Laurie Spiegel - The expanding universe (1980))
Absolutely essential top-shelf desert island science.
This is a serious brain burner.
Laurie Spiegel is a pioneer in computer aided electronic music. During the 70’s she worked at Bell labs and composed music usingGROOVE, a computer music system designed by Max Matthews, and one of the first in it’s field. The Expanding Universe compiles material recorded between 1974-76 with the GROOVE system.
It’s a mystery to me that Spiegel isn’t yet more recognized as being central to the development of electronic music. Her works were groundbreaking as much in her approach to composition as with the equipment she was using to express her ideas. When this record was released in 1980 she was already thinking of computer music in grassroots terms, seeing the computer itself as a tool that could be accessible to a larger amount of people and facilitate the realization of complex music with simpler means. I guess you could say she was spot-on with that statement…
Colorful timbres, complex rhythmical patterns, pure electronic tones and slowly changing microtonal drones make The Expanding Universe THE sound of electricity. Discover this gem here
PS: Continuo has a better rip here
And for more info on Laurie Spiegel, visit her website here and be sure to get your hands on Obsolete Systems, it’s a fantastic overview of her works from 1972-1983 and even better than The Expanding Universe in my opinion…
