tangotreats
03-28-2016, 01:44 AM
A Herr Salat / Tangotreats Co-Production
VARIOUS ARTISTS (including 16 year-old Michiru Oshima)
International Electone Festival
1977 Grand Prix Album
My transfer from Herr Salat's vinyl. New 2nd May transfer made on upgraded turntable - resolves noise and distortion issues on 28th March transfer.
Full scans of the album cover, inner booklet, and vinyl itself are included. Tracks are tagged in English. If you ask for an EAC log or cue, I will freeze you in carbonite and hand you over to Darth Vader.
FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!0pwAgAbQ!72uXDd6RPeR2XWhepwss4JvXQIap-qTeo29D1iPSPww
Herr Salat sent me this ages and ages ago. I don't know how I managed to lose track of it, but a discussion about Oshima in another thread made me remember it and so here it is... better late that never... Hopefully Herr Salat will forgive me.
So, you're reading this and you have two questions:
A) What the hell is this?
and
B) Why are YOU, the "orchestra fascist", posting seventies synthesizer music?
They're good questions. This is an album of prize winning pieces composed for and performed on the Electone, an early Japanese (where else) synthesizer. I take an interest in it because the album contains two pieces written and performed by none other than a sixteen year-old Michiru Oshima. Whilst most prizewinners at such a young age disappear into obscurity, Oshima, nearly thirty years later, enjoys an international career as one of Japan's finest composers. This is where it began.
Oshima won the Grand Prix prize at this competition with the piece "Gloria" which opens the album - a piece that has more in common with Tchaikovsky than contemporary Oshima. The album ends with Oshima's "Improvisation" which is, again, not by any means "classic" Oshima but is nonetheless a fascinating glimpse into what went through her mind so early in her musical career.
The other pieces on the album are quite interesting and very unique in their way; Niznik's and Van Rooy's pieces are both funky crowd pleasers, Nanbu's and Haba's are tone poems more rooted in the classical world, Tjahyono's is experimental and filled with effects and mysterious sounds, Ocampo's is textural and jazzy. (As a side note, Oshima is the youngest performer at 16, Tjahyono and Niznik the joint eldest at 26.)
Today, this is mainly a cultural curiosity. Get it if you're a fan of Oshima, for this is her earliest known music. Get it if you like crazy seventies synthesizers.
My usual rambling notes on the vinyl transfer and subsequent restoration...
This is by far the most problematic Japanese-sourced vinyl record I've ever tried to transfer. In contrast with by far the majority of Japanese LPs I work with, it wasn't in mint condition. To complicate matters further, the sound of early synthesizers is often harsh and angular - meaning automated noise reduction often does more harm than good. Accordingly, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time working on this one - performing a very, very light automated noise reduction and then going in for manual repair work. The end result is very pleasing.
I was very pleased with the transfer, but after hearing what the record sounded like on my brand new turntable (with a significantly upgraded cartridge and stylus assembly) I decided to do the transfer all over again. The difference is in places quite subtle, and in other places simply astounding. If you enjoyed the album when I first posted, it's well worth grabbing again.
The odd thump and click remain where repair work would have caused artifacts. There are also some unfortunate examples of vinyl's shortcomings at reproducing particular types of sounds - mainfesting most conspicuously in "Impression on Sunset '77" as unpleasant white noise distortion. It occurs only a handful of times on the album and in every attempt to make it better, artifacts ended up making it worse... so I left it alone.
Otherwise, the sound is really quite sumptuous. Obviously, both music and instrument are highly dated so my advice is to run for the hills if you have the kind of brain that recoils in horror at the merest mention of 1970s electronica and synthesizers that were, at the time, highly sophisticated but compared to the equipment of today are hilariously basic. That said, this is a glorious taste of the 1970s and I actually find some of the music very good.
Hands together for Herr Salat, folks - thank you, and enjoy. :)
TT
VARIOUS ARTISTS (including 16 year-old Michiru Oshima)
International Electone Festival
1977 Grand Prix Album
My transfer from Herr Salat's vinyl. New 2nd May transfer made on upgraded turntable - resolves noise and distortion issues on 28th March transfer.
Full scans of the album cover, inner booklet, and vinyl itself are included. Tracks are tagged in English. If you ask for an EAC log or cue, I will freeze you in carbonite and hand you over to Darth Vader.
FLAC: https://mega.nz/#!0pwAgAbQ!72uXDd6RPeR2XWhepwss4JvXQIap-qTeo29D1iPSPww
Herr Salat sent me this ages and ages ago. I don't know how I managed to lose track of it, but a discussion about Oshima in another thread made me remember it and so here it is... better late that never... Hopefully Herr Salat will forgive me.
So, you're reading this and you have two questions:
A) What the hell is this?
and
B) Why are YOU, the "orchestra fascist", posting seventies synthesizer music?
They're good questions. This is an album of prize winning pieces composed for and performed on the Electone, an early Japanese (where else) synthesizer. I take an interest in it because the album contains two pieces written and performed by none other than a sixteen year-old Michiru Oshima. Whilst most prizewinners at such a young age disappear into obscurity, Oshima, nearly thirty years later, enjoys an international career as one of Japan's finest composers. This is where it began.
Oshima won the Grand Prix prize at this competition with the piece "Gloria" which opens the album - a piece that has more in common with Tchaikovsky than contemporary Oshima. The album ends with Oshima's "Improvisation" which is, again, not by any means "classic" Oshima but is nonetheless a fascinating glimpse into what went through her mind so early in her musical career.
The other pieces on the album are quite interesting and very unique in their way; Niznik's and Van Rooy's pieces are both funky crowd pleasers, Nanbu's and Haba's are tone poems more rooted in the classical world, Tjahyono's is experimental and filled with effects and mysterious sounds, Ocampo's is textural and jazzy. (As a side note, Oshima is the youngest performer at 16, Tjahyono and Niznik the joint eldest at 26.)
Today, this is mainly a cultural curiosity. Get it if you're a fan of Oshima, for this is her earliest known music. Get it if you like crazy seventies synthesizers.
My usual rambling notes on the vinyl transfer and subsequent restoration...
This is by far the most problematic Japanese-sourced vinyl record I've ever tried to transfer. In contrast with by far the majority of Japanese LPs I work with, it wasn't in mint condition. To complicate matters further, the sound of early synthesizers is often harsh and angular - meaning automated noise reduction often does more harm than good. Accordingly, I have spent a disproportionate amount of time working on this one - performing a very, very light automated noise reduction and then going in for manual repair work. The end result is very pleasing.
I was very pleased with the transfer, but after hearing what the record sounded like on my brand new turntable (with a significantly upgraded cartridge and stylus assembly) I decided to do the transfer all over again. The difference is in places quite subtle, and in other places simply astounding. If you enjoyed the album when I first posted, it's well worth grabbing again.
The odd thump and click remain where repair work would have caused artifacts. There are also some unfortunate examples of vinyl's shortcomings at reproducing particular types of sounds - mainfesting most conspicuously in "Impression on Sunset '77" as unpleasant white noise distortion. It occurs only a handful of times on the album and in every attempt to make it better, artifacts ended up making it worse... so I left it alone.
Otherwise, the sound is really quite sumptuous. Obviously, both music and instrument are highly dated so my advice is to run for the hills if you have the kind of brain that recoils in horror at the merest mention of 1970s electronica and synthesizers that were, at the time, highly sophisticated but compared to the equipment of today are hilariously basic. That said, this is a glorious taste of the 1970s and I actually find some of the music very good.
Hands together for Herr Salat, folks - thank you, and enjoy. :)
TT