News

Sacred Bones to release 3 Mort Garson reissues & a previously unreleased compilation

• 26th Aug 2020

Today Sacred Bones have announced a series of reissues, bringing back three fascinating records from the Mort Garson back-catalogue back into print. ‘Didn’t You Hear OST’, Lucifer’s ‘Black Mass’ and Ataraxia’s ‘The Unexplained’. As well as this Sacred Bones will release Mort Garson’s ‘Music From Patch Cord Productions‘, unveiling a new compilation of rare and unreleased music. All four records will be released on November 6th.

Morton S. “Mort” Garson was a Canadian-born composer, arranger, songwriter, and pioneer of electronic music, known for his albums in the 1960s and 1970s that were among the first to feature Moog synthesizers. His best-known album is ‘Mother Earth’s Plantasia’, a 1976 Moog album designed to be played “for plants and the people who love them.” Sacred Bones Records has undertaken the project of giving official, licensed reissues to key releases from Mort Garson’s catalog, with the intention of bringing these bold masterpieces to a 21st century audience.

More information on the four records can be found below. To accompany the announcement, Sacred Bones have shared the track “This Is My Beloved“ from the ‘Music From Patch Cord Productions’ collection.

Mort Garson – ‘Music From Patch Cord Productions’
A collection of rare and unreleased recordings from the archives of electronic music pioneer Mort Garson. The compilation plays like an ultimate Mort Garson playlist, and includes alternate takes of Plantasia tracks, music for never-aired radio advertisements, themes for science fiction films, erotic oddities, and much more from the prolific composer’s ’60s and ’70s synthesizer oeuvre. This deluxe edition includes new liner notes by Andy Beta (Pitchfork). Pre-order here.

Mort Garson – ‘Didn’t You Hear’ Original Soundtrack
Six years before the release of his landmark Mother Earth’s Plantasia LP, Mort Garson met experimental film director Skip Sherwood, who was interested in an electronic score for his new movie, Didn’t You Hear?While not much is known now about the exact nature of their collaboration, we have Garson’s magnificent score as a record of those heady, early days after his life-changing discovery of the Moog synthesizer. Notable for being one of the earliest screen appearances by a young Gary Busey, Didn’t You Hear? also boasts one of the first-ever all-electronic movie scores. Though the score was first released in 1970, it sounds as adventurous and futuristic today as it must have then. 

Originally available only in the lobby of the theater at screenings of the movie in Seattle, the soundtrack LP went out of print shortly after the film’s release. It has been a sought-after record for collectors of Mort Garson and early electronic music ever since.  Sacred Bones is honored to reissue Didn’t You Hear?as it was meant to be heard, taken from the original master tapes and given a pristine remaster by engineer Josh Bonati. Pre-order here.

Lucifer – ‘Black Mass’
Black Mass is an album of supernatural electronics. Originally released in 1971, it’s Mort Garson’s only release under the Lucifer moniker, and it taps into a profound darkness that may surprise fans of his sunnier work. These songs are Garson’s synthesizer interpretations of occult and esoteric phenomena ranging from the Satanic black mass, to exorcism, to witchcraft, and beyond, and they’ve inspired artists from Coil to Oneohtrix Point Never. This deluxe remastered edition presents the album in full with all original liner notes. Pre-order here.

Ataraxia – ‘The Unexplained’
Mort Garson takes on supernatural phenomena with lush synth grooves on The Unexplained, his only release under the name Ataraxia. Subtitled Electronic Musical Impressions of the Occult, the prolific composer explores tarot, astral projection, seances, and more with his signature Moog synthesizer. This remastered edition marks the first official reissue of the album since its initial 1975 release. Pre-order here.

Praise for Mort Garson’s ‘Mother Earth’s Plantasia’ (reissued by Sacred Bones in 2019):
“So otherworldly that it transcends any easy trappings.” – The Telegraph
“‘Plantasia’ is both crazy and wonderful… stranger than fiction.” – Dazed
“This long sought after 1976 LP utilizes the trills, parts and hums of pre-digital modular synthesizer to walk the circuit board between easy listening and ambient weirdness. Definitely fecund.” – Q
“‘Mother Earth’s Plantasia’ is full of charming synthesised arpeggios and dreamy bucolic melodies.” – Electronic Sound
“Whether or not the plants ever dug it is up for debate, but Garson’s work still carries an engulfing curiosity to it in 2019.”– Long Live Vinyl
“Repotted into the pop landscape of 2019, ‘Plantasia’ gleams and thrives, itself a flower revived. ” – Loud & Quiet
“‘Plantasia’ beguiles from start to finish. It’s an oddly whimsical place of electronic music, worth hearing regardless of your botanical interests…” – The Wire
“‘Mother Earth’s Plantasia’ is an unqualified charmer, thanks to Garson’s skill in translating sophisticated orchestral themes into a simpler electronic expression and at least stimulating emotion even though his subject was so singularly abstract.” – Uncut