Vladimir Ussachevsky - Film Music (1990)

Born an ethnic Russian and citizen thereof in Manchuria way back in 1911, Vladimir Ussachevsky arrived in the United States in 1930. There he eventually joined the faculty of Columbia University. An intellectual who was along with contemporaries like Germany's Karlheinz Stockhausen and France's Pierre Schaeffer amongst many others began exploration into electronic music long before the mainstream ever got wind or even Detroit's early techno acts. The music he made is avant-garde in ever sense of the concept. Listening like a sound collage, very abstract and strange in composition. There's everything from organs to laugh tracks to pounding drums with insanely difficult to describe electronic noises interwoven between and with it all. At moments it can be downright creepy, but never it is uninteresting. I believe it is meant to be heard as two long pieces but this is broken up into parts of 6 and 7 for each piece. If you like the Stockhausen this is right up your alley, if you didn't get it, then this is just as good to begin with. This is far too overlooked a genre, and to just imagine professor Ussachevsky with his starch white shirt and neat neck tie producing it gives me joys.

To be had here:
Vladimir Ussachevsky - Film Music