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Prisms

Last year someone donated a carefully-curated collection of vinyl to my local charity shop, including a variety of '70s and early '80s electronica, much of it obscure enough that I'd never heard of the artists before. There was some new-age stuff, Moog-based compilations, numerous LPs by Kitarō and Tomita, etc. Given the music involved, I'd not be surprised if there had also been Tangerine Dream and Jean-Michel Jarre albums that had been snapped up before I got to see what was left over.

I must have bought eight or nine of those albums in all, and found about half of them to my liking, donating the remainder back to the same shop. Among the successes was Prisms, by Michael Garrison, a 1981 release, the artist's second. Garrison, it seemed, had been a great admirer of "Berlin School" electronica, but, hailing from Oregon rather than Central Europe, he was very far removed from the action. In isolation, he nevertheless acquired a variety of synthesizer equipment and began making music of his own. Garrison achieved some measure of success & recognition over his 11-album career, but in later years he was badly afflicted by alcoholism, and died of liver failure aged only 47.

Prisms is a delight: It strikes me as a suite in which each piece makes a part of a larger whole. The prevailing mood is propulsive and melodic, but there are slower, more atmospheric tracks too. Although there are common recurring characteristics between the pieces (all of them instrumental), the repetition comes across more as positive reinforcement than a tiresome lack of ideas. My copy is the German pressing on the Ariola label. It had initially been issued on Garrison's own Windspell imprint. I also picked up Garrison's 1986 album Images from the same charity shop cache.

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