Tod Dockstader

Originally self-released in 1961 and later issued by Folkways, Tod Dockstader’s Eight Electronic Pieces is a foundational document of American electronic music and astunning first work from this revolutionary composer. Refused access to the resources and funding of the academy and without any interest from the record industry, Tod Dockstader assembled his debut album through three years of his own private labor – recording after-hours at the New York radio station where he worked. Dockstader’sapproach was informed by the laboratory experiments of his European contemporaries Edgar Varèse and Pierre Schaefer as well as by the aleatory compositional techniques and neo-dadaist aesthetics of John Cage. While Dockstader famously described his music as“organized sound,” Eight Electronic Pieces is not pure musique concrète. Oscillators pulse and clash with fragments of incidental tape music, leaving collages ofsound as tuneful and memorable as they are otherworldly. A visionary debut that presages the abstract ambience of modern IDM and an essential addition to any collection ofearly electronic music. Limited edition of 500 numbered copies on clear vinyl.