Wendy Carlos

Does anyone have any idea when her/his back catalouge will be back in print. Those ESD editions about 20 years ago were the bomb, but, you'd think they'd be available again if not remastered 2 channel but in a higher resolution. Has anyone heard anything? Or, as to why the ESD's fell into oblivion so quick?

 

Hmmm - the website http://www.wendycarlos.com has not been updated since March 2009, but it does indicate:

Note: Due to major changes in the music business, we unexpectedly lost our ESD distrubution, leaving us stranded with few good options. On top of two other critical business issues not yet fully resolved, time for updating this website became severely limited. We expect to have news on a new set of releases of Wendy's albums, plus a return to regular additions on the site as soon as possible. Thank you for your many concerned inquiries and patience, good friends.

 

It's a shame that the only Carlos material you can get on CD is the Clockwork Orange and Tron SDTK's.

 

You can only get the Switched on Bach albums at very high prices. Bizarre. They should be the ones to easily get. Music historians will look back on all of those early electronic albums from the likes of Wendy Carlos, David Vorhaus and Kazdin and Shepard ... and recognise what an important, unique and fleeting moment that was in music history. They were very special. I have always regretted Wendy Carlos was not allowed the time to complete her work for Clockwork Orange. If she had, the film soundtrack would have exclusively promoted her work and may have given her further major label opportunities to progress her electronic ideas.

 

I've commented on this before, too.

I've even bought 2 copies of the Switched on Bach LP, but both (looked ok) are noisy

 

The LPs are high priced? I've seen them around for years fairly cheap. Had I known.

 

I'd love to see Clockwork Orange & Switched on Bach re-issued in Quad on BluRay

 

The Switched On Bach LP is a fairly common sight in dollar or fifty cent bins. For her other albums you'll need to be a bit luckier to find them.

 

I've said it once, I'll say it 100 times...Sonic Seasonings needs to be in back in print!

 

Agreed. I'm so glad I got this when the ESD CD came out. The LP was already hard to find then, and it's an incredible album. 20 years ahead of its time.

Carlos will always be remembered for S-O-B, but she's done two other albums that are equally groundbreaking and important: Sonic Seasonings (first ambient album that I know of) and Beauty In The Beast (first electronic album to really explore microtonality).

 

All I have is the TRON cd.

I feel bad for her.

 

Yeah, sorry. The CDs are expensive.

 

Her LPs used to be thrift store staples. That has changed since the non-availability of the CDs.

I always wanted a CD of the Clockwork Orange score album combined with Clockwork Orange complete album. Not sure when that will happen.

 

Jeez, I found the old Columbia Masterworks CD of Switched-On Bach but haven't found Tron yet. And so the search continues....

But yeah, feel bad for Wendy. Not just in terms of the lost sales, but sadly in the lost legacy. I doubt very few people under 40 know about her work. Almost like the DC5, but for very different reasons.

 

I have the Columbia Masterworks CD of Switched-On Bach and had no idea copies were now so hard to come by. Glad I have it. That's a real piece of history that should not be out of print.

 

nah, the switched-ons can still be had dirt cheap

 

True, but getting a copy that sounds good is a challenge. I found a few that looked decent but didn't play so well. Thank Gawd that I happened upon the CD one day at my friendly neighborhood record shop. It truly is a crime that this piece of history is so long OOP and tough to find. I mean come on, it was released on Columbia, not some fly-by-night label.

Off-topic, but another important Columbia album from around the same time I would love to see released on CD is Conlon Nancoarrow - Studies For Player Piano.

 

I see literally dozens and dozens of the Switched-On records and a large number of The Well-Tempered Synthesizer in stores in the New York, all of which are cheap and you'll definitely find a good one in the bunch. The Princeton Record Exchange always has a ton of those first couple of Walter Carlos albums. The Carlos Clockwork Orange and Sonic Seasonings are not nearly as commonplace.

 

Try Amazon marketplace from a used seller. Also try eBay. Before committing to a purchase from any of these sites, contact the seller first to make sure it's the factory pressed CD and not the CD-R version. Unfortunately the in print version sold on Amazon is a CD-R.

 

I've got 2 of those $1 copies. Was the original issue just bad, or did everyone who has a good one keep it?

 

Or perhaps due to the innovative, modern sound of this album when it was new, fewer of the museum-curator-classical-music-pamper-their-LP types, and more of the spin-it-often-teens-and-twentysomethings-wasn't-A-Clockwork-Orange-groovy crowd purchased it?

 

I have a decent copy, I'd have to pull it out to give you a grading, but very suitable for collectibility and making a very good tape of it. The point being is, yes, there seems to be some anomolies with it, especially with the first pressing.

 

Heads up Carlos fans!

Looks like Switched-On Bach is getting a CD reissue this spring:

http://www.amazon.com/Switched--Bac...d=1424665595&sr=1-4&keywords=Switched-On+Bach

As you can see, there are very little details as far as record label and country of origin. Also, the artwork is the alternate "constipated" cover. If this is legit, it will be a good thing for those who didn't get it when it was in print. The price for this CD is still high for the deleted ESD version. The old Masterworks CD is still somewhat inflated in price but obtainable.

 

can you say EU?
Just wonder where WC is hiding. Someone is paying for that web site.

 

Thanks for the update.