Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes 1967-75 (Previously Unreleased Electronic Music from Original Mother of Invention Keyboardist)

The eclectic Belgian imprint Sub Rosa has helped unearth the twisted midcentury roots of electronic music through a series of impeccably curated reissues. Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes collects previously unreleased electronic experiments by Mothers of Invention keyboardist Don Preston. Although Preston benefited from formal musical training, his compositions here seem more deeply informed by his background as a jazz sideman for the likes of Yusef Lateef and Charlie Haden. This album’s clear centerpiece is the 15-minute “Electronic Music,” an expansive Moog odyssey recorded in 1967 that evokes the raw menace of Stockhausen’s early electronic experiments while retaining a feel of improvisatory openness entirely at odds with that composer’s highly structured serialism. The remainder of Filters, Oscillators & Envelopes collects material from Preston’s 1975 project Analog Heaven and his long-form early-‘80s composition “Fred & Me”; these should prove equally interesting to fans of early electronic music.