Trevor Wishart
Beach Singularity & Menagerie
Releasing electroacoustic music in this country has historically, always been a dedicated persuit. With no national record labels and very few electronic music studios to support this music, the UK has always lagged behind its counterparts in both the United States and throughout east and west Europe. Trevor Wishart started releasing his own music in 1973 and continues to do so to this day. Much of this LP was originally privately released in 1979. Whilst other maverick British composers (Nyman, Bryars, Cardew etc.) chose to stay out of the electronic music studio, Wishart and a few others, (starting out in 1961 with the pioneering LP of musique concrète by Desmond Leslie), took the plunge.
Beach Singularity was performed on the beaches at Morecambe, Cleveleys, St. Annes, and Southport in the summer of 1977.
The Palm Beach Orchestra is Poppy Holden - vocals; Lyn Dobson - saxophones; Melvyn Poore - tuba; Robin Coombes - clarinet; Dick Witts - percussion, vocals; Martin Mayes - horn, vocals; Trevor Wishart - tapes, miscellaneous vocals.
Menagerie began life in 1974 when Trevor Wishart asked a number of well known British performance artistis to build small assemblages for an exhibition in which each object would be accompanied by appropriate taped sounds. The exhibition, consisting of eleven assemblages, was first prepared for the Birmingham Arts Lab and presented there in January 1975. The accompanying tapes were all made at The University of York Electronic Music Studio by Trevor Wishart.
"The pieces are valuable to anyone curious about the way sound can be stretched and pummelled into submission. At a time when we are subjected to so much cheap and cheerless sonic art, Trevor Wishart's hard won skills seem especially valuable." —John L. Walters, The Wire
Beach Singularity was performed on the beaches at Morecambe, Cleveleys, St Anne's & Southport in the summer of 1977. Beach Singularity is an excerpt from a day long happening in which the composer performed with an ensemble that featured saxophonist Lyn Dobson avant-tuba player Melvyn Poore, vocalist Poppy Holden and clarinet improviser Robin Coombes. This performance was designed somewhat like a social intervention, where the musicians performed in conjunction with tape-music and electronics broadcast from small portable stereo systems scattered along the English sea-side. Menagerie began life in 1974 when Trevor Wishart asked a number of well known British performance artistis to build small assemblages for an exhibition in which each object would be accompanied by appropriate taped sounds. The exhibition, consisting of eleven assemblages, was first prepared for the Birmingham Arts Lab and presented there in January 1975. The accompanying tapes were all made at The University of York Electronic Music Studio by Trevor Wishart. Comes with 4-page A4 booklet and two advertisement inserts.
