ataraxia: the unexplained

Electronic impressions of the occult, reissued for the first time. The late, great Mort Garson (1924-2008) was a hotshot of electronic music's pioneering days, known for his groundbreaking occult works such as The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds (1967) and Lucifer: Black Mass (1971). A different side of his creativity emerged in his 1976 Plantasia project, an inspired album of Moog compositions to be played for growing plants. The previous year he released this hypnotizing album, which takes the listener on a weird trip to an even weirder sound-world. Metallic drum loops add a proto-industrial feel to the swirling waves of colorful synthesizer melodies, which draw from jazz and exotica music of the '50s and '60s as well as mysterious detective movie soundtracks and pulsating psychedelic rock. There are moments of freeform electronic oscillations with layers of synthetic whistling and buzzing shifted over each other, and passages with hot-blooded grooves let the listener drift away on a gently flowing river of sound. Recommended for all lovers of the more experimental 1970s electronic music, The Unexplained definitely competes with such fine German artists as Cluster, Tangerine Dream, and Klaus Schulze. The album will also appeal to freaks who love progressive soundtracks for Italian horror movies of the same time by Goblin and other masters. A fascinating album that prefigures the pulsating synthesized rhythms that would later appear in many dance productions. Another pioneering work from a true artist who loved the challenge of crossing borders and exploring new territories of sound.