues). This Creel Pone replica edition is presented in the familiar 3-lane format; each LP gets a panel for an overview, then one of liner notes/detail on the inside, along with a separate hand-cut & stapled 8-page insert with exhaustive detail of the first volume. Amazing set; winding down on these initial PCP titles!