david behrman: wave train

2015 remastered CD in digipak with 12-page booklet including liner notes written by the composer as well as diagrams and scores relating to the published works. Wave Train, originally released by Alga Marghen in 1998, collects experimental works by David Behrman recorded between 1959 and 1968, featuring the Sonic Arts Union. The CD starts with "Canons," a short piece created in Darmstadt over three weeks in the summer of 1959 with David Tudor on piano and Christoph Caskel on percussion. "Ricercar" is a prepared piano piece made in 1961 and has the flexible form of the kind favored by European composers in the early 1960s, and also reflects the work of Cowell and Cage. "Wave Train" (1966), a powerful feedback piece performed live with Gordon Mumma, marks the radical moment when Behrman threw away established techniques. "Players With Circuits" (1966) is an exploration of raw materials; a combination of live electronics and amplified acoustic sound. "Sounds for a Film By Bob Watts," for outdoor environment recording and homemade synthesizer, was recorded at Stony Point, the artists' cooperative which John Cage, David Tudor, Sari Dienes, and other friends had established. The last piece, "Runthrough," was made for performance by members of the Sonic Arts Union: Alvin Lucier, Gordon Mumma, Robert Ashley, and, of course, Behrman himself; two of them working the dials and switches of homemade synthesizers, and two others distributing sound in space with homemade photocell mixers; Time Records released a different version of this piece in 1969.