Original 1985 LP, few copies available and of course long out of print "Canadian electro-acoustic music composer Barry Truax (b1947) studied with R. Murray Schafer and was a member of the latter’s World Soundscape Project, helping record soundscapes around the Vancouver area as early as 1973 and subsequently using sounds from this collection in his own compositions. Truax launched his own label, Cambridge Street Records in Vancouver, 1985. Several features on ‘Sequence of Earlier Heaven’ sound familiar from other Canadian composers like Hildegard Westerkamp, Marvin Green, Albert Mayr or Gordon Monahan, namely the inclusion of the outdoor life inside the music, the nature inspiring structure and content, etc – arguably the acoustic ecology imprint left by Murray Schafer on his students. The 2 tracks on side A of this LP are based on processed sounds from acoustic instruments (recorder on A1 and marimba on A2), intertwined with the instrumentist’s live recording. Truax is a pioneer of live instruments real-time processing and it shows in the breathtaking level of musical integration reached in these pieces, as well as the attention to detail, the well balanced effects, the sound vs silence equilibrium and the calculated natural vs artificial balance. The music is deliberately ambiguous and most of the time you can’t tell the acoustic instrument from its artificial image. Surprisingly the 2 tracks on side B, pure computer/synthesizer compositions, reaches the same level of inner life mystery thanks to electronic sounds inspired by nature (waves and wind) and a way of composing that let the sounds breath by themselves, so to speak. Nothing is hurriedly delivered or pushed forward, everything happens at its own pace, so much so you would think Truax approaches the synthesizer as a sacred instrument." Continuo wordpress

Cycle of four electronic pieces inspired by the I Ching incorporating improvisational interaction between recorder and tape (East wind) and marimba and tape (Nightwatch). Recorded at Simon Fraser University, Canada except Nightwatch recorded at the Music Gallery, Toronto, Canada.