Kid Baltan & Tom Dissevelt

[elektro80]

In 2003, Basta will release a 4-CD box set with the works of Kid Baltan & Tom Dissevelt. Produced by Kees Tazelaar(home.wanadoo.nl/tazelaar) & Dick Raaijmakers (Kid Baltan himself!). As Kees describes it in his own words: "Together with Dick Raaijmakers I am working on a multi-CD release that will give a historic overview of Dutch popular and applied electronic music from 1956-66. The CDs will contain music from Henk Badings, Kid Baltan, and Tom Dissevelt. Besides tracks that have been released on vinyl in the late '50s/early '60s on Philips (Song of the Second Moon, Electronic Movements, Intersection, Fanatasy in Orbit), much never before published material has been re-discovered and restored for this project."


http://bastamusic.com/news.html

[elektro80]

A soundclip:

http://tulsatvmemories.com/wav/soniklip.wav

[elektro80]

Grabbed from Dusted magazine:

[elektro80]

http://www.gullbuy.com/buy/2002/2_12/archivol1.htm




Musique Concrete Soundtracks to Experimental Short Films 1956-1978

Artists: Tom Dissevelt, Gershon Kingsley, Percy Grainger, Pierre Boulez, Joan LaBarbara
label:: The New England Electric Music Company
format:: 3" CD




Volume One of the archival series of 3" cds, put out by the New England Electric Music Company, is by far the most varied of the three Archive series that I have heard so far. There are 4 much shorter tracks - but also there is the most tension conveyed.


Tom Dissevelt Glass 1958 (Dir: Bert Haanstra) Track one is brief - with spoken words in a foreign language and whistles/clapping/breaking glass echoed - there is a lot going on. The rhythm and feel reminds me of Throbbing Gristle or Jean-Jacques Perrey. Fittingly, the film is a ducument on manual and automated glass- moulding techniques.

Gershon Kingsley Pixillation 1971 - (Dir: Lillian Schwartz & Ken Knowlton for Bell Labs) 1971, 4 minutes, colour, 16mm
Track two is a pulsing and rhythmic bass line/drum track which slowly builds up - probably the closest to "music" on the disc. There are even keyboards in the latter half playing scattered melodies taking over as the pulsing bass notes tend to fall apart. When the bubbling electronics start we know we are into the complete mayhem. This reminds me of Can at their best. Gershon "Popcorn" Kingsley is known for his moog sounds.

Percy Grainger Free Music 1970 - (Dir Unknown) Track three comes as a relief after so much tension in the previous track- it is brief, sounding like outer space walkie talkies or radio waves - the voice over adds a moon-like interest to it. Apparently this piece is taken from a TV show reporting on Percy Grainger's involvement with free music machines, which is a machine used to play a music not limited by time or pitch intervals and which were considered as an early example of modern electronic synthesisers. [read article]

Pierre Boulez Symphonie Mechanique 1956 (Dir: Jean Mitry)
Track four sounds garbled and jumpy and is quite playful for Boulez who is more known for his 'tonal serialism' than for musique concrete. This is the longest track here at almost 8 minutes. The film uses choregraphed machinery, gears and levers.

Joan LaBarbara Dance Frame 1978 (Dir: Doris Chase) Unusual for Joan LaBarbara, who is more known for her vocal prowess and composition, track 5 represents her foray into electronic noise and is quite exciting to hear.

[remote_control]

What kind of keyboards did Dissevelt use in the 1950s/60s?

I recently purchased the 4-CD box set of Dissevelt/Kid Baltan, but nowhere in the liner notes does it mention what types of keyboards they used. The impression I get from the liner notes is that no keyboards were used.

I don't know much about the history of electronic music, but isn't the late 1950s a little early in time for musicians to be using electronic keyboards?

I owned that "Electronic Music" LP back in the early 70s and lost it a few years later -- it's nice to see that old cover again!

[mosc]

Most of this stuff was made with custom made equipment and a tremendous amout of editing and tape manipulation. Keyboard synths weren't used until the 70s, for the most part. These guys didn't use Mini Moogs or Prophet 5s.

[remote_control]

Thanks mosc, when you say "made with custom made equipment", did they have anything resembling a piano-type keyboard?

[mosc]

Most of the early electronic music studios had some kind of electronic organs, but these weren't used very much. The Moog modular marked the major introduction of keyboards. That was in about 1967-68 when these started being used in studios in relatively large numbers. These were monophonic keyboards.

Switched On Bach is amazing because it was all played on a monophonic keyboard and overdubbed. There was no MIDI or computer control - no computers. In fact, the early Moogs could only play in tune over a range of 2 octaves, so that required even more work.

Nowadays, anyone can get MIDI files of the Bach Brandenburg Concerti and play them on a synth - polyphonic in real-time. ( http://www.classicalarchives.com/bach.html ). But try to come up with a performance that is as musical as Carlos' Switched On Bach. I'd like to hear it.

When Kid Baltan and Tom Dissevelt made melodic music, they would record long stretches of each note needed on tape. The melody was created by cutting the tapes to appropriate lengths for the note durations and then splicing them together. Sometime, envelopes were made by cutting the tapes in wedge shapes - very difficult. The same process was used of drum-like parts. They didn't use organs because they were experimenting with new sounds that the organs couldn't make.

[remote_control]

Thanks again Howard. I find it amazing that Dissevelt and Baltan created those complicated melodies without keyboards, using cut-and-splice methods. It seems analogous to how animators used to work in the old days, drawing each separate increment of motion individually.

[remote_control]

elektro80,

I noticed in your post of Fri Nov 14, 2003 1:40 am -- you posted a photo of the cover of the Dissevelt/Baltan album from Phillips called "Electronic Music".

Seeing that cover brought back old memories, as I owned that LP in the early 70s (then lost it soon thereafter).

If you still have that LP, could you please do me a favor and tell me the tracks that are listed on the back side of the LP? I want to make sure that the box-set CD compilation I recently purchased indeed has all the songs.

Thanks,
r.c.

[elektro80]

A quickie

"A New Concept Of Music Created By Sonic Vibrations" .. right??

Catalog number PHS 600-047 -1967 - the NL release - the listing goes like this:

A side:
Kid Baltan-Song Of The Second Moon
Tom Dissevelt-Moon Maid
Kid Baltan-Mechanical Motions
Tom Dissevelt-The Visitor From Outer Space

B side
Tom Dissevelt-Sonik Re-Entry
Tom Dissevelt-Orbit Aurora
Kid Baltan-Twilight Ozone
Tom Dissevelt-Pianoforte

[v-un-v]

[v-un-v]

[blue hell]

[v-un-v]

Yes indeed. I had to tell them. Perhaps this is why the DVD of this otherwise excellent documentary was never released?

Personally I blame Brian Hodgson and the BBC for being generally incompetent!!!

[blue hell]

[v-un-v]

[blue hell]

[seraph]

[blue hell]

[v-un-v]

[Wout Blommers]

Some extra liner notes by Early Dutch Electronic Music.

Phillips created a special studio/lab to experiment with electronic sounds, specially orientated towards the distribution. Where the Germans in Cologne thought the medium for this kind of music should be radio broadcasting (WDR), Phillips opt for the grammophone and the record, because they were producers of these kind of machines. Varèse was another story, of course. )Allthough also released on record)

Henk Badings turned to electronic music, because he was punished after World War II and was forbidden to write 'normal' music. He was head of the 'Kultur Kamer fur Musik' in The Netherlands, in which function he did very good work, even for musicians (mostly Jewish) who were discriminated by the Nazi's. In a way his punishment was to harsh...

Raaymakers and Disselvelt used a small kind of electronic organ. There was also an Onde Martinot in the studio and above all: a tape-loop machine! Probably the first one ever...

Wout

[Tronato]

Hello!
Apart from the last track on CD4, a monologue, every single second of this Box Set is awesome, considering when it was done, half a century ago... and the presentation is probably the best I've seen... 4 CDs, 7 booklets and some mini posters... loads of information regarding the Stone Age of our "hobby".
Get it if you can
Thanks!

TRON

[v-un-v]

Eh? What are you talking about?!? The monologue is brilliant as well! - it's just utterly despressing- especially when you consider that Dissevelt litterally smoked himself to death after being rejected for a post at the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, AND if you watch that recent BBC documentary about the workshop, you can hear an excerpt of 'Vibration' over 'bleep and booster'. I wrote to the BBC to mention that they make this ammendment, only to be told that Brian Hodgson gave the BBC his word that this was a track by him and NOT Dissevelt. It's gutting and disgusting., and quite typical of an arrogant corporation (You can tell I don't watch TV anymore! - a pure radio man! )

So in a way, IMO, the monologue is the best track on the whole compilation.

RIP Tom Dissevelt.

[Tronato]

Hello!

I haven't seen the BBC documentary so I'll take back the monologue criticism... still it's a great box set!

Thanks!

TRON