Rare NEW SOUNDS IN MUSIC 10" LP Churchill Films JOHN CAGE Christopher Tree NM
$
169
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Description
Various : New Sounds in Music 33rpm 10" EP (Churchill Films [USA] 5-114) 196?
Record and cover (still in shrink) are Near Mint (our highest grade for an opened record).
Superb original copy of this little-known New Music artifact, released by Churchill Films, a Los Angeles-based producer/distributor of 16mm educational films. One track each by Christopher Tree ("Spontaneous Sound"), Luciano Berio ("Thema [Omaggio a Joyce])", Michael Tilson Thomas (Orchestral Improvisation), and John Cage ("Aria with Fontana Mix").
We assume these recordings corresponded to a film (or films) of the same material, but we've been unable to pin down all the details. According to the Academic Film Archive of North America website (http://www.afana.org/vandeusen.htm), Churchill released films of Michael Tilson Thomas and Christopher Tree, both directed by Pieter Van Deusen and photographed by Bob Kaufman (we assume this is the Robert Kaufman who photographed Kent MacKenzie's The Exiles) and master documentarian Les Blank. There is a 10-minute film of Christopher Tree (titled simply Christopher Tree) from circa 1969, credited to Blank and Van Deusen (available on DVD-R from Blank's Flower Films website here), which no doubt includes at least some of the Churchill-released footage. The website for the University of Victoria (BC) Library lists a 1969 film called New Sounds in Music published by Churchill, with no credits and the following description: "Presents new musical sounds and new ways of treating old sounds. Includes examples of chance music, tape music, synthesizer music, and other twentieth century innovations." We assume that the film described includes the above-mentioned Van Deusen/Blank/Kaufman footage and/or the other material documented on this record.
The record itself is nearly as mysterious as the film footage -- it's rarely offered and is not listed on most discographies (including this otherwise quite thorough discography on the johncage.info site).