A New Sound Of An Old Instrument - Moondog (1979)
There might not be a more interesting and unique composer biography than Moondog’s. Growing up the son of a minister in what was basically still the “wild west” (Wyoming in the 1920s), he incorporated native drumbeats into his other musical self-training.
He spent decades working in New York City as a composer, street performer, poet, and instrument inventor. While there, he absorbed all the classical and jazz music he could.
Eventually he moved to Germany and for the last several decades of his life he created hundreds of compositions that were published and recorded.
This particular release is a set of compositions in his highly original system of rhythmic counterpoint designed for organ (or sometimes duets of two organs).
His own liner notes to the release explain a little about what he was trying to do: take an instrument mostly used for sacred music and get it “emit secular and even profane music, name[l]y dance music”.
