Tod Dockstader - Omniphony 1

Things don't initially bode well for this 1966 reissue of what Tod Dockstader dubbed "organised sound". The black and white cover has the avant-garde collaborators looking like some backroom boffins from something out of the BBC Radiophonic workshop, surrounded by an array of (now antiquated) reel to reel tapes. On the liner notes, too, it states: "loudspeaker composition for concrete sounds, chamber ensemble, electronically processed chamber ensemble, razorblades and tape." How on earth do you play a razorblade? The comedians amongst may want to suggest playing it carefully. This obviously ain't gonna be hot, sweat, testosterone-fuelled rock decked-out in finest spandex. The duo have been hailed as pioneers of modern electronic composition. 'Omniphony 1' is right up there, according to some, at the forefront of breaking boundaries. In past pieces that combined an orchestra with tape machines such as Edgar Varese's 'Deserts' and Karlheinz Stockhausen's 'Kontakte' the tape simply played alongside the orchestra. Tod Dockstader and James Reichert instead attempted to incorporate tape machines as part of the orchestra, mutating the orchestral sounds throught the tape machines and then combining that with purely electronic sounds. The two composers started work on the piece in 1963 but it took them nearly four years to complete, supposedly using around 100,000 feet of tape. They might not be quite so cutting-edge as the PR puff would have you believe. Dockstader largely follows in the footprints of Pierre Schaeffer and his concept in the late 1940s of a "concert of noises" and what would become musique concrète with Schaeffer forming the Groupe de Musique Concrète in 1951. Students included Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez and Jean Barraque. Dockstader comes right out of this tradition, a fact he readily acknowledges. Famed composer John Cage too, created the tape collage pieces 'Williams Mix' and 'Fontana Mix' back in 1952 and 1958 respectively. That may be belittling their talents and vision though. 'Omniphony 1' while an important work in the genealogy of electronic music, it's importance may well have been overstated. But can you listen to it? As with many avant-garde creations though the intellectual concept behind the music is often far more appealing than the music itself. At best it's Igor Stravinsky fusing Pan Sonic with a re-worked Lou Reed's 'Metal Machine Music' without the feedback at worst it's a painful series of squeaks and squawks, bleeps and weird loops.