Mesias Maiguashca - Oeldorf 8 [Karlrecords 081]

The next one to be released, or better: re-released, via Karlrecords on October 25th, 2k20 is "Oeldorf 8 - for magnetic tape and four", the 1976 debut album by Ecuadorian and at the time Oeldorf-based electroacoustic composer Mesias Maiguashca. Studying alongside and working with the famed Karlheinz Stockhausen throughout the late 60s and early 70s as well as being a member of the so-called Oeldorf Group his album debut, which as a piece was premiered two years prior to release at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse, consists of ten pieces for a quartet of instrumentalists and magnetic tape with specific stage and performance instructions. Introduced by an extended Spoken Work section in which Mesias Maiguashca reflects on his work solo as well with and within the Oeldorf Group the ten pieces are presented as a continuous flow of sonic events, overlapping and interfering with eachother, slowly growing over the artists very own voice in various layers of swirls, bleeps and other well recognizable forms of early electroacoustic composition techniques before making way for enchanted sections and sequences of (Neo)Classical explorations providing room for violin, clarinet, violoncello and electronic organ to shine in a beautiful, oftentimes minimalist manner with corresponding phrases and harmonic interactions both lively as well as subtle and slow moving, go along with the underlying experimental baseline provided by the magnetic tape, culminate in a shrieking, droning crescendo shortly after minute 30+ before finally embracing the limited, yet highly thrilling and captivating possibilities of electronic sound creation of this era to create a fascinatingly (time)warped, still somewhat futuristic sonic realm screaming SCI-FI in - now retrofuturist, ofc - capitals before slowly, and calmly, fading out for a closing and - once again - Spoken Word credits. An essential piece of early electronic music history. Get.

Album artwork on Instagram!