PANORAMA OF MUSIQUE CONCRETE. 1955.

London: Sinetone AMR, 1955
Standard 12 inch LP in pictorial sleeve and inner sleeve. The first ever release of electronic tape music, documenting the early experiments from 1948 to the early 1950s of the founding figures of the Groupe de Recherche de Musique Concrete (aka the Groupe de Recherches Musicales or the INA-GRM). Schaeffer, Henry, and Arthuys recorded “natural”, non-synthesized sounds like trains, instruments, factory machinery, small objects, voices, bells, children’s toys, etc., and created structured noise compositions by cutting up the tape and changing its speed. Some pieces use an instrument that Schaeffer invented called the Phonogene, which used a keyboard to control a series of motors that allowed the composer to transpose tape speeds on an octave scale (a primitive precursor to the sampling keyboard). Included here are Schaeffer’s Railway Study: the world’s first tape composition, and Study for Whirligigs, Schaeffer’s earliest work (pre-musique concrete) that was produced using eight turntables with locked groove records. The record is in VG condition with no noticeable problems in a sleeve which has a few closed tears and some edge wear – that said this is is an extremely rare record and an important release.