Listen to selected tracks from ‘Contemporary Sounds And Movements Vol 1’ by The Sammy Burdson Group (Sonoton Recorded Music Library, SON 104, Germany).

I picked this shiny little beast up in my local record shop for a fiver, which was nice, as these things rarely turn up in the real world of an actual retail setting. It’s all online, innit?

Percussive and electronic, sparse and bathed in a bleak blanket of echo, this German library LP from Gerhard Narholz’s Munich label Sonoton hails from an era that I generally avoid. My fear is that library records from the late 1970s and 1980s will turn out to be horrible affairs that resemble the worst of the electronic synth pop of the time, minus the vocals. On the strength of this recording however, maybe I should stick my neck out a little more. At least as far as Vol 2 anyway.

Listen to ‘Here and Now 1’ by Lesiman (Vedette, VSM 38559, Italy, 1973).

Ok, yes, I’m showing off a bit here, but after a long quest I have finally acquired the first volume of Paolo Renosto’s breathtaking two part library classic that he recorded for Vedette records under the pseudonym Lesiman, and I’m chuffed to bits. 

Press ‘play’ and hear for yourself how Renosto creates an edgy, sinister soundscape of hypnotic grooves, shot through with deep, intense repetitive melodic patterns played on pianos, organs, harpsichords and no doubt a few other keyboard instruments that I’ve failed to notice.

I don’t claim by any means to have an exhaustive collection, or knowledge of library music, but along with this record’s companion, ‘Here and Now 2’ (see August 2010), it sounds unique.