William Penn
Crystal Rainbows - The Sounds of Harmonious Craft
Sound Reasonable (US) 1978
SR 7801 (LP) Gatfold sleeve.
sleeve : VG+(SRW, some wear on edge and corner.)
media : EX-/EX-(some slightly noises caused by slightly hairlines. B1 has some light click noises.)
This album, released in 1978 by American composer William Penn, was featured in both the first and revised editions of the guidebook "Obscure Sound." While working as a studio musician in New York, Penn also served as a university lecturer and a producer for Arizona University Recordings. The album features an exotic rhythm played by a jaw harp intertwined with clavichord and gentle choral vocals in the ethnic track A1. On B1, deep delay and reverb-treated "Sanza," a thumb piano from the Zaya people of Central Africa, and "Cloud Chamber Bowls," an instrument made of glass, float in a spatial soundscape, intersected subtly by an Arp 2600 synthesizer and acoustic piano. The album presents a spiritual world of sound, painting infinite colors like the prism of light refracted through a crystal. Completely genre-defying, it's simply good music. Highly recommended.
A1: Reflections in a Pastel Vase
A2: Interlude: Crystal Rainbows
B1: Gossamer Looms