Six years before the release of his landmark Mother Earth's Plantasia, composer and arranger Mort Garson met experimental film director Skip Sherwood, who was interested in an electronic score for his new movie, Didn't You Hear? While not much is known now about the exact nature of their collaboration, we have Garson's magnificent score as a record of those heady, early days after his life-changing discovery of the Moog synthesizer. This stands as one of the first-ever all-electronic movie scores - a genuine milestone in the history of film music and electronic composition.
Originally available only in the lobby of the Uptown Theater during screenings of the movie in Seattle in December 1970, the soundtrack LP went out of print shortly after the film's release. It has been a sought-after record for collectors of Garson and early electronic music ever since. The film itself - shot in widescreen Techniscope on the campus of Washington State University and the San Juan Islands across spring and summer 1970 - fell into obscurity after its theatrical run, kept alive only through televised broadcasts until a VHS release in 1983.
The score accompanies a drama about Kevin, a college student caught up in the monotony of student life who creates a dream world where he is captain of the ship "Queen of Sheba." The film is notable as one of the earliest screen appearances by a young Gary Busey, as well as the theatrical debut of Dennis Christopher and Cheryl Waters. The movie's experimental nature - with its quick cuts, low camera angles, and non-sequitur plotting - found its perfect complement in Garson's pioneering Moog compositions.
The fifteen pieces here reveal Garson working in a different mode than his later work. Opening with a vocal title track featuring Tommy Muncrief (formerly of The Beckett Quintet) on lyrics and lead vocals over Garson's charming Moog bleeps, the album then moves through short, evocative jingles, loops and effects that recall the BBC Radiophonic Workshop or Raymond Scott. Tracks are named according to scenes in the movie: "Dream Sequence 1," "Kevin's Theme," "Sail! Sail!," "Bamboo City," "Jeep Ride" - each a miniature electronic poem crafted with Garson's characteristic blend of accessibility and genuine sonic exploration.
Though the score was first released in 1970, it sounds as adventurous and futuristic today as it must have then. There's a real feeling of exploration, joy and heart here - the sound of a composer discovering what the Moog could do, pushing into territory that few had explored before. This is sci-fi synth music from the vanguard, created at a moment when the very idea of an all-electronic film score was revolutionary.
