From david turgeon Sent Fri, Sep 3rd 1999, 19:42
From david turgeon Sent Fri, Sep 3rd 1999, 19:42
if you ever stumble upon a double 12" called 'music of the nfb / musique de l'onf' (black & white cover with a wacky hand drawing), do not hesitate & BUY BUY BUY. it's been out of print forever (the edition i got lent, probably the only pressing, is from 1976) but as the price tag asserts ($1), it probably won't do much harm to your budget -- if you manage to find it, that is. what is it? essentially, soundtracks for experimental films from the mid-50s to the beginning of the 70s. the nfb (national film board of canada -- who also produced nature documentaries, & i have a hunch there's a well-known idm duet that took their name from there...) at that time was at the forefront of experimental animation & electroacoustic music worldwide, driven mostly by the astonishing norman mclaren who produced quite a lot of films which still look fresh even today -- a short but inadequate description would be kandinsky or mondrian ported to cartoon form. incidentally, norman mclaren is probably the most interesting on this set. as you may know, some of his experimental work was done straight on the film -- both the visuals & the music. for the music, he'd painstakingly cut little holes, or gaps on the film itself, to compose a rhythmic score of clicks & pops which sound surprisingly close to what everybody does nowadays... knowing this was made as early as 1954 or so, that this music still sounds ahead of _this_ time is nothing short of astonishing, & very relevant with today's idm. the rest of the album is sometimes a bit dated, but rarely uninteresting. nfb's animated films, even the most experimental, were usually meant for a young audience, which meant that both the visuals & the soundtrack had to be entertaining enough to keep their attention. yet, this never sounds like bland kid music. instead, it's very imaginative, touching on a large palette of music, & usually compelling enough to involve more than just the calculator part of your brain. i think i'm going to pester the nfb until they release a cd version, but until then, you owe it to yourself to buy this double vinyl on sight. it has plenty of amazing musics & short but good liner notes in both french & english (the nfb being a government-funded organization). now let's hope that they someday return to more experimentals leanings (perhaps if they were funded properly...) -- david