The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music By cover art

The Holmes Archive of Electronic Music

By: Thom Holmes
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  • Summary

  • Thom Holmes is your curator and guide to vintage electronic music recordings and audio experimentation. Drawing from his collection of vintage electronic music recordings spanning the years 1930-1985, each episode explores a topic or theme of historical interest. Holmes is the author of the book, Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, 2020.
    Copyright 2020 All rights reserved.
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Episodes
  • Love Spells in Electronic Sound

    Love Spells in Electronic Sound
    May 3 2024

    Episode 123

    Love Spells in Electronic Sound

    Playlist

    Track Time

    Start Time

    Introduction –Thom Holmes

    06:48

    00:00

    1. Mystic Moods Orchestra, “Love Token” from Love Token (1969 Philips). Sound Effects, producer, sound director, Brad Miller; Vocals and vocal effects, The Mystic Moods.

    04:33

    06:48

    2. Four Tet, “Love Cry” from There Is Love In You (2010 Domino). Written, produced, and performed by Kieran Hebden.

    09:06

    11:14

    3. Deborah de Luca, “Love is a Losing Game (Mix Raw)” from Nina (2015 Sola_mente Records). Written, produced, and performed by Deborah de Luca.

    07:14

    20:16

    4. Steven Halpern, “Hot Chakra” from Enhancing Sensual Pleasure (1993 Sound Rx). Bass, Marc Vanwaginengen; Silver Flutes, Emerald Web; Grand Piano, Electric Piano, Producer, Trumpet, Steven Halpern; Harp, Susan Mazer; Lyricon, Dallas Smith; Percussion, Kenneth Nash.

    06:48

    27:26

    5. Steven Halpern, “Thigh Chi” from Enhancing Sensual Pleasure (1993 Sound Rx). Bass, Marc Vanwaginengen; Flute, Paul Horn; Silver Flutes, Emerald Web; Grand Piano, Electric Piano, Producer, Trumpet, Steven Halpern; Harp, Susan Mazer; Lyricon, Dallas Smith; Percussion, Kenneth Nash.

    05:31

    34:08

    6. Klaus Schulze, “Moogetique” from Body Love, Vol. 2 (1977 Island). Producer, Composer, instruments, Klaus Schulze; Drums, Harald Grosskopf. Original electronic music for a film by Lasse Braun.

    13:12

    39:34

    7. Klaus Schulze, “Stardancer II” from Body Love, Vol. 2 (1977 Island). Producer, Composer, instruments, Klaus Schulze; Drums, Harald Grosskopf. Original electronic music for a film by Lasse Braun.

    14:13

    52:44

    8. Eberhard Schoener, “Events - A La Recherche Du Temps Perdu” from Events (1980 Harvest). Mellotron, Violin, Piano, Moog, Oberheim, Fairlight CMI, Liner Notes, Eberhard Schoener; Fairlight CMI, Morris Pert; Fender Rhodes, Roger Munnis; Tenor Saxophone, Olaf Kübler; Vocals, Clare Torry.

    10:56

    01:06:50

    9. Nora En Pure, “Norma Jean” from Come With Me (2013 Enormous Tunes). Written, produced, and performed by Nora En Pure.

    05:48

    01:17:45

    10. Art Linkletter, “Narrates The Story Of Where Did You Come From?” (side 1) from Narrates The Story Of Where Did You Come From? (1963 20th Century Fox). This was an early 60s sex-education LP. Linkletter was a Canadian-American radio and television personality. I’ve intermixed this disc with tracks of rolling white sound (by me) and a track by Kazumoto Endo, “Falling In and Out of Love” from Never Gonna Make You Cry (1999 Kling Film-Records). Written, produced, and performed by Kazumoto Endo. All to present a slightly odd view of love.

    19:12

    01:23:32

    11. Donna Summer, “Summer Fever” from Four Seasons Of Love (1976 Casablanca). Written-By Donna Summer, Giorgio Moroder, Pete Bellotte; accompanied by The Munich Machine; recorded in MusicLand Studios, Munich; mixed and produced by Giorgio Moroder.

    08:12

    01:42:44

    Opening background music: The Love Symphony Orchestra, “Let’s Make Love in Public Spaces” from Penthouse Presents The Love Symphony Orchestra (1978 Talpro). Keyboards, Synthesizer, Clifford Carter. (03:12)

    Opening and closing sequences voiced by Anne Benkovitz.

    Additional opening, closing, and other incidental music by Thom Holmes.

    My Books/eBooks: Electronic and Experimental Music, sixth edition, Routledge 2020. Also, Sound Art: Concepts and Practices, first edition, Routledge 2022.

    See my companion blog that I write for the Bob Moog Foundation.

    For a transcript, please see my blog, Noise and Notations.
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    1 hr and 53 mins
  • Electronic Music for Babies

    Electronic Music for Babies
    Apr 19 2024
    Episode 122 Electronic Music for Babies Playlist Track Time Start Time Introduction –Thom Holmes 09:56 00:00 1. Raymond Scott, “Lullaby” (14:06) and “Sleepy Time” (4:25) from Soothing Sounds For Baby Volume I: 1 To 6 Months (1964 Epic). Monophonic recording. Mine includes the insert. 18:30 09:56 2. Raymond Scott, “Tempo Block” (3:15) and “The Happy Whistler” (10:45) from Soothing Sounds For Baby Volume II: 6 To 12 Months (1964 Epic). Monophonic recording. Mine includes the insert. 14:12 28:22 3. Raymond Scott, “Little Tin Soldier” (9:24) and “Little Miss Echo” (7:23) from Soothing Sounds For Baby Volume III: 12 To 18 Months (1964 Epic). Monophonic recording. Insert is missing. 17:10 42:17 4. Rosemary, “Undiscovered Island” from Rosemary And Little Andy, Lullaby From "Rosemary's Baby" (Sleep Safe And Warm) (45 RPM) (1968 Columbia). Written by, arranged and conducted by Stan Applebaum; Producer, Wally Gold. This single was not from the movie soundtrack to Rosemary’s Baby, but was inspired by the movie and featured an alternative version of the lullaby from the film. I found that track to be a little too unsettling for a podcast about music for babies, but I did find that the B side, “Undiscovered Island” had a much more calming effect. I believe the instrument heard is a Moog Modular keyboard with the glide feature. Wally Gold, who produced this album, is known to have use the Moog Modular on other recordings. Monophonic recording. 02:57 59:17 5. Steven Halpern, “Brahams Lullaby Part 3” from Lullabies & Sweet Dreams (1984 Halpern Sounds). Grand Piano, String Synthesizer, Steven Halpern; Violin, Daniel Kobialka. I couldn’t help but include a track from Steven Halpern, one of the founding fathers of new age music. As for electronics on this one, there is a string synthesizer. 02:25 01:02:21 6. Luke Slater, “Dreams of Children” from X-Tront Vol. 2 (1993 Peacefrog Records). This track is a little bit manic for relaxing babies, but it has a minimalist repetition that becomes trance-inducing. And one could find solace in that sound. 07:50 01:04:44 7. Howie B., “Music for Babies” from Music For Babies (1996 Polydor). Keyboards and treatments, Howie B. 05:27 01:12:24 8. N., Tracks 12, 19, 22, 23” from Memories From Before Being Born (2005 + Belligeranza). This is a solo work of one Davide Tozzoli, who lives in Italy. An unusual disc of glitch sounds, processed two empty tape recorders an echo machine, and minimal synthetic filters. I selected four of the more mesmerizing tracks and strung them together. “Two empty tape-recorders, one connected to the other, no sound if not the distortion produced by the tape-recorders themselves in play/rec. On this recording of Nothing the modulations of vintage analogic effects: emptied frequencies, prenatal sounds without any sonic grain, audio for a flat electroencephalogram. Memories from before being born," a possible conceptual-noize manifesto.” 05:41 01:17:41 9. Pete Namlook, Music for Babies (excerpt) from Music for Babies (2009 Fax +49-69/450464). On Christmas 2011 "Music For Babies" CD release without cover or catalog# was sent out as a give-away with orders directly from the label. All tracks written, mixed, and produced by Pete Namlook. We have hear prenatal heartbeats mixed with electronic music. Perfect! 15:39 01:23:18 10. Chris Kimbell, “Sleepwave” from Ultrasound / Sleep (2007 Pause). A mellow ambient tune but without any detectable prenatal ultrasounds, as the title might indicate to some. 11:04 01:38:50 11. Lee Rosevere, “Dreaming” from The Ambient Baby (2009 Kazoomzoom). Composed, performed, produced by Lee Rosevere. All original material designed specifically for infants from birth to about two years of age. “Little ones are engaged early on by rhythmic sounds at the start. The sounds then weave into a gentle and soothing environment to help babies fall asleep.” 05:59 01:49:50 12. Lullaby Movement, “Ru-Ru (Sleep Little Baby)” from David Holmes – LateNightTales (2016 LateNightTales). An eclectic mix of tracks from DJ David Holmes, includes this muted little lullaby with a haunting vocal. 03:55 01:55:42 13. Dana Falconberry, “Sea Stones” from Dreamland (Songs For Lulling) (2017 Not on label). Falconberry explains why she created the private recording: “Years ago, I made an album of lullabies for a friend of mine who had just had her first baby. She encouraged me to release a lullaby album to the public, since it helped her with her child so much, which was the main inspiration for this album (thanks Lisa!!). . . . People have been telling me for as long as I can remember that my voice puts them to sleep. Even more common has been fans approaching me at the merch table after a show and telling me that they use my albums to put their babies to sleep. Now, I can say that is a complicated thing for a ...
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    2 hrs and 8 mins
  • Crosscurrents in Early Electronic Music of Canada, Part 2

    Crosscurrents in Early Electronic Music of Canada, Part 2
    Apr 6 2024
    Episode 121 Crosscurrents in Early Electronic Music of Canada, Part 2 Playlist Track Time Start Time Introduction –Thom Holmes 04:32 00:00 1. John Mills-Cockell, “On The Heath” from A Third Testament (1974 True North). John Mills-Cockell is a Canadian composer from Toronto who was a very early adopter of the original Moog Synthesizer. He was part of the multi-faceted and ground-breaking work with the avant garde/poetry group Intersystems in the late 1960s and then the group Syrinx. I became acquainted with John more recently and he told me that his original Moog modules, used for Intersystems, burned up in a fire and so he turned to the use of ARP instruments around 1971. I am featuring his synthesizer work from a couple of solo albums as a representative of the independent stream of electronic music artists from Canada. John has continued to produce works for and for his numerous works for radio, television, film, ballet, and stage, and he is still active. 02:30 04:32 2. John Mills-Cockell, “North African Gladiator” from A Third Testament (1974 True North). Produced, played, engineered, organ and synthesizer, John Mills Cockell. 04:08 07:00 3. John Mills-Cockell, “Collision” from Gateway (1977 Anubis Records ). Produced, played, engineered, organ and synthesizer, John Mills Cockell. 03:32 11:03 4. Alcides Lanza, “Eidesis IV For Wind Ensemble And Electronic Sounds” (1977) from McGill Wind Ensemble (1980 McGill University Records). This collection of contemporary Canadian works was released by McGill University’s own label. This track is the only work with electronic sounds on the album, by Argentinean-born composer Lanza. Lanza studied music in Buena Aires, moved to Canada in 1971, and became Director of the Electronic Music Studio of McGill University in 1976. 11:20 14:34 5. Dennis Patrick, “Phantasy III (Excerpt)” (1977-78) from Dennis Patrick--Musical Portrait (1982 CAPAC). Another one of the 7” vinyl Musical Portrait series of Canadian artists, released by the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada, Limited (CAPAC). Completed in the Electronic Music Studio of the University of Toronto, where he was Director of the studio beginning around 1976. 04:53 25:48 6. Barry Truax, “Arras” (1980) from Anthologie De La Musique Canadienne / Anthology Of Canadian Music - Musique Électroacoustique; Electroacoustic Music (1990 Radio Canada International). Truax represented the left coast of Canada, and worked with R. Murray Schafer beginning in 1973 on the World Soundscape Project. Several of the composers in this episode came from that same environment, mixing natural acoustic sounds with electroacoustic treatments. This work was made using four computer synthesized tracks. Truax became known for his computer compositions as well as soundscapes. 10:08 30:38 7. Canadian Electronic Ensemble, “Chaconne À Son Goût” from Canadian Electronic Ensemble (1981 Centrediscs). Performers, David Grimes, David Jaeger, James Montgomery, Larry Lake. Composed by David Grimes. The ensemble was founded in Toronto in 1971 by David Grimes, David Jaeger, Jim Montgomery and Larry Lake, "to promote the live performance of electronic music and thereby the composition of new repertoire for this medium." This is another nice example of music by independent artists working in Canada. 17:21 40:34 8. Dennis Patrick, “Metasuite” (1982) from Dennis Patrick--Musical Portrait (1982 CAPAC). Another one of the 7” vinyl Musical Portrait series of Canadian artists, released by the Composers, Authors and Publishers Association of Canada, Limited (CAPAC). Completed in the Electronic Music Studio of the University of Toronto, where he was Director of the studio beginning around 1976. 07:55 57:54 9. David Keane, “Aurora” (1985) from Aurora (1985 Cambridge Street Records). A work from a fellow author, David Keane who wrote a book called Tape Music Composition in 1981 (Oxford University Press). He was born in America but became a Canadian citizen in 1974. At the time of “Aurora” Keane was a professor of music theory and director of the electronic music studio at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario, which I think he founded in 1970. The music was created to be played during a dance performance in which movement was seen through colored images projected on the dancers. The work was realized in the Queen’s University Electroacoustic Music Facility. 10:17 1:05:48 10. Claude Schryer, “A Kindred Spirit” (1985) from Group Of The Electronic Music Studio - McGill University (1986 McGill University Records). Bass Clarinet, Yves Adam; Cello, Andras Weber; Composed and conducted by, Claude Schryer; Flute, Jill Rothberg; Guitar Daniel Desjardins; Percussion,...
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    2 hrs and 23 mins
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