* Edition of 200 copies. 140g clear vinyl with printed inner sleeve + extensive booklet * Peter Zinovieff (b. 1933, d. 2021) founded the revolutionary Electronic Music Studios in 1969, and devoted much of his earlier life to the art of sound. The studio developed many synthesisers including the famed VCS3, AKS and the Synthi100, and financed the world's first computer controlled electronic music studio in Putney, London. It is difficult to overstate the effect that Zinovieff's work has had on contemporary music. Zinovieff tragically passed away on 23 June 2021, just weeks before the scheduled release date of this LP, his first solo release since 1974’s A Lollipop for Papa, and 2015’s Electronic Calendar compilation.
South Pacific Migration Party is an extended computer work, derived from hydrophone recordings of blue whales recorded by British oceanographer Susannah Buchan off the coast of Chile and originally proposed and then curated by Andrew Spyrou. Unlike the more familiar humpback whale, the blue whale song consists of repeated low-frequency vibrations followed by a contrasted high-frequency chirrup. A single complete call from the largest creatures ever to have existed on earth has been manipulated to create an immersive soundscape. The composition is in five broad movements, and highlights the complex communication systems and ever-changing habitat of the blue whale.
As its premiere, a preliminary quadraphonic mix of the piece was played in Athens, Greece as part of documenta14 in June 2017, followed by a presentation of the piece during the UN Oceans Conference, at The Explorers Club, New York City. Subsequently, a full b-format rendering of the piece was commissioned by TBA21, and presented at the TBA21-Augarten ambisonic sound space in Vienna, during the exhibition Tidalectics. An 8-track reduction, designed for two separate quadraphonic systems, was presented at the Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin in October 2017. The 28-ambisonic-track version, reduced to stereo, is released here for the first time.
