Abstraction #51 (1965) by Virgil Finlay.
• “I think the world venerates him as this deeply religious composer who tackles eternal themes in his music, but I think it’s also good to remember that he also has a playful experimental side.” Maria Juur discussing Estonian composer Arvo Pärt in a review by Geeta Dayal of a new recording of four Pärt compositions.
• “Rubycon feels like an epic soundtrack to a great lost film…” Jeremy Allen on the 50th anniversary of a Tangerine Dream album that’s always been a favourite of mine.
• At the Internet Archive: Browse the catalogue for a forthcoming auction of rare books and artworks from The Library of Barry Humphries.
• At Public Domain Review: Through a Glass Lushly: Michalina Janoszanka’s reverse paintings (ca. 1920s).
• At Colossal: “Vintage postcard paintings by David Opdyke demonstrate an ecological future in peril“.
• At the BFI: Michael Brooke offers suggestions for ten great Slovak New Wave films.
• DJ Food unearthed four sheets of Dave Roe wrapping paper from 1968.
• New music: Doppelgänger by Ian Boddy & Harald Grosskopf.
• Ten minutes of Sun Ra and the Arkestra on French TV in 1969.
• Depictions of Atlantis in retro science fiction art.
• Old music: Flora (1987) by Hiroshi Yoshimura has been reissued.
• Atlantis (1961) by The Blue Bells | Atlantis (1969) by Donovan | Atlantis (1971) by Deuter
“Rubycon” – Totally agree. I bought the albums from that ’74/’75 era out of sequence in the ’80s so “Phaedra” was the last one I heard and after “Rubycon” and “Ricochet” a slight disappointment. “Phaedra” felt a bit under developed in comparison. I’m hopeful that the same OTT 50th Anniversary expanded box set reissue zeal will be applied to “Rubycon” as has gone on for “Phaedra” and more unreleased music will see the light of day. That gorgeous extended opening section of “Rubycon 1” made getting the “Hades” box set worth while. You’d assume there was more of this to be found…somewhere. The Steven Wilson mixes are nice and all that but material like that is the real gold dust.
I’d love to hear more session material but it’s hard to tell what might be out there. They evidently improvised in the studio for Phaedra and Rubycon but may have stopped doing this by the time they had their own studios. It’s an expensive way to create an album, burning up studio time. Stratosfear sounds more composed than improvised.
On the other hand, Edgar Froese had this to say in 1986: “There are literally hundreds of hours of unreleased Tangerine Dream music. We own three studios in Germany, and when we’re not touring we work in them ten hours a day making music.”