Lordy, it’s the first ever Trunk ten incher. Well the second if you want to include Jonny.

Anyway, yes, a very groovy twofer, two classic 7” EPs from 1962 all on the same record. The Movement And Mine record made by the very lovely Daphne Oram simply called Electronic Sound Patterns, PLUS the Tom Dissevelt / Kid Baltan EP from the same time. A UK v Dutch plugged-in-wigged-out contest. Here is the insert copy:

Electronic Sound Patterns Composed and created by Daphne Oram

Electronic Movements Music by Tom Dissevelt, produced by Tom Dissevelt and Kid Baltan

TRACKLISTING

Side One Electronic Sound Patterns
1) – 3) Melodic Group
Shapes 4) – 7) Three Single Sounds Taken In Canon
8) Rhythmic Variations 1)
9) Rhythmic Variations 2)
10) – 18) Ascending and Descending Sequences of Varying Nature

Side Two Electronic Movements
1) Syncopation
2) Vibration
3) Whirling
4) Drifting

All the music on this release is over fifty years old. And none of it has been released on vinyl since the original British pressings back in 1962. It’s all worth listening to again I reckon.

On Side One is Daphne Oram’s first complete commercial recording and was released as part of Vera Gray’s Listen, Move And Dance series. Basically this was music made for school children to throw shapes and improvise along to during drama and creative lessons. It was Vera’s hope that these new and exciting sounds would lead the children into some “imaginative situations”. In recent years I have played this music to willing young students at festivals and old village halls and the results have been both bizarre and fascinating. You do need a good dance teacher though, not just a record player and a hall full of children in plimsoles with non-marking soles.

Side Two represents and whole different country of electronic creativity, with the exceptional sounds of Dutch electronic pioneer Tom Dissevelt. A multi-instrumentalist and jazzman, Dissevelt was invited to work at the legendary Natlab (Philips Physics Laboratory) studios. There he spent time working alongside composer and theorist Dick Raaijmakers (AKA Kid Baltan) producing new electronic sounds and interpretations of popular music. This four track sampler was issued at the same time as the Oram work and its comprehensive sleevenotes hinted at the music being “attractive”, “dizzy” and “mysterious”. And yes, I sure dig that.

For these short notes I am not going to intellectualise about either artist as there is masses of information out there already about them and their important places in the development of electronic sound and synthesis. But I will say that I decided to pair up these two classic old EPs on one release because i) I thought it would look pretty groovy, and ii) if you were lucky enough to find one of the rare originals in a second hand store over the last couple of decades, the chances are reasonably high that you’d find the other one loitering nearby. Which is nice.

Thanks for listening

Jonny Trunk 2013