THE WOZARD OF IZ AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY - A&M SP 4156 ('68 LP - STILL IN SHRINK)

$

42

MORT GARSON  -  THE WOZARD OF IZ: AN ELECTRONIC ODYSSEY  -  A&M SP 4156 (1968)
Canadian arranger Mort Garson, a graduate from the Juilliard School, began writing musical scores in the 1940s.  During the 1960s he worked for several pop singers and wrote one hit of his own, "Our Day Will Come".  When the psychedelic fad struck California, Garson (born in 1924) was already in his middle-age years, but he decided to make an album of truly unusual music: "Zodiac Cosmic Sounds" (Elektra, 1967).  The twelve "songs" compose a suite on the twelve signs of the zodiac and are accompanied by Paul Beaver on electronic keyboards, including the Moog synthesizer.  That same year Garson wrote and arranged another little masterpiece, the single credited to the Big Game Hunters.  "Electronic Hair Pieces" (A&M, 1969) used the Moog to arrange some pop hits.  However, his electronic masterpiece is "The Wozard Of Iz" (A&M, 1968), that sets to (Moog) music a socio-political satire built around the children's classic (Bernie Krause on "environmental sounds" and Nancy Sinatra as a co-narrator).
His passion for the Moog took him to compose entire albums of music for each zodiacal signs, that predate new-age music by a decade:" Signs of the Zodiac: Aries" (A&M 4211), "Signs of the Zodiac: Virgo" (A&M SP 4212), "Signs of the Zodiac: Gemini" (A&M SP 4213), "Signs of the Zodiac: Leo" (A&M SP 4215), "Signs of the Zodiac: Scorpio" (A&M SP 4218), "Signs of the Zodiac: Sagittarius" (A&M SP 4219), "Signs of the Zodiac: Aquarius" (A&M SP 4221), "Signs of the Zodiac: Pisces" (A&M SP 4222).
Another masterpiece was "Lucifer - Black Mass" (United Artists, 1971), an exoteric opera along the lines of "Aphrodite Child's 666". This has, probably, his wildest hodgepodge of electronic sounds.
Garson composed music for Moog and orgasmic moans by a porno star, "Music for Sensuous Lovers" (Sensuous Anthem, 1971), music to relax during meditation, "Ataraxia - The Unexplained" (RCA, 1975), and music to make plants grow faster, "Plantasia" (Homewood, 1976).
Mort Garson ranks as one of the real geniuses of 20th century music.