Francis Monkman - Energism (1978) & Paul Hart - Futurism (1981) (2015 compilation)

Two albums from the classic British libary music label Bruton, beautifully remastered on one CD from Dutton Vocalion - got quite a few CDs from the latter in recent months.  Their website (duttonvocalion.co uk) is worth a browse: very cheap in the "bargain basement", and they reissue tons of easy listening, exotic & library music in superb sound quality.  More will appear here in due course (Terry Durham already has, along with a couple of others early on, Stanley Black IIRC).

Bruton Music was founded in 1977 as a label that would produce modern-sounding library music with British composers and musicians, and were known for their iconic colour-coded LP sleeves.  Dark orange was for electronic music, and contained here are two cracking early examples of this line.  The reissue cover art above is an amalgam of the two, which are Engergism ("The doctrine of materialism that right action is the efficient exercise of normal capacities") by Francis Monkman, and Futurism ("Aesthetic movement pointing the way to the future") by Paul Hart - love those little text descriptions Bruton added to the covers, the first one in particular reads a bit like a Stereolab lyric.

The 29-minute long Engergism is a great little collection of mostly upbeat, bright themes by Curved Air/Sky keyboardist Monkman. Burbling synth arpeggios, nifty percussion and twanging bass abound, as do some really nice earwormy melodies.  This is definitely library music at its finest (just very good electronic music too - it was reissued on Klaus Schulze's IC label), and the 43 minutes of Hart's Futurism that follow are even better.  The tracks by this library music stalwart are in a similar vein, beautifully composed and arranged, but have longer tracks on average, two of them in fact nudging six minutes.  Program out the 11-second Pace Of Change reprise (a giveaway that you're listening to a library LP) and Futurism could again just be a really good instrumental synth record.  That Pastorious-esque fretless bass on Times To Come is another sweet addition to a great album.

link

pw: sgtg

Various Artists - Gymnoscapes: Nature Lands, Aerial, Reverie (1992)

A nicely strange charity shop find, offering over two hours of ambient, electronic library music on a French label.  That's pretty much all I know for sure about this collection - the year of release above might not be accurate, as I could only find one obscure reference to it online, with no dates on the discs or liner notes.

In terms of artists, there's a "Record conception" credit to a Christian Bonnaeu on the back, but I'm taking that to mean that he compiled/produced it - fairly sure the individual names after each track, eg B. Bergé, Ph. Davies, Ph. Jogwell etc are meant to be the recording artists.  There's definitely a Philippe Jogwell on discogs who gets credited for a new age/electronic album on the same label as that Michel Saugy disc.

Anyway, listening-wise this is a really enjoyable experience.  If you fancy a couple of hours of floaty, relaxing ambience, it does the job, and occasionally strays into more abstract territory, as on the gaseous drift of Cosmos Land on Disc 1 which otherwise concentrates on short pieces.  Recommended applications (from the notes) for that one: "Cosmos exploration". 

Disc 2 is even better, with longer tracks, including Abyss, a five-part "sythesiser symphony with guitar and percussion" from one JM Wizenne.  He might well be Jean-Michel Wizenne, who does get credited with some soundtrack work and cites guitar influences from "Jeff Beck, Blackmore and Van Halen" - that could fit the Wizenne tracks here which dominate Disc 2.  They're a pleasingly odd mix of widdly lead guitar and ambient backdrop, like someone surreptitiously taping Joe Satriani's late-night noodles from the next room.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
pw: sgtg

Arp Life - Jumbo Jet / Z Bezpieczną Szybkością (2014 compilation, rec. 1975-78)

In 1975, library music composer Mateusz Święcicki (1933-1985) teamed up with film soundtrack composer Andrzej Korzyński (b. 1940) to start off a studio ensemble for Polish Radio.  The name given to the project, which Święcicki had been using a couple of years earlier, was Arp Life: he'd liked how the Arp Odyssey synthesiser sounded much more refined compared to the rougher Minimoog.

For the next three years, additional musicians associated with the radio studios, most of their names lost to history, would come and go to add strings, brass or percussion as desired.  And ironically enough, Arp synths were scarcely, if ever, used - pretty much everything electronic here is either Fender Rhodes or Minimoog.  The best known artefact to emerge from this arrangement, and a mainstay of crate-digger blogs for as far back as I can remember, was the Jumbo Jet LP, released by Polskie Nagrania in 1977, and featuring new core member Maciej Śniegocki as writer and arranger.

Whether on a vinyl rip, or a remastered CD like this, the sampling appeal of Jumbo Jet is undeniable - wah-wah guitars, funky Rhodes and nifty bass & percussion riffs are everywhere, along with a handful of great fuzz guitar leads and melancholy disco strings.  Vocals are either wordless or limited to the track title; only the title track has more than that.  Only two tracks top the four minute mark - Jumbo Jet is basically a library LP par excellence, and a few tracks saw use in film, with Baby Bump and the gorgeous Hotel Victoria featuring in Andrezj Wajda's Man Of Marble.

original cassette cover, 1978

The following year, the Wifon label released a series of cassettes specifically promoted for in-car use, with the titles encouraging Poland's motorists to 'have a nice journey', 'don't dazzle [with your headlights, presumably]', and 'drive at a safe speed'.  That last one - in Polish, 'Z bezpieczną szybkością', was effectively Arp Life's second and last album.  Three tracks on the tape were taken from Jumbo Jet (Motor Rock was presumably a no-brainer to open the tape with), and the remaining ten were never released in any other format until this 2014 CD, which was followed by individual vinyl reissues.  The sound of these tracks is much the same as on Jumbo Jet, although Korzyński is the dominant writer rather than Śniegocki, leading to a bit more brass in the arrangements.  A couple of non-album singles and an unused signature jingle written for the Tonpress label round out this great compilation.

link