[Review] Edgar Froese: Macula Transfer (1976)

Compared to his more expansive works, this is plane vanilla electronic music.

Kronomyth 4.0: The curse of macula.

According to the liner notes of Macular Transfer, Edgar Froese wrote these songs on various flights between 1975 and 1976, although I’m pretty sure that writing process consisted of jotting down words like “spooky synthesizers,” “weird chanting,” and “space sounds” on a cocktail napkin. In other words, these songs might just as well have been written on a bus, sitting in a car in traffic or anywhere else that Froese found himself with a few extra minutes on his hands. Whatever the inspiration, this is definitely not Music for Airports, as a general sense of dread permeates the music. I know listening to quantas 611 or af 675 (the songs take their titles from particular flights) wouldn’t make me feel any calmer about air travel. The songs feature beeps, buzzes, whooshes, whispers, guitar… the sort of sounds you would encounter in various measure on a Tangerine Dream album. The sum effect, however, is closer to a Klaus Schulze record. Macula Transfer has a mechanical, minimalist feel, rather than an electronic symphony. Despite the album’s title, this isn’t the tunneling in the mind’s eye I associate with Froese. It’s lean, linear, foreboding, cold. In fact, it’s the only Froese album I haven’t warmed up to yet. I do enjoy the opening os 452, which combines the strummed guitars of Pink Floyd with TD’s electronic sounds. That mixed approach would have made for an interesting album, but Froese puts away his guitar for the remainder of the record, content to fill the space with blips, pulses and foreboding sounds. Given that it’s a bit pricey to acquire these days, I see Macula Transfer as a first-class ticket to nowhere. Then again, you may have a completely different view from where you’re sitting.

Original elpee version

A1. os 452 (7:56)
A2. af 765 (11:04)
B1. pa 701 (7:36)
B2. quantas 611 (4:58)
B3. if 910 (4:26)

Composed by Edgar Froese.

The Players

Edgar Froese (all instruments). Produced by Edgar Froese.

The Pictures

Cover photographs by Monique Froese.

The Plastic

Released on elpee in June 1976 in Germany (Brain, 60.008) [green label] with gatefold cover.

1. Re-released on elpee in 1977 in Germany (Brain, 0060.008) [orange label] with gatefold cover.
2. Re-released on elpee in Germany (Brain, 0060.008) [black label].
3. Re-issued on compact disc in 1998 in Germany (Manikin, MRCD 7030).
4. Re-issued on compact disc in 2005 in Germany (Eastgate) with different cover.