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Elpmas

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Elpmas
Studio album by
Released1992 (1992)
StudioAcademy of St. Martin's in the Streets
Genre
Label
  • Kopf
  • Managarm Musikverlag
Producer
  • Moondog
  • Andi Toma

Elpmas is an album by the American composer and musician Moondog, released in 1992 via Kopf.[1]

Background and recording

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Elpmas was recorded at Academy of St. Martin's in the Streets, a studio in Germany owned by Andi Toma.[1] The album's title is the word "sample" read backwards; it was the first time Moondog used sampling in his music.[2]

Reception

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Der Spiegel wrote that the music on Elpmas lies between folk music and minimal music and called it pleasant.[2] "Blue" Gene Tyranny of AllMusic described it as a "wonderful CD built from environmental sounds, gently rocking marimbas, lovely counterpoint for winds, foot-taping rhythms, and sweetly sung wisdom from a chorus".[3] Moondog's biographer Robert Scotto called it "the strangest of his German productions and in many ways the most like his earliest New York albums".[1] He wrote that it primarily appealed to those who appreciated Moondog's eclectic side and propensity to move his music into new phases and that it confused those who expected a unified expression. He called it "a little too much over the edge perhaps".[1]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Moondog

Side one
No.TitleLength
1."Wind River Powwow"7:11
2."Westward Ho!"6:00
3."Suite Equestria (Trail Versus Road and Trail)"7:14
4."Marimba Mondo 1: The Rain Forest"5:33
5."Fujiyama 1 (instr.)"4:43
6."Marimba Mondo 2: Seascape of the Whales"5:51
7."Fujiyama 2 (Lovesong)"5:01
8."Bird of Paradise"2:40
9."The Message (a cappella male chorus)"1:01
10."Introduction and Overtone Continuum"2:25
11."Cosmic Meditation"24:10

Personnel

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  • Henry Schuman – oboe
  • Peter Wendland – violone, viol
  • Johannes Leis – piccolo, saxophone (alto, tenor, bass)
  • Götz Alsmann – banjo
  • Andi Toma – vocals, whistling
  • Akbar Huck – vocals
  • Max Alsmann – vocals
  • Nobuko Sugai – recitation
  • Moondog – keyboards, percussion

References

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Citations

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Sources

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  • Tyranny, "Blue" Gene. "Elpmas". AllMusic. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  • Scotto, Robert (2013) [2007]. Moondog: The Viking of 6th Avenue, Revised Edition. Port Townsend, Washington: Process Media. ISBN 978-1-934170-41-0.
  • Der Spiegel (9 March 1992). "Tippelbruder im Geiste" (in German). Retrieved 15 December 2020.