Strange To Your Ears:Jim Fassett tape manipulation 1953

$

43

Strange To Your Ears: The Fabulous World Of Sound with Jim Fassett. Columbia ML 4938

Excellent and rare 1953 lp exploring the weird and wacky side of early electronic tape manipulations/musique concrete, presenting an array of sped-up, slowed-down, reversed, cut-up, and montaged found sounds. Fassett (of Symphony Of The Birds fame) narrates this demonstration of the then-astounding capabilities of the newly invented magnetic tape recorder, using a whimsical approach to introduce listeners to the territory pioneered by more serious academic composers like Pierre Henry, Vladimir Ussachevsky, Otto Luening, and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Fassett shows how familiar sounds can be made to oddly sound like totally different ones, how multiple sounds from disparate locations can be collaged together to create utterly alien soundscapes, and how entire universes of sound can be derived from the most unlikely sources, with several truly bizarre moments (perhaps the most hilarious being when he attempts to pronounce his name backwards in order to hear what it sounds like when played in reverse [David John Oates really needs to acknowledge his debt to Jim!]). But beneath the novelty surface of this recording, Fassett is actually making a revolutionary statement about how we hear, joining with avant garde contemporaries like John Cage in radically calling for a new appreciation of sound as music and music as sound (the liner notes by High Fidelity Magazine editor John M. Conly name-drop Edgard Varese, Pierre Boulez, and Pierre Schaeffer). This album's content was originally a radio documentary that Fassett produced with engineer Mortimer Goldberg. It is highly recommended as a fascinating period document, as a trove of sound effects, and as a beautiful specimen of outsider musique concrete.

Fassett was the director of CBS Radio, a radio show host, music critic, audiophile, and early magnetic tape experimentalist who in the 1950s released several novelty musique concrete recordings. Other references: Jean-Jacques Perrey, Bruce Haack, Raymond Scott, Tod Dockstader, Francois Bayle, Luc Ferrari...

Vinyl Condition: ex (looks rarely if ever played, amazing condition for this 50+ year old lp)
Cover Condition: ex+ (great for its age; some lamination peeling at front right edge; minor yellowing; small sticker on back)

Check out my other auctions this week for more avant garde/experimental, early electronic/electroacoustic/synthesizer, 20th century classical, minimalism, free jazz, psych, and space age pop.









Shipping to US destinations is 3.85 for 1-2 single records by Media Mail, then 0.50 for each additional (Priority Mail, other expedited shipping options, and insurance are all available on request). International rates for shipping 1 12" lp: Canada by airmail is 6.50; Western Europe/UK/Scandinavia is 7.00 surface or 12.00 air; Japan/Taiwan/Australia is 7.00 surface or 13.50 air; other international destinations vary. 7" and 10" records will cost less; heavy box sets will cost more. Combine multiple items to save on shipping. Note: I can now offer international buyers the super-cheap M-Bag bulk mail rate for orders of 9 or more lps; to most destinations this starts at 20.00 for surface mail or 31.50 for air for up to 17 lps, a huge per-record savings over standard rates for smaller parcels! Feel free to email with any shipping questions.

Payment - I prefer Paypal (which allows for fastest possible shipment) and also accept cash, money order (from US financial institutions only, including BidPay, US Postal, certified US bank check, etc., international bidders please take note!), and Western Union money transfer. If you are paying by Paypal and have won multiple items, please use a single Paypal payment. I will send an invoice email to all winners shortly after my auctions close, and another email after payment has been received to confirm item shipment.

Packing - I pack professionally and adequately using new record mailers exclusively from Cameron Packaging (which I have determined are the best and most protective). For used lps, I remove the lp and inserts from the jacket, cover it in a layer of bubble wrap, and then reinforce it with a cardboard insert. All records are shipped with poly plastic sleeves. All packages are completely sealed with strong packing tape covering all openings. If you'd like your package done any differently, just let me know.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions (need more info, want more pictures, etc.); you can use the 'ask seller a question' link above. My condition rating scale is -G+/-VG+/-EX+/-NM/M (only sealed records are M). Satisfaction guaranteed; if you have any problems with your order please contact me directly.

Check out Ebay[track], my free realtime ebay auction tracker (currently in beta), which can refresh multiple auction statuses every second, alert you when bids are placed and when auctions end, let you place bids, and more. It's a useful tool for bidders, snipers, sellers, watchers...

This item description is (c)opyright 2005 keymap records; please contact keymap records for permission before reproducing any text.