Mix: Soothing Sounds for J.

My first child J. was born this spring. To celebrate his 5 months birthday, here's a little mix to soothe the young and old folks.

With some Brazil bliss, Kraut Kitsch, Back-to-the-land romance, a Library Lullaby, greetings from the New Age, falsettos from the beach (J. loves when I sing along) and a healthy dose of sweet Morr Music from around the Millenium.

Listen on Mixcloud or download here.

Soothing Sounds for J. - Dispokino Mix October 2014 by Dispokino on Mixcloud

Tracklist:

F.S. Blumm - Schneeglocke

Raymond Scott - Music Box

B. Fleischmann - Drops

The Beach Boys - Surfer Girl

Michael Rother - KM3

João Gilberto - Undiú

Vashti Bunyan - Window Over the Bay

Jim Lawless - Vibes Lullaby

Laurie Spiegel - Appalachian Grove

Laraji - Essence (excerpt)

Isan - Clipper

Mort Garson - Rhapsody in Green

Simulations Publications Inc.

I saw this game in an exhibition about the postapocalyptic and Tarkovsky's Stalker at the Maison d'Ailleurs, the excellent Swiss Science Fiction Museum/Library. Trying to find out more about the game, I discovered the wonderful world of board game geeks, who provide tons of material, e.g. about Simulations Publications Inc., the company behind said game.

"Founded by Jim Dunnigan in 1969, SPI was a publisher of board wargames during the 1970s and early 1980s, when it went bankrupt. SPI also published several magazines, including Strategy & Tactics, Moves and Ares"

All images found on boardgamegeek.com and tacticalwargamer.com. Thanks, board game enthusiasts!
The design of these magazines and some of the titles remind me of library records.

"Early SPI photo from Jim Dunnigan who has licensed this under Creative Commons with permission granted to use except for money-making and commercial purposes. The late game designer John Young is in the middle with a cigarette underneath the poster."

"Early SPI photo from Jim Dunnigan who has licensed this under Creative Commons with permission granted to use except for money-making and commercial purposes. (Unknown person, Dunnigan, Simonsen, John Young, and Marie Fredericks, a graphic artist.)"

Hooray For Reading

Hooray For Reading was a "series of ten, minute-long shorts created by Field Communications for children. These would air during the commercial breaks on kid's shows and cartoons. These featured kids briefly doing some other activity besides reading (the "hook") and then describing a book they like using a brief dramatization of a part in the story."
I found these in the Museum of Classic Chicago TV on FuzzyMemories.tv, an enormous collaborative archive of off-air recordings of American television.
Here are my favorites from Hooray For Reading:

Hooray for Reading - "Life on a Plastic Planet?" (#7, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - 'Then Again, Maybe I Won't' (#4, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - "The Accident" (#5, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - "The Glad Man" (#1, 1979)

Hooray for Reading - "The TV Kid" (#6, 1979)

WFLD Channel 32 - Hooray For Reading Special (Promo, 1980)

Mix: Sculptural Macramé

Here's an autumn mix for you. Questions and comments welcome as usual.

Download here.
Or listen on Mixcloud.

Sculptural Macramé - Dispokino mix October 2013 by Dispokino on Mixcloud

Bruno Spoerri - Music for Chinde verzelled 's Märli vom Geischt im Glas
Roj - Ludwig's Children
René Eespere - Okasroosike
Vashti Bunyan - Love Song
plastic moonrise - The Rapid Rain
Fred Jordan, Aston Munslow, Shropshire - Lady Isabel and the Elf Knight
Vote Robot - eo_xugod_
Frédéric Chanu - Prends le temps d'écouter
Pierre van Hauwe - Bolero
Tod Dockstader - Pond Dance
Les Baxter's Orchestra - The Left Arm of Buddha
Sais Salah Ahmed, Dahir Cali Jimale, Khaliif Osman Cabdi - Umuliso
Gábor Presser - Indulás a koncertre
Tündérkaszinó - A part alatt
Die Welttraumforscher - This Could Be the Greatest Love in Town
Brenda Ray - The Scream
Solfeggio Tones - Solfeggio 396 417 528 639

The Bruno Spoerri track is the intro for a Swiss fairy tale record. The René Eespere song comes from the fantastic Estonian Teeme Muusikat series I got to know through several posts on toys and techniques. All tracks come from vinyl records except the wonderful electronic poems of Catherine Norris (plastic moonrise) and the mathematic melodies of Solfeggio Tones which I found on Soundcloud. Frédéric Chanu's Prends le temps d'écouter was made in a Freinet school. Tom Gagnaire from the Shapes and Colors blog had the wonderfully insane idea to make a reissue of this 7" of music composed and played by children. Well, since you read this blog you probably don't find the idea insane at all and you should order the record through the Tona Serenad label. There's more to come, I'll keep you posted. While you're at it, you should also order the Welttraumforscher's This Could Be the Greatest Love in Town (originally released on cassette in 1987) on 7" that was recently released in the context of the Welttraumforscher retrospective and book I organised.

waves

I'm heading to the beach - see you in August! E.g. in Geneva on August the 3rd at the Pre Mos Espa minifestival where I have the pleasure to play some records in the enchanted garden of an old mansion I think, apparently playing "ethno ambient". I hope I'm gonna be able to bring you a recording as a souvenir.
Picture: Don Weller ca. 1978, "from a desk agenda of the Graphic Process Co., "a Slice of Los Angeles". Scanned from graphis annual 79/80

Spinning & Dyeing the Natural Way

new games

Andrew Fluegelman / Shoshana Tembeck, new games, die neuen spiele, Ahorn Verlag, Pittenhart-Oberbrunn 1979 (original: The New Games Book, Headlands Press, San Francisco 1976)

Previously featured here from the same publishing house: Maskenspiel part I and part II.