An intensely regal, British affair consisting of ten tracks of modular synthesizer pomp and circumstance, orchestrated and performed by UK artist, William Simkin as Nikmis. The immediate impression of this release is that of its reverence to forebears such as Wendy Carlos, Delia Derbyshire and also that of Rick Wakeman (even in his less-than-finer moments) and Hammond organ maestros like Keith Emerson. In fact, “10 Movements for Large Synthesizer (1909) drips with the sort of classical Anglo-ostentatiousness found in the records of the two latter musicians, while foregoing any rock n’ roll sympathies altogether and staying strictly within the hedgerows of baroque music. To be clear, Switched on Bach this is not. It is Scarlatti and Pachelbel by way of Bruce Haack and Suzanne Ciani. This is analog fanfare, music for court of an electric crown, a post-modern example of renaissance music, with its fugues, sonatas and toccatas portrayed not through brass and wood instrumentation but through circuitry and controlled voltage.
Written by GRKMYTH
Purchase / Listen: Nikmis – 10 Movements For Large Synthesizer (1909)
Joyful Union Cassette Resource 