MOTM

>>>>I seem to recall that Ligeti tried to take legal action against Kubrick
for the way his pieces were cut up and used (all without his permission?).

I hadn't heard about that. I think Kubrick licensed the recordings from
_Deutsche Grammaphone_, which legally, I think, is all he'd need. Ligeti
shouldn't complain---a lot of people (myself included) were exposed to his
work because of 2001 that otherwise might never have been.


>>>>And Hitchcock with Hermann for Torn Curtain(?). And didn't something
like this happen with Apocalypse Now too?

Yeah, the Torn Curtain soundtrack story is a real classic.



I would *love* to find a copy of the Subotnick/Aniara 2001 recording, CD
vinyl or whatever.

Aniara is an actual space opera (not the way the term is normally used).
It's based on a book-length epic poem about a huge space ark that gets
nudged off its course by a meteor shower. It takes place over 20 years as
society breaks down on the ship, and resources dwindle away.

The music in the opera is very "20th century" orchestral with little
sprinkles of jazz (at least, Jazz interpreted by a 20th century orchestra
through a Swedish filter). There are also three _musique concrete_ pieces in
it. I have [what appears to be] a rare CD recording of it from the early
80s. An opera director from Australia recently saw my Amazon review of the
book and wrote me about the opera. Then he went on a huge search for it and
couldn't find a single recorded copy---he even contacted the Swedish company
that released my discs and they said that the masters were damaged coming
back from London where the CDs were pressed, so that's *it* for Aniara on
disc unless someone re-stages the opera and records it. (Maybe this
Australian opera director...?)

The instrumental excerpts on that 2001 album was a *very* nice suite from
this work.



>>>>I know you mentioned this [Andromeda Strain soundtrack], but tell me
more.

One of my many quests was to get a copy of the Andromeda Strain soundtrack,
extremely rare. Only promo copies were pressed when the movie came out on
hexagonal vinyl! Needless to say, it destroyed a lot of turntables, and was
recalled. I finally found one _absolutely beat to death_ copy (I mean, who's
_playing_ this stuff?) at a local radio station... borrowed it, digitized
it, photographed and scanned what was left of the cover and disc, and
returned it.

Then I spent about 150 hours in Diamond Cut 32 trying to restore it. What a
nightmare. There was so much surface noise that, when I removed it, there
wasn't much musical material left! So now it's listenable but has a fine
sheen of distortion to it. It will have to do until I locate a better copy.
I'm also keeping the un-restored files just in case better filters come
along.

The soundtrack by Gil Melle (who claims it's the first ever electronic
soundtrack...don't think so) is only about 26 minutes long, eight cuts, but
is very cool. Very aggressive percussive electronic sounds and _musique
concrete_ techniques.