Gordon Mumma - Studio Retrospect (2000 compi of works 1964-84)

Another ear-bending and brain frying collection from Gordon Mumma, who previously featured here with Electronic Music of Theatre and Public Activity.  This CD from Lovely Music is an equally well-rounded presentation of what made Mumma's electroacoustic music so interesting - the six works here might be missing their theatrical elements, quadrophonic mixes and the like, but the pure sound is still so engrossing and often noisy and jarring that it rewards repeat listens.

Taking up the retrospective theme straight away, the opening track here is called Retrospect, a mix of earlier tracks spanning 1959 to 1982, including Chilean president Allende's quip to the New York Times on the day of his death that he'd have to be "carried out in wooden pyjamas".  This is followed by a couple of works from 1964-5, which were first released on a 1979 LP along with Megaton (see link above).  Music From The Venezia Space Theatre is a whirring, hissing piece of electronic mayhem from a live multimedia revue organised by Luigi Nono, and The Dresden Interleaf 13 February 1945 commemorates the WW2 bombing of that city with a proto-SPK grind in which the silent intervals are even more unsettling than the noise onslaughts.

From 1978, Echo-D is an extract of an evening-long dance performance, and musically is based around a pedaled D note on a harpsichord whilst a Buchla synth and other sound layers float in the space around it.  Very minimal stuff, but fascinating to listen to as it progresses over 15 minutes.  The following Pontpoint underwent a lengthy and frequently interrupted creation between 1966 and 1980.  Its eight short sequences features an instrument Mumma made frequent use of, the bandoneon, and a bowed zither, both 'cybersonically' modified by him.  The resulting sounds, that gradually mutate in pitch, timbre and rhythm, are probably my personal highlight of this collection.  There's still a four minute postscript to go though, in the nice little mix of acoustic and digital spectral sounds that makes up Epifont (1984).

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Gordon Mumma - Electronic Music of Theatre and Public Activity (2005 compi of works 1964-80)

Gordon Mumma (b. 1935) is a fascinating composer whose work has taken in  performances with John Cage and David Tudor, and Sonic Arts Union partnership with Robert Ashley, Alvin Lucier and David Behrman.  He's best known for his electronic work, four fine examples of which are compiled here in chronological order.

Megaton For W.S. Burroughs (1964) is one of the two 'theatre' pieces from the CD's title.  A shimmering electronic whine gathers momentum for three minutes or so, then just fades away - when staged, this prologue was played in complete darkness. The track then builds up more subtly, with feedback, electronic pulses and various creaks and clangs not a million miles away from Xenakis' polytopes.  About 14 minutes in, the ominous drone of an approaching bomb squadron enters, followed by echoing snatches of dialogue in clipped, wartime English.  For the finale, Mumma directed that there be "a brief burst of heroic movie music" followed by an eerie epilogue where "in an isolated pool of light, a lone drummer quietly rides his traps".

Conspiracy 8 (1969-70) is an interactive computer piece that Mumma devised at MIT's Artificial Intelligence lab in collaboration with Phd student Stephen Smoliar.  Sounding for the most part like an ancient IBM being unboxed and bolted together from scratch, this piece is interesting but can get a bit dry and spartan over its 18 minutes; much more intersting is Cybersonic Cantilevers (1973).  This condenses down into 19 minutes a day-long installation piece where museum visitors were invited to add sounds of their own choice by bringing tapes of rock music, radio crime drama and suchlike, then control how their contributions were mutated into the overall collage.  All of this is edited suberbly by Mumma to climax in a large piercing drone, before dissolving at the end into a haze of bleeps and hum.

Lastly, Cirqualz (1980) was Mumma's offering to a dance performance where "circus-like music, perhaps a waltz" had been requested at short notice.  Pasted together and then electronically mutated are fragments of Beethoven's Eroica, Richard Strauss' Heldenleben and Bruckner's Fifth Symphony.  It's entertaining enough in a kind of Nurse With Wound-offcut way, but IMO Megaton and Cybersonic Cantilevers are the definite highlights of this disc.

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