Lucien Goethals, Karel Goeyvaerts

Easily the most elusive of the three “I.P.E.M.” (Institute for Psychoacoustics and Electronic Music) titles released by Alpha Brussels (you want to do this? alright, here we go - this one, CP 138, was the first to be released, SP-6015, 1973 - followed by CP 085, “I.P.E.M. (aka “Harry Sparnaay • Lucien Goethals • Louis De Meester”)”, SP-6028, 1975 - then, finally CP 053, “Elektronische Produktie van I.P.E.M. (aka “Muziek in Vlaanderen”), DBM-N 257, 1978) - this collection of pieces by Karel Goeyvaerts & Lucien Goethals, released on the eve of the IPEM’s 10th anniversary, delivers on a series of fronts, offering an epic side-length drifter by Goeyvaerts (27 minutes of epic piano klang & held tones) followed by three shorter études by Goethals (gooey analogia in sliding, de-centralized pitch scales not too far removed from the levels of manic excess witnessed on Pietro Grossi’s “Computer Music” 2LP.) In the lineage of early Belgian electronic music, this set (along with Leo Küpper’s fantastic 1971 “L'Enclume Des Forces / Électro Poème / Automatismes Sonores” LP on Deutsche Grammophon) is arguably the high-point - the, frankly, impossible-to-find (word has it the C.P. brain-trust had been at it for 5 years!!) O.G. edition has been wonderfully replicated here, down to the “Gatefold” (recreated as two extra panels in the included booklet.)