Forbidden Planet: Main Title - Louis Barron/Bebe Barron
Elektronische Tanzste: Concertando Rubato - Oskar Sala
Poem Electronique - Edgard Varese
Sine Music (A Swarm Of Butterflies Encountered Over The Ocean) - Richard Maxfield
Apocalypse-Part 2 - Tod Dockstader
Kontakte - James Tenney/William Winant
Wireless Fant - Vladimir Ussachevsky
Philomel - Milton Babbitt
Spacecraft - MEV
Track Listings (13) - Disc #2
Cindy Electronium - Raymond Scott
Pendulum Music - Sonic Youth
Bye Bye Butterfly - Pauline Oliveros
Projection Esemplastic For White Noise - Joji Yuasa
Silver Apples Of The Moon, Part 1 - Morton Subotnick
Rainforest Version 1 - David Tudor
Poppy Nogood - Terry Riley
Boat-Woman-Song - Holger Czukay
Music Promenade - Luc Ferrari
Vibrations Composees: Rosace 3 - Francois Bayle
Mutations - Jean-Claude Risset
Hibiki-Hana-Ma - Iannis Xenakis
Map Of 49's Dream The Two Systems Of Eleven Sets Of Galactic Intervals: Drift Study '31/69 c.... - La Monte Young
Track Listings (13) - Disc #3
He Destroyed Her Image - Charles Dodge
Six Fants On A Poem By Thomas Campion: Her Song - Paul Lansky
Appalachian Grove - Laurie Spiegel
En Phase/Hors Phase - Bernard Parmegiani
On The Other Ocean - David Behrman
Stria - John Chowning
Living Sound, Patent Pending Music For Sound-Joined Rooms Series - Maryanne Amacher
Automatic Writing - Robert Ashley
Canti Illuminati - Alvin Curran
Music On A Long Thin Wire - Alvin Lucier
Melange - Klaus Schulze
Before And After Charm (La Notte) - Jon Hassell
Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hills) - Brian Eno
Opening with Clara Rockmore's reworking of Tchaikovsky with the theremin, and finishing with one of Brian Eno's ambient soundscapes, OHM artfully succeeds in its goal of giving a representative (as opposed to the impossibl... more »e, comprehensive) overview of the first several decades of electronic music. Over 3 discs, 42 compositions, and 96 pages of notes and photos, OHM clearly illustrates the producers' and contributing writers' point that early electronic music is much of the foundation of contemporary music. Herein lies the connective tissue bridging musique concrète, 20th-century classical, electronic experimentation, and the theoretical avant-garde to psychedelia, ambient, dub, techno, electro, and synthpop and the globalization of sound. The groundbreaking uses of loops, sampling, drones, remixes, and cut-and-paste technology are put fully into context. The diversity of music included makes any sort of summation impossible, but that is also the point: electronic music is not really a genre, but an open field of endless possibility. From John Cage's famous "William's Mix" of tape snippets to Karkheinz Stockhausen's electronic orchestral compositions, from David Tudor and Holger Czukay's experiments in unrelated blendings of audio elements to David Behrman's supremely peaceful duet between computers and musicians, the aural renegades on OHM tread where none (save a few of their contemporaries) had gone before. The liner notes convey the incredible amount of hard work and experimentation it took to stitch together many of these pieces in the predigital era. Putting aside the inevitable quibbles about what's missing (much of it due to legal and/or logistical issues), a more complete collection of musical eggheads, eccentrics, and visionaries is hard to imagine. --Carl Hanni« less
Opening with Clara Rockmore's reworking of Tchaikovsky with the theremin, and finishing with one of Brian Eno's ambient soundscapes, OHM artfully succeeds in its goal of giving a representative (as opposed to the impossible, comprehensive) overview of the first several decades of electronic music. Over 3 discs, 42 compositions, and 96 pages of notes and photos, OHM clearly illustrates the producers' and contributing writers' point that early electronic music is much of the foundation of contemporary music. Herein lies the connective tissue bridging musique concrète, 20th-century classical, electronic experimentation, and the theoretical avant-garde to psychedelia, ambient, dub, techno, electro, and synthpop and the globalization of sound. The groundbreaking uses of loops, sampling, drones, remixes, and cut-and-paste technology are put fully into context. The diversity of music included makes any sort of summation impossible, but that is also the point: electronic music is not really a genre, but an open field of endless possibility. From John Cage's famous "William's Mix" of tape snippets to Karkheinz Stockhausen's electronic orchestral compositions, from David Tudor and Holger Czukay's experiments in unrelated blendings of audio elements to David Behrman's supremely peaceful duet between computers and musicians, the aural renegades on OHM tread where none (save a few of their contemporaries) had gone before. The liner notes convey the incredible amount of hard work and experimentation it took to stitch together many of these pieces in the predigital era. Putting aside the inevitable quibbles about what's missing (much of it due to legal and/or logistical issues), a more complete collection of musical eggheads, eccentrics, and visionaries is hard to imagine. --Carl Hanni
Matthew D. Mercer | Chicago, IL United States | 07/19/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"OHM makes a very lofty ambition to cover the entire history of electronic music in one set of 3 CDs. While three CDs may offer considerably more time than the standard 1 or 2 disc compilation, it is hardly enough space to really cover much in detail for one decade of music, let alone four. "OHM" is refreshing in its honesty, admitting these flaws and then getting on with what really matters: the music.Many of the pieces included on this set have been severely shortened for variety's sake. Rather than include the full hour or so of Terry Riley's "Poppy Nogood," for instance, we are treated to a seven minute excerpt. In many instances, this does what the set is meant to do on the whole: it gives a good overview of the history and growth of electronic music as its own experimental genre.Some of the names appearing within this collection are fairly well known: John Cage, David Tudor, Edgard Varese, Steve Reich (performed by Sonic Youth), Karlheinz Stockhausen, Terry Riley, Iannis Xenakis, Pierre Schaeffer.... There are also a few unexpected appearances, by Tchaikovsky (an absolutely beautiful performance of his "Valse Sentimentale" on theremin), Holger Czukay (of Can), and a few more contemporary artists such as Jon Hassell and Brian Eno, vintage ambient that finishes up the last disc at the close of the seventies.Much of the music is what may be considered "difficult" by unexperienced ears. Every once in a while this is true: La Monte Young's "31 I 69" maybe be edited down to a mere 7 minutes, but it's still almost impossible to endure the solid tone of mid-range feedback. Tudor's "Rainforest" squawks and chirps like an electronic jungle of his own creation. Many of the tracks, on the third disc especially, are more ambient in nature and are easier to absorb.As a fan of electronic music and its history, I cannot praise the label enough for putting together this fantastic compilation. Any limitations of the format are made up for in terms of quality and variety. Not only does it cover artists whose work I already appreciated, and places them in a historical context, but it also draws attention to dozens of other artists that until now may have lived in the high-profile composers' shadows.As with the Caipirinha set "Early Modulations: Vintage Volts" (recommended also, only two songs overlap), many of the works are decades old and sound as new as any of the "glitch" movement hitting the streets this year. This set is essential!"
Kid Stockhausen
P. Gunderson | San Diego, CA USA | 01/17/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This is required listening for anybody interested in the history of electronic music. Although implicitly aiming for the techno music audience, this audio history is overwhelmingly focused on the classical avant-garde of electro-acoustic composers. The closest you'll get to pop electronica is the Brian Eno track at the end of the third disc. No Kraftwerk, no Moroder, etc. Instead "OHM" manages to point to the continuities between, say, John Cage and artists currently working at the experimental edges of electronica (so-called IDM). It seems to be saying, "You think Kid 606 is visionary? Well check out this Stockhausen track from '59!"Admittedly, some of the songs are much more interesting to think about than they are to listen to. Some of the early pieces that were made through thosuands of hours of pains-taking tape-splicing could be made today in an afternoon with a digital audio editor and a few effects plug-ins.It is a beautiful package, containing a 90 page booklet of essays, quotations from the featured artists, and photographs. What all music should be: an education in daring."
Choose Carefully
George Grella | Brooklyn | 05/08/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you're looking for disco electronica, dance music of any kind, 'ambient', 'ill-bient' or anything put out by the assorted DJ 'bands,' then this is not a set for you. However, if you are interested in serious electronic music by the inventors of the field, pieces that are concerned with sound, structure and the technical aspects of the genre at its very basics, highly experimental music that demands attentive listening, than indeed buy this collection. It is not only the sole collected survey of serious electronic music available, it's an excellent one, containing the very most important pieces ever made and a nice selection of others that have stretched the field form its earliest days, pre-WWII. Very much pre- and un-rave."
Where the art is
undeletablearchive | Hove, East Sussex United Kingdom | 12/17/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"OHM is a really exciting release. The product is clearly a labour of love, and the location of artists in a larger context is brilliantly achieved - together with a definition of that context. Possibly the best compilation effort I've ever seen, it breaks ground like Hughes' `Shock of The New', providing a similar public service: the definition of essential repertoire. OHM gives us, for the first time, a map of this strange, fascinating territory, showing us the connections, and offering brilliant, concise critique in the beautifully-designed accompanying booklet.One complaint about early electronica is that it's `interesting', but you can't listen to it. It's a din, or it sounds like cartoon or sci-fi music. Counter this criticism with OHM, which comprehensively renders the accusation false. The music is uniformly beautiful, substantial, affecting, repeatable. And it hits its targets in ways which can make contemporary stuff look wanting. Messaien's drifting, spiritual ondes martenot piece `Oraison' is an object lesson in the humanisation of electronica. Cage's `Williams Mix' is jawdropping: half a century old and hyperkinetically modern beyond Autechre or Kid 606, with a prophetic title. Tod Dockstader's `Apocalypse II' does things with voice synthesis to make Thomas Bangalter turn pale. Ussachevsky's `Wireless Fantasy' from 1960 is a techno bleepscape set against alien clouds of ambient noise. It's moving in ways FSOL, and even The Orb, imply but never quite get to. MEV's `Spacecraft' is an intensely clear, bone-raw noisefest to inspire any of Norway's current cutting-edge electronica/improv crossover artists; like AMM told they have 6 minutes left to live.That's just CD1. Favourites from CD2/CD3 are: (1) David Tudor/`Rain Forest': trompe de l'oreille mapping out territory the Hafler Trio are fond of crossing; (2) Terry Riley/`Poppy Nogood': luminous, systemic, floating; a beautifully architected anticipation of ambient world music. (3) Luc Ferrari/`Promenade Music': `aleatoric' collisions of environmental sound. Zen-like, be-here-now music. (4) Francois Bayle/`Rosace 3': I admit Bayle has failed to impress me before now, but here he makes his `Jean-Michel Jarre of the avant-garde' tag work for him - in a big way. (5) Xenakis/`Hibiki-Hana-Ma': blood-dark, apocalyptic musique concrete. (6) Robert Ashley/`Automatic Writing': voices downloaded from another dimension (again, see Hafler Trio) underpinned by a gently funky bass track that sounds like it's bleeding through your ceiling. (7) Curran/`Cantus Illuminati': delicious, clamouring dronescape filled with bells and sighs. (8/9) Hassell/`Before and After Charm'; Eno/`Unfamiliar Wind (Leeks Hill)': these two selections represent a genuinely new idea in electroacoustics: after sine tones and oscillation come softly-textured granular fabrics. Hassell's piece is enormous, moving sky-church music; Eno's an intimate, enfolding glimpse into memory.Throughout the 3 CDs, one is constantly impressed by two things: intense, bloody-minded, against-the-odds musical vision, allied with incredible discipline. Much music sounds diluted, smudged or second-hand compared with this. It's not easy stuff, but as the compilers so persuasively argue, without these pioneers, all the important modern idioms fail to exist. Mark Prendergast, in `The Ambient Century', argues all modern music is ambient. Well, no. All modern music is post-electronic - `post-OHM'. Find the roots, the methodologies, the tropes, and the atmospheres drawn together, unalloyed and superbly mounted, on this brilliant, essential anthology. From the selection of repertoire, through the commentary, to the graphic design, it's hard to see how this could ever be topped."
Excellent starter for electronic music beginners.
George Grella | 03/24/2001
(3 out of 5 stars)
"This CD collection seems to have inspired some of the mostthoughtful and lengthy in reviews. And rightly so! It is beautifully packaged, the musical selections are carefully chosen and surprisingly diverse, and the introduction by Brian Eno is an absolute bulls-eye. The thick booklet included in this 3 CD set devotes a paragraph or two to each artist and his/her work.True, some of the works have been truncated, and some electronic artists were overlooked, while others probably should have been (La Mont Young's mathematical exercise "31/69..."). But overall, this collection is still representative of the evolution of electronic music; crucial works like Poem Electronique and and excerpt of Kontakte make an appearance. But...OHM deserves three stars, because the producers and/or editor made a surprising, and significant error. The track described as Milton Babbit's "Philomel" is not "Philomel" and furthermore, it is not electronic. "Philomel" as presented on this disc, is actually a shorter Babbit work called "Phonemena", written for piano and voice! Doubtless, listeners who aren't familiar with the piece probably pass up that track saying, "so what? doesn't sound very electronic." And they are right. The version of "Phonemena" on OHM is indeed the original version for piano and voice, written in 1969 (Phonemena was eventually realized as a piece for voice and synthesizer in 1975). This mistake is truly unfortunate, because "Philomel" is a beautiful song for live voice, recorded voice, and synthesizer. (You can find the full "Philomel" on NEUMA Records #450-74)I hope that the people who compiled this disc will insert the correct song, and that they will stick with "Philomel" in the next pressing of this potentially excellent CD. It wouldn't hurt to include excerpts from Denis Smalley's "Wind Chimes" and Jonathan Harvey's "Mortuos Plango, Vivos Voco" too."
Track Listings (16) - Disc #1
