Ralph Swickard, Kenneth Heller

condition (record/cover): EX- (light marks not affecting play) / VG+ (minimal ring wear on bottom front, seams splits and spine wear)

Orion Master Recordings, the Berkeley label run by John H. Burrows that specialised in American contemporary music releases through the seventies, issued the LP catalogued ORS 7021. The two named musicians are Ralph Swickard (1922-2011), composer of orchestral and electronic music who taught at CalArts and led a working partnership with the conductor Kenneth Heller through several Orion releases. The most likely identification given the catalogue range (early-to-mid 1970s Orion) is a Swickard orchestral and/or electronic programme conducted by Heller, possibly with the Westchester Symphony Orchestra (Heller's main ensemble during that period) or similar regional orchestra.

Swickard's catalogue spans the post-serial vocabulary of the Los Angeles avant-garde, with extended use of electronic processing on certain pieces. Orion as a label sat alongside CRI and Opus One as the principal independent outlets for academic American composers who could not place work with the major classical labels. Pressings were small, distribution regional; original Orion LPs typically circulate in modest numbers.