The Camarata Contemporary Chamber Orchestra 'The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie' - Unreleased Decca/London quad mix

[steelydave]

Discovered this little article in a trawl through old issues of Billboard today - Decca released quite a bit of pop and easy listening quad on Q8 and quad reel through their US subsidiary, London Records and their licensing agreement with Ampex tapes, but I don't think they put out any classical in quad.

This article suggests that despite that, they were at least recording and mixing some of their classical output in quad - perhaps the fact, that like a lot of European labels (Phillips, Polydor, etc.) they never settled on a quad LP format was the reason this stuff never came out.

There isn't any explicit credit for who did the mixing on the stereo release, but the back cover has a dedication from Satie himself, who credits William L. (Bill) Robinson, who was the chief engineer at Sunset Sound in LA. Half of the album was recorded at Abbey Road and the other half was recorded at one of Decca's London studios, so it seems like they specifically took the album to Sunset Sound with a view toward mixing it in quad, yet they ended up never releasing the quad mix.

Deram LPs Ghostly Bow

LOS ANGELES - Deram Records, distributed by London Records, unveiled its new Moog Synthesizer LP "The Electronic Spirit of Erik Satie" here Thursday (1) at the Magic Castle replete with magicians and card tricks, the ghostly spirit of Erik Satie, the physical presence of LP arranger-conductor Tutti Camarata, and discrete quadrasonic music.

The album presentation was mixed especially for quadrasonic, Camarata said. It was played via half-inch tape on recording studio equipment brought into the private club especially for the occasion. The LP given out of the presentation, however, was stereo.

 

[humprof]

Discovered this little article in a trawl through old issues of Billboard today - Decca released quite a bit of pop and easy listening quad on Q8 and quad reel through their US subsidiary, London Records and their licensing agreement with Ampex tapes, but I don't think they put out any classical in quad.

This article suggests that despite that, they were at least recording and mixing some of their classical output in quad - perhaps the fact, that like a lot of European labels (Phillips, Polydor, etc.) they never settled on a quad LP format was the reason this stuff never came out.

There isn't any explicit credit for who did the mixing on the stereo release, but the back cover has a dedication from Satie himself, who credits William L. (Bill) Robinson, who was the chief engineer at Sunset Sound in LA. Half of the album was recorded at Abbey Road and the other half was recorded at one of Decca's London studios, so it seems like they specifically took the album to Sunset Sound with a view toward mixing it in quad, yet they ended up never releasing the quad mix.





View attachment 79739

Oh, man...I would love to hear that in any form, but especially in quad.

 

[4-earredwonder]

Oh, man...I would love to hear that in any form, but especially in quad.

It would certainly be a coup if Dutton Vocalion could possibly gain access to those masters! D~V has had a long relationship with London Records releasing a lot of their content as RBCD two~fers!

 

[J. PUPSTER]

Oh, man...I would love to hear that in any form, but especially in quad.

Looks like it was only released as an LP in '72 per discogs anyway.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1612...nic-Spirit-Of-Erik-Satie-Featuring-The-Moog-S

 

[4-earredwonder]

Looks like it was only released as an LP in '72 per discogs anyway.

https://www.discogs.com/master/1612...nic-Spirit-Of-Erik-Satie-Featuring-The-Moog-S

Wonder if it was one of those renegade SQ/QS encodes and how well it might decode through the Surround Master?

 

[fizzywiggs41]

That is strange ,that they never released it in quad and disappointing.

After all Decca /Dream started releasing Quad via the Moody Blues in 1972 or very early 73 starting with Moody Blues Seventh Sojourn as per the liner notes last paragraph.

 

[jaybird100]

In the liner notes for the Moody Blues' SACD's, the albums had been mixed for quad, and they intended to release them in SQ. They scrapped the idea because interest in quad was dying down.

 

[Electric Moo]

I have another Moog/Eric Satie LP from the 70's, I wonder if it is related? Pretty sure it's not quad though?

Here is the discogs entry:

https://www.discogs.com/release/201...-The-Music-Of-Eric-Satie-The-Velvet-Gentleman

 

[Electric Moo]

Well according to that, it is! Same ensemble, at least

 

[humprof]

Well according to that, it is! Same ensemble, at least

Indeed. I learned from WFMU's venerable "Beware of the Blog" that there were three albums altogether. Here's the third:
https://www.discogs.com/master/3529...The-Music-Of-Erik-Satie-Through-A-Looking-Gla

 

[zobalob]

I used to own that, as well as the one mentioned by Electric Moo '...The Velvet Gentleman...', also by the Camarata Chamber Group. Both were fun, imaginative reworkings of a good cross section of Satie's music never straying from the notation of the actual pieces. Neither have been released on CD let alone Quad and if a Quad mix was indeed prepared then left unreleased then that's a shame...travesty even. The recordings stay within the intention of the composer, sometimes sombre, often graceful, sometimes humorous, very much a tribute to his music. Satie's music (along with his eccentric persona) was having a bit of a renaissance at the end of the sixties into the seventies and these albums were part of that.

I do however have doubts that Satie himself would have credited anyone at all regarding these recordings (as stated by steelydave) given that the man died in 1925. Nice thought though and I'm sure Satie would have dearly loved the idea of his returning from the grave :>)

 

[humprof]

I do however have doubts that Satie himself would have credited anyone at all regarding these recordings (as stated by steelydave) given that the man died in 1925. Nice thought though and I'm sure Satie would have dearly loved the idea of his returning from the grave :>)

I think somebody was having a bit of fun, channeling the voice of Satie's "electronic spirit." The note reads:

I wish to express my special thanks and admiration to Monsieur William L. Robinson, Chef d'Engineer, Sunset Sound Studios, Hollywood, California, for his valuable technical assistance, along with the many arduous hours he put in on my behalf in the study of Yoga and other Transcendental mediums used to communicate with me during the reduction of his album.​

​

Metaphysically yours,
ERIK SATIE
Sept. 1972​