This an album from a couple of guys I have never heard before, which is all the more strange considering how good it is. It was our newly joined member Jeff Knapp whom first told me of the album and after a bit of searching around I found a copy for sale online in Belgium, this is quite a rare record so it was a good find.
Produced 1977 it is two major works by Tchaikovsky, the 1812 overture and the nutcracker suite. The pair behind it were called Jack Kraft and Larry Alexander, Jack was the keyboard player and Larry the sound engineer, both of them programmed the sounds on the ARP synths. Riding on the backs of the good sales of both Wendy Carlos and Tomita it was the only album they recorded together in this style and was marketed though Decca. After seeing the popularity of Tomita and Carlos, it seemed that every record label wanted their own versions, the demand for this style dried up in the 80′s, which is a shame because Kraft and Alexander created a very good recording, it would have been nice to hear more work from them.
It was created on all an all ARP setup comprising of and ARP 2600, Odyssey and Prosoloist and were one of the few people to create a sound which equalled or even in parts exceeded sound that Tomita did in it depth and detail. On the back cover they state that up 200 tracks where used to create the dense yet detailed sound scape.
Below are some examples from the album.
Expect from 1812 overture.
Excerpt from Nutcracker Suite.
