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OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music

Brian Eno - OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music Audio CD

A fair review of the Brian Eno "OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Brian Eno reviews here, or go back to the Brian Eno tabs.

Band: Brian Eno
Title: OHM: The Early Gurus of Electronic Music
Rating:

Release Date: 2000-04-25
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Tchaikovsky: Valse Sentimentale - Clara Rockmore 2: Oraision - Olivier Messiaen 3: Etude aux Chemins de Fer - Pierre Schaeffer 4: Williams Mix - John Cage 5: Klangstudie 2 - Herbert Eimert 6: Low Speed - Otto Luening 7: Dripsody - Hugh Le Caine 8: Main Title from "Forbidden Planet" - Bebe Barron, Louis Barron 9: Concertando Rubato: Elektronische Tanzsuite - Oskar Sala 10: Po�me �lectronique - Edgard Var�se 11: Sine Music (A Swarm of Butterflies Encountered Over the Ocean) [#] - Richard Maxfield 12: Apocalypse II - Tod Dockstader 13: Kontakte - Karlheinz Stockhausen, James Tenney, William Winant 14: Wireless Fantasy - Vladimir Ussachevsky 15: Philomel - Milton Babbitt 16: Spacecraft - M.E.V. 17: Cindy Electronium [#] - Raymond Scott 18: Pendulum Music - Steve Reich, Sonic Youth 19: Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros 20: Projection Esemplastic for White Noise - Joji Yuasa 21: Silver Apples of the Moon, Pt. 1 - Morton Subotnick 22: Rainforest Version 1 - David Tudor 23: Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band - Terry Riley 24: Boat-Woman-Song - Holger Czukay 25: Music Promenade - Luc Ferrari 26: Rosace 3 - Fran�ois Bayle 27: Mutations - Jean-Claude Risset 28: Hibiki-Hana-Ma - Iannis Xenakis 29: 31 I 69 C. 12:17:33-12:24: 33 PM NYC 30: Speech Songs: He Destroyed Her Image - Charles Dodge 31: Six Fantasies on a Poem by Thomas Campion: Her Song - Paul Lansky 32: Appalachian Grove I - Laurie Spiegel 33: En Phase/Hors Phase - Bernard Parmegiani 34: On the Other Ocean - David Behrman 35: Stria - John Chowning 36: Living Sound, Patent Pending [#] - Maryanne Amacher 37: Automatic Writing - Robert Ashley 38: Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran 39: Music on a Long Thin Wire 1 - Alvin Lucier 40: Melange - Klaus Schulze 41: Before and After Charm (La Notte) [#] - Jon Hassell 42: Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) - Brian Eno

Not your grandson's electronic music
Few listeners, and likely not many practitioners, for that matter, of dance, techno, and trance fully appreciate the extent to which "electronic music," as we know it, was borne from the world of avant-garde classical music. For those who are unacquainted, this set is the gateway into an entirely new experience of sound. . .

. . . and don't expect a killer drum and bass rhythm section on any of these pieces. As you'll soon learn from listening to this box set and reading the ample liner notes (with intro by Brian Eno, no less), the origins of electronic music were anything but simple, or dull. The set takes off by introducing a couple standard-ish classical pieces which put to use some of the first electronic instruments invented. The theremin and ondes martinot (a small keyboard-based instrument which was a distant precursor to the synth) are featured in the first two tracks, respectively, and after that the set moves into some of the different movements and styles developed throughout the middle part of the 20th Century.

Track three is by Pierre Schaeffer. For all you dance and techno buffs out there, this was the first man ever to loop a track, play a track back in reverse, or use a host of other effects which are all common tools for musicians of today. His "Etude Aux Chemins de Fer," or "Railroad Study," is a field recording of various train sounds which was manipulated by Schaeffer in his Paris studio. He developed this method of documenting found sounds and applying various effects to them, dubbing it "Musique Concrete. " The process caught on fast. John Cage uses the same method in "Williams Mix," but organizes the sounds in random, rapid succession according to complex principles of chance. This piece is absolutely jarring. Another amazing example of musique concrete is Hugh le Caine's "Dripsody," a virtuosic piece composed from the repetition and manipulation into different pitches of the sound of a single drop of water.

Before entering the age of synthesizers, there is some fine tape-music in the form of Varese's "Poeme Electronique," a fantastically subtle blend of found sounds and instruments grossly manipulated by tape cuts, as well as Richard Maxfield's "Sine Music," a sort of pointillist tape piece which rearranges the sound of a sine wave.

Shortly following the era of musique concrete, synthesizers were being brought into development. One of the first synth pieces on the Ohm set is an excerpt from Milton Babbitt's "Philomel," a complex serialist work scored for female voice and the Mark II synthesizer, (one of the earliest ever developed, to which Babbitt had sole access for a time). "Cindy Electronium" by Raymond Scott is another highlight, which uses Scott's own "Electronium," a "spontaneous composing and performing machine," as he described it, developed half a century ago. As you will notice when hearing this track, the Electronium was capable of producing electronic sounds which sounded as modern as anything churned out by the electronic musicians of today. Also provided in the synth category is a sample of Morton Subotnick's infamous "Silver Apples of the Moon," one of the most popular electronic pieces ever recorded.

The later tracks on this box set delve into digital computer pieces and soundscapes. Paul Lansky's "Six Fantasies" is a rather haunting piece for robotic-sounding voices harmonically enriched using early computer technology, and David Behrman's "On the Other Ocean," is a brilliantly thought-out improvisation between a solo cellist and a computer program written by Behrman himself, which reacts to the soloist's performance. The four or five tracks rounding out the set can be considered some of the earliest forms of New Age, as these artists used combinations of the earlier techniques to make some of the first intentionally ambient and hypnotic music.

To me, the most fascinating aspect of all of this music is not only the lack of conventionally-produced sound, but also in many cases the complete abandon of traditional compositional form. In 90-95% of the pieces, there exists either no recurring themes, introductions, crescendos, counterpoint, etc. , or there exists merely a complete distortion of these standards. This music truly represents everything new and revolutionary we have come to expect from the beginnings of the postmodern era.

The Ohm box set serves as a fantastic historical document and THE definitive entrance point for anyone interested in the origins of electronic music. The fact that edits are occasionally used can be a bit frustrating (the original versions of many of these pieces are loooooong), but some of this music is not available anywhere else, and let's face it: after being infected by the incredible sounds encased here, you'll be searching for all of the artists' original albums, anyway.

(PS, be sure to pick up the reissued version, OHM+, which is the same exact set but comes packaged with a DVD. ).

excellent but uncomplete

This is a big mistake. Althought most of the music here is an excellent collection of electronic music history, this 3 CDs lack of the important contribution given by the RAI phonology studios of Milan, Italy in the 50s
(which was bigger than Koln's WDR studios) with Bruno Maderna, Luciano Berio and Luigi Nono. Milans studios were the biggest of europe and produced many important electroacoustic pieces.
If the collection aim to describe faithfully electronic music history, it should include this artists too.

To call it music may be a bit limiting.
That is that they contain all the bits we're trained to experience as music -- melody, etc. Some of the tracks on here are "music". Some are not, and the composers would be the first people to tell you that. A lot of these works are reactions to ingrained rules, so they're bound to be jarring.

A more successful way to approach such a broad and varied collection of audio experimentation is to think of it as curated sound. This isn't something to wash the dishes to, or to seduce someone to (although if you did manage to seduce someone with the recordings on this anthology, HOLD ON TO THAT PERSON, because they've got to be a keeper). These are unique sound textures that deserve a close, probably solitary listen, and I think if you're in the right frame of mind, it can be a very rewarding listen.

My main complaint is sequencing: each dicrete piece follows it's own internal logic, so there are more than a couple rough gear changes. However, since each piece is so different, and the collection is so varied, I'm not sure that you could totally escape that.

A worthwhile collection

It is unfair to mark this collection down due to the production quality and 'musicality' of its contents, to do so would be to staggeringly miss the point of the development of electronic music through the 20th Century. The OHM collection contains some of those ground breaking electronic compositions that have shaped today's styles, from the early electronic instruments of Theremin and Martenot, through Pierre Schaeffer's Music Concrete tape music and the electronic music of Stockhausen and Subotnick, to the mainframe computer output of Risset and Chowning. What this collection shows is the ideas behind those at the cutting edge of the genre before many could even conceive of such output. That said it is hard going at points, as experimental music can be.

Highlights for me are no doubt Olivier Messiaen's 'Oraison' on CD 1, David Tudor's 'Rainforest Version 1' on CD 2 and on CD 3 David Behrman's 'On the Other Ocean' and Maryanne Amacher's 'Living sound Patent Pending'.

OhMyGodHowDreadful
But the OHM collection sounds like the first attempt of a spastic cat turned-loose on a Moog keyboard. Ok, this collection is supposed to be early works and, thus not expected to be very sophisticated or polished. When it is not boreing, this collection of random and dissonant sounds (I can't call it music) is without any redeeming qualities to make it worth while. Don't get me wrong, I am a long-time fan of Wendy (nie Walter) Carlos and some other real pioneers of electronic music. However, I find that the Ohm collection has no similar qualities and is a major disappointment.

You can see a complete list of all Brian Eno discography, or go back to the Brian Eno tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.