Montag, November 07, 2005

Russ Garcia - Fantastica (1959)



Russ Garcia´s "Fantastica" from the year 1959 is a bold and spectacular musical journey for serious armchair-adventurers. Garcia masterfully composed and conducted this musical suite depicting "fascinating, exciting sounds from other planets". His unique ensemble omits violins and includes woodwinds, trombones, a harp, percussion and "electronic devices and effects created by Ted Keep, Liberty's chief engineer".

As Ken Saari says it in his review on Jeff Central: "The flutes sometimes flutter furiously, as in "Nova (Exploding Star)," to great effect. Occasionally, there are electronic beep-like sounds as on the pieces "Lost Souls of Saturn" and "Water Creatures of Astra." "The Monsters of Jupiter" paints a vivid, bone-chilling picture that begins with a fast-clicking sound panning back and forth between the stereo channels, and then bold trombones create an aura of impending danger. Strange electronic sounds follow, including a high-low-high frequency sinusoidal sound, and then kettledrums indicate the approaching footsteps of these leviathan beasts. The cover of this amazing album features a great Spiro graph and an Earth-like globe in space, with the title "Fantastica" emblazoned in comet-like lettering at the top. Without a doubt, this is one of the very best outer space records ever made." Have fun on your trip through space...

8 Kommentare:

X Esquire hat gesagt…

I have this album and simply love it. This is a must have for any Sci-Fi music fan. Good pick.

Anonym hat gesagt…

Blimey! Who needs a Million Dollar ride in a crummy, rusty Russian rocketship when there's "Fantastica" to listen to on Earth!

This one really makes me feel at home :-)

Thanks, Pinicchio.

Anonym hat gesagt…

Thanks, Pinicchio!
I've always wondered what this album was like.
I'm puttering about with a role-plying game set in an alternate world where silver rockets with fins and wheel space-stations are the order of the day and I may actually use some of this as background music for gaming.

Anonym hat gesagt…

Hi, Pinicchio! Congratulations for the page, it's on my top favourites. Been looking for "Fantastica" for some time, but it seems I've discovered your blog a bit too late... Any chance of re-posting it? Thanks!

Anonym hat gesagt…

( ´・ω・`)Always thank you. However,
please!Please up-load this again ....!!

Anonym hat gesagt…

I've been searching for this album for a long time with no luck - any chance of reposting? Please?

Mongoflo hat gesagt…

you better upload this, or else...
Ne ohne Scheiß ich brauch diese Platte!

Roman hat gesagt…

Die Platte gibt's bei Amazon.com als mp3-Download für nur 9,95 Dollar. Das sind wohl so 7,50 Euro...