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Richard Pinhas

Richard Pinhas, East/West (1980)
I just picked up this LP and I’m really enjoying it! This album was Richard Pinhas’ fourth solo effort, released in 1980 on Pulse Records and later re-released on Cuneiform.
Most of the tracks from this album are named after various cities (London, New York, Kyoto…),  and Richard Pinhas wanted to capture the spirit of these places through his music.  The album vacillates between slower, more ambient work to heavier tracks more reminiscent of the music he made with the band Heldon.  This album might not be the best introduction to Pinhas’ work, but definitely worth a good old listen nonetheless! 

 “Richard Pinhas,…the astonishingly talented French pioneer…it’s no exaggeration to state he’s managed to cross the philosophies of J.G Ballard and Jean Giraud with the guitar sound of Robert Fripp, and thereby arrived at a cosmos-shattering glimps into the infinite.”  – The Sound Projector

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August 18th

Raymond Scott- Electronic Audio Logos
Pond- Seidenstrasse
Moebius & Plank- News
Serge Blenner- Phrase II
Tangerine Dream- Cloudburst Flight
Richard Pinhas- Houston 69: “The Crash Landing”
Rene Hell- Perfume Part II
Richard Pinhas/ David Bowie- Sense of Doubt
Bernard Fevre- Dangerous Mixture
Georges Vert- An Electric Mind
The Advisory Circle- Wildspot
Majeure- Atlantis Purge
Outer Space- The Fifth Column

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Louis and Bebe Barron

Louis and Bebe Barron were American electronic music pioneers best known for writing the first electronic music for magnetic tape and the soundtrack for Forbidden Planet (1956), the first entirely electronic film score.
The Barrons married in 1948 and started a life in New York.  The couple received their first tape recorder as a wedding present from Louis’s cousin, starting a lifelong dedication to electronic music. Louis and Bebe Barron’s work was greatly influenced by Norbert Weiner’s 1948 book on Cybernetics, which he defined as “the scientific study of control and communication in the animal and the machine.”
Soon after moving to New York the Barrons opened a recording studio in Greenwich Village where they recorded many artists and musicians work including readings from Henry Miller, Tennessee Williams, Aldous Huxley and Anais Nin.  
The last Alien Jams show featured a track by Louis and Bebe Barron from the film Bells of Atlantis (1952), featuring Anais Nin reading from her book, House of Incest. 
“(Barrons’ music sounds like) a molecule that has stubbed its toes.” – From the Diary of Anais Nin, Volume 7 (1966-1974).
Anais Nin
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August Fifth

Kona Triangle- Long Mountain
Belbury Poly- A Thin Place
Keaver & Brause- Cleff Rechard
Logic System- Clash
Padded Cell- Signal Failure
Todd Terje- Ragysh
Zombie Zombie- Driving This Road
Driphouse- Chompers World
Louis & Bebe Barron- Bells of Atlantis (with Anais Nin)
Else Marie Pade – 4 Illustrations: Himmelrummet (The Firmament)
Roedelius- (from Selbstportrait- Vol. II)

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Lothar and the Hand People

Lothar and the Hand People
This psychedelic rock band was around during the late 60s.  They formed in Denver in 1965 but relocated to New York, playing gigs with the Byrds, Grateful Dead, Canned Heat and Jimi Hendrix.  LTHP are believed to be the first rock band to record and tour with a theremin.  The band was notorious for their unusual sound and use of esoteric instruments, including Lothar, their theremin.  Lothar took a key role in the band and was responsible for the spacey sounds that set their music apart from other bands at the time.
Their 1969 album, Space Hymn is definitely worth a listen.  Admittedly, some of the tracks are better than others; the real gems of the album include title track, “Space Hymn,” “Wedding Night for Those Who Love” and “Today is Only Yesterday’s Tomorrow.”

The image above can be found on their website