Label: York Electronic Studios – YES 8 Format: Vinyl, LP Country: UK Released: 1979 Genre: Electronic, Classical Style: Experimental, Post-Modern
Premium artefact from the glory days of UK arts council funding with the 'Beach Singularity & Menagerie' LP from Leed-based electro-acoustic national treasure Trevor Wishart . Released via the crucial and extremely non-prolific York Electronic Studios imprint, this one takes elements and ideas from a series of pioneering experimental events (which began in Hebden Bridge 1970!!) around the UK which were probably the first of its kind and is essentially a freeform exploration of quintessential English seaside classics bastardised by tape manipulation and general malevolent electro-acoustical tactics. It's tough going don't get me wrong and I imagine the equivalent of wandering around Blackpool pleasure beach in the rain after a tab of moody acid, although the fact that this kinda stuff was being made, let alone funded by the government, is revealing at the very least. Phew. The other-side houses 'Menagerie' which is a series of 6 pieces where Wishart and his pioneering pals were invited to create their own instruments and musical pieces. They really went town, with Wishart's own invention described 'A pair of (real) cow's eyes preserved in fluid in a jar stare out through 3 pairs of suspended spectacles to an optician's chart, whose letters spell out the world *reasonable*. The jar containing the yes is connected, via a bank of condensers, to a complicated jumble of electrical apparatus'. It's the avant-garde pushed to the extreme with overt nods to dada / surrealism, completely bizarre but also a vital, uniquely British statement in the canon of experimental music and a proud hallmark from the North. (Vinyl NM / Sleeve VG // with Insert!!).
