The Zodiac • Cosmic Sounds: celestial counterpoint with words and music (Elektra, 1967)

When asked what sign am born under, often I find myself at a loss for explanation. Does the asker mean here on Earth, and even then, what dimensional version of earth. Simple questions are often as vexing as mandible reconstruction...but as society grows more venial, what people are now interested when it comes to personal secrets are how many electric appliances you command, or where on your body are the debt markers are. To think 40 years ago what most interested people was your Sun and Moon signs. An inexact science would get you in a conversation, and soon enough a Mer Goat would be copulating wildly with a Scale. If they were lucky you could have a pair of twins join you, or at least a pair of twin fish...It was in these times, when Cosmic Sounds: celestial counterpoint with words and music came from.

Sonorous spoken word by Cyrus Faryar, who clearly was taking acting lessons from William Shatner, velvetly drapes one of the better marriages of Moog and Psychedelia. This is the music one thinks of when an AIP movie comes to mind. Fuzzy optic shots of nubile ladies, their bodies painted with all forms of archaic symbols, Big Sur's waves crashing behind them.

Don't try to make sense out of what he's saying, on inspection the faux haiku's fall apart, but anything with substance would have weighed down the music.

The compositions are by Mort Garson, who would do other Occult themed electronic music LP's, but they tend to just be him alone and lack the fleshed out sonics of the Cosmic Sounds LP. Providing the mini orchestra here are some of the Wrecking Crew, Gene Estes, Paul Beaver, and on guitar someone (uncredited) who sounds amazingly like Frank Zappa. The guitar solo to Cancer - The Moon Child, is a near match for Zolar Czakl from Uncle Meat. More of that distinctive way of playing shows up on Sagittarius - The Versatile Daredevil.

With all of these ingredients you have the makings of one somehow forgotten classic. There were many zodiac LP's in the sixties and seventies, but this has the ring of being crafted by people who were trying for something new.

Mort Garson died in January 2008, and this LP was reissued in 2002. I hope that in the time between the reissue and his passing, he had got some recognition for broadening the palate of electronic music.

Please click on the review title for selected track: Cancer - The MoonChild