GARSON, MORT
MUSIC FROM PATCH CORD PRODUCTIONS [Limited Orange Vinyl] LP

Limited Edition Orange vinyl pressing

No doubt you know the name Mort Garson from his myriad writing, conducting, and arranging credits, topping a thousand in total: the Kim Sisters, Gi Sönne, Lola Novaković, Pfc. Craig Brown, Emilio Pericoli. Or failing that, his sides for Patti Page, Mel Tormé, Rosemary Clooney, Percy Faith, and Mr. Magoo himself. Which is to say, Mort Garson’s road to cool cultural caché and the sublimity of Plantasia meant a decades’ long journey through an underworld of sophisticated, international, string-laced dreck (ie, your great-grandparents’ record collection) to arrive at Music From Patch Cord Productions, this set of queasy-listening you now hold.

In the span of ten years, Garson’s trusty Moog was the tool for every job. He deployed it to make the proto-typical New Age soundscapes corresponding to every sign of the Zodiac, warped the Wizard of Oz (as the Wozard of Iz), wigged out on Hair with the follicle-frizzing Electronic Hair Pieces. There was no hippie trend that Garson didn’t scour for the chance to land his own countercultural ‘hit.’ To cap that decade, Garson even soundtracked the US broadcast of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

Music From Patch Cord Productions shows that Garson’s knack was to exist in both worlds, super-commercial and waaay out. He cut delirious minute-long blasts for commercials (as to whether or not they were actually ever aired remains unknown) and spacecraft-hovering études. Were there really account managers out there in the early ‘70s that gave the greenlight to these commercial compositions which seemed to anticipate everyone from John Carpenter to Suicide? What were these campaigns actually for, Soylent Green? Regardless, Mort’s jingle work laid the groundwork for the future. As Robert Moog himself noted: “The jingles were important because they domesticated the sound.” Via Garson’s wizardry, the synthesizer transcended novelty to ubiquity and dominance.

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UPC: 843563166208
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