Vladimir Ussachevsky

Otto Luenig & Vladmir Ussachevsky
Tape Recorder Music
7CACKLP

One of the very earliest and most important examples of electronic tape music to be pressed on to vinyl (alongside the Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française musique concrète compilations in France and Jim Fassett’s comedic Strange To Your Ears novelty record) this privately pressed 1955 LP was released on a one-off label owned by businessman Gene Bruck to document a custom made performance at the New York Museum Of Modern Art back in 1952.  This facsimile edition of this important LP archives remastered versions of the first recorded unison of Otto Luening and Vladimir Ussachevsky and a partnership that founded the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center at Columbia University in 1959, which would later count Ilhan Mimaroglu, Wendy Carlos, Dariush Dolat Shahi and Alice Shields as its graduates.

The October 28th 1952 performance showcased the debut of the seminal Fantasy In Space based on resampled flute recordings which were manipulated on magnetic tape to create an otherworldly melodic composition, stylistically begging comparison with the early recording of Kraftwerk (made some twenty years later) and bringing a palatable and tuneful alternative to the stark avant garde experiments of their French counterparts.  The mechanical construction of the track was even "performed" on prime time American television to celebrate this groundbreaking approach to modern music.  Alongside four other tracks the full programme comprises further experiments with manipulated recordings of bells and woodwind instruments subjected to mechanical "augmentation, diminution and retrograding" to create pieces that "cannot be played with conventional instruments."  In the following years labels like Folkways and Desto would also plunder this important session as a milestone in electronic music.

For the purpose of this release Cacophonic have also included the seldom heard 14 minute track A Poem In Cycles And Bells For Tape Recorder And Orchestra which was recorded using the same techniques with the Royal Danish Radio Orchestra in 1956 and released via the Composers Recordings Inc. label founded by Otto himself in 1954 (employing Vladimir in an advisory capacity) and operated for forty-nine years - releasing records by Harry Partch, Alwin Nikolais, John Cage and Alice Shields.  Also included on this edition is an expansion of the rare 10" original artwork by legendary graphic designer Ronald Clyne, an early example of his work made before he became in-house designer for Folkways Records rivaling the likes of Blue Note's Reid Miles for some of America’s most iconic record sleeves.

Otto Luenig & Vladmir Ussachevsky - Sonic Contours

Ussachevsky Vladimir Line of Apogee Part 6 1967

Disquiet Junto Project 0226: Bucky Ball
Compose music for a fictional greatest-hits collection of the electronic music of R. Buckminster Fuller.

This is an early tape piece created by Fuller in the 1950s; a collage of electronic sounds and musique concrete from the period when he was influenced most by Cage and Stockhausen. There are moments that are reminiscent of Oram, Babbitt and Varese. 

The title “Pentagonal Transmigration” is a Fullerism referring to the movement along the edges of intersecting polygons. Specifically, the movement from one adjoining vertex to another. 

Analysis:
Fuller based the structure of the piece on the idea of interconnected polygons where sounds follow the movement between adjoining vertices. Each vertex is associated with a unique sound. Movement from one vertex to another causes a short segment of sound to be heard. 

[Created from excerpts of classic electronic music pieces of the era. Composers include: Cage, Stockhausen, Varese, Ussachevsky, Messiaen, Babbitt, Barron (Louise and Bebe), Maxfield, Oram and Xenakis. A total of 20 sounds are played in a Pure Data patch that follows the path of adjoining vertices in a 20-fullerene. This was done twice, the second time following a different path. Edited in Audacity.]

Creative Commons license granted.

More on this 226th weekly Disquiet Junto project (“Compose music for a fictional greatest-hits collection of the electronic music of R. Buckminster Fuller”) at: http://disquiet.com/0226/

More on the Disquiet Junto at: http://disquiet.com/junto/


Pentagonal Transmigration [disquiet0226]

Sonic Contours

Land of Change - (Mika Pontecorvo) rough LoFi recording of 1981 Music Concrete composition for Alto Saxophone processed with VSO Tape Decks, Analog Switches, Bode Frequency Shifters, and VCAs, ADSRs, ... completed while studying under Vladimir Ussachevsky...

Land Of Change

Sonic Contours by Vladimir Ussachevsky, 1952

Audio excerpts from the Music & Arts Library exhibition, on the 3rd floor of Butler Library, Fall 2012

4.1 - Vladimir Ussachevsky - Tape Recorder Experiments (1951-52) for  Sonic Contours

Vladimir Ussachevsky - Transpositions(TV Talk Rework)

Without music, life would be a mistake. 
Friedrich Nietzsche

Vladimir Ussachevsky

Alejandro Lieber