Recently I found out about some official releases of classic quad in the form of electronic composer Morton Subotnick. I was thrilled that these mixes have been preserved and I sought out the titles. I received them yesterday and then found this thread.
So the releases I found are the same from Mode Records as referenced 12 years ago in the previous post! Here is the link to the material:
http://www.moderecords.com/profiles/mortonsubotnick.html
His recordings are not musical - they are more like composed electronic sound. That said, I quite like it and the surround is VERY active. Quite an enjoyable listen if you like electronic experimentation as I do. Here are the current offerings:
Morton Subotnick: Gestures (mode 97) aka "Volume 1 Electronic Works"
Morton Subotnick: The Electronic Works 2 (mode 132)
Morton Subotnick: The Electronic Works 3 (mode 237)
You can go to the website to explore the content, but his classic quad work Touch is definitely on Volume 1 and is a perfect transfer! Discrete as can be, and highly active in all corners. One caveat came to me via email after my order inquiry:
"Unfortunately the DVD of mode 97 is a low stock item and priced accordingly at $50 (it is a double DVD set with a dedicated hi-res DVD-A disc, plus the interactive "Gestures" in addition to the normal DVD). The others are in stock at $19.99/each. Because of the serious decline of physical media sales in the past couple of years, many older titles can no longer be practically repressed (with minimum pressings of 300-500 required). Mode 97 & 132 DVDs are both multiple sets with DVD-video disc and bonus DVD-A disc. We still have sufficient stocks of Mode 132, but sadly once this stock of Mode 97 DVD is sold out it may not get repressed (and certainly not with the DVD-A bonus)."
So there is lots of content in the expensive title, although I have not yet explored the "interactive DVD," but I love the content I have checked so far and am glad I got this before it went out of stock.
Finally, Mode Records has TONS of oddball surround stuff. Here is another quote from the email:
"I have always been a strong believer in high resolution audio and surround. Mode has probably the largest catalog of new music available in surround. Mode released the very first new music DVD in 1998. This belief in surround being the future for music led me to do many recordings with video (sales of surround DVDs without video were always difficult), at great expense but I think with very special quality. Unfortunately, the market never went with surround as I had hoped. Now some projects already recorded may not be released in surround and/or in their DVD versions at all. And many planned projects have been cancelled. Sales simply cannot support the expense — it's not a question of not enough profit, but rather that one cannot loose large amounts of money on each release.
This evolution of the market makes me very sad. But we have a large public now that doesn't want to pay for music, and doesn't even care to have a good sound system (never mind a surround system) to listen to their music on.
You might also be interested in our Stockhausen: Complete Early Percussion Works DVD. I think this is among Mode's greatest surround releases, and it also has full video."
Thus far I have not gone for the Stockhausen. Does anyone else at QQ have this already?
So that is the story with Mode Records - stocked with surround! I asked them to maybe create a summary page of all their surround titles. He said it would be a good idea, but does not now exist. Check these out, and feel free to report back here!