Jim Fassett - Strange To Your Ears

01 - Strange To Your Ears Pt 1.mp3
02 - Strange To Your Ears Pt 2.mp3
03 - Strange To Your Ears Pt 3.mp3
04 - Strange To Your Ears Pt 4.mp3
05 - Strange To Your Ears Pt 5 [Quiz].mp3

Here's a little slice of audio experimentalism from the 1950's. Jim Fassett was a musical director for CBS Radio in New York City, and in his spare time (using the equipment available to him) began to mess with common every day sounds by altering their pitch dramatically. Magnetic tape was a relatively new media, and it allowed Fassett to conduct mad audio science that was previously impossible. Even with the more malleable format, the work was painstaking and utilized up to three tape machines to do even the most simple reworkings. Much of this work involved using the two speeds of tape machine, one twice as fast as the other. He introduced an intermission program, entitled Strange To Your Ears, that was played during Sunday broadcasts of the New York Philharmonic.

This is the album form of some of his audio wizardry. Trust me when I tell you that this had to have sounded really otherworldly at the time. We've all heard things backwards and sped up and run through effects, in fact most of us can do it ourselves on our computer. But 50 odd years ago, this was some pretty weird shit. Guided by Fassett's calm and dignified voice, this commercial venture into concrete music is still an interesting listen.


24,82 Mb