First-ever LP reissue. “Blue” Gene Tyranny’s debut album Out of the Blue — newly remastered with original cover art — which was among the first to releases on Lovely Music in 1978 alongside Robert Ashley Private Parts, David Behrman On the Other Ocean, Jon Hassell Vernal Equinox, Meredith Monk Key, and Peter Gordon Star Jaws. Disarmingly direct, funky, and profound, Out of the Blue is an equanimous, wide-open exploration of Tyranny’s musical world: equal parts song cycle, tone poem, keyboard fantasia, and avant-garde pop record. Recorded and mixed by Tyranny at Mills College, this album emerged following the legendary 1976 Trust in Rock concerts, where Tyranny and collaborator Peter Gordon presented New Music for rock band. “Next Time Might Be Your Time” and “For David K.” were co-produced by Gordon, and also feature Mills’s Maggi Payne on flute as well as Oingo Boingo’s Steve Bartek on guitar; “Leading a Double Life” is sung by Lynne Morrow and Jane Sharp, accompanied by Tyranny on piano and polyMoog synthesizer; “A Letter from Home” is a half-hour electro-acoustic narrative meditation on “the Doppler effect as a metaphor for the development of consciousness.” Out of the Blue lives up to its name: it is both surprising and familiar, revealing for the first time something that was always already there.
Press
"…my favorite avant garde pop record, with all the sublime kitsch and profoundly ironic relish of a pure postmodern moment… transferred to CD, Out of the Blue sounds still more vivid now. To use Peter Gordon’s words, this is "gorgeous" music." – WIRE (UK)
"Though sounding timeless, just try to find another album in which the AM folk pop stylings of Carole King rest heads comfortably with Poppy Nogood-era Terry Riley. Each of these four long tracks moves about though, from song to rock to minimalism and back, providing a wonderful entry into the world of this most cherubic figure of the American vanguard and modern classical." - Other Music
"classical... an ambitious and moving masterpiece... takes up half the records. It is 'Letter From Home,' an epistolary song in the tradition of Harry Partch's 'Letter' " - The New York Times
First-ever LP reissue. “Blue” Gene Tyranny’s debut album Out of the Blue — newly remastered with original cover art — which was among the first to releases on Lovely Music in 1978 alongside Robert Ashley Private Parts, David Behrman On the Other Ocean, Jon Hassell Vernal Equinox, Meredith Monk Key, and Peter Gordon Star Jaws. Disarmingly direct, funky, and profound, Out of the Blue is an equanimous, wide-open exploration of Tyranny’s musical world: equal parts song cycle, tone poem, keyboard fantasia, and avant-garde pop record. Recorded and mixed by Tyranny at Mills College, this album emerged following the legendary 1976 Trust in Rock concerts, where Tyranny and collaborator Peter Gordon presented New Music for rock band. “Next Time Might Be Your Time” and “For David K.” were co-produced by Gordon, and also feature Mills’s Maggi Payne on flute as well as Oingo Boingo’s Steve Bartek on guitar; “Leading a Double Life” is sung by Lynne Morrow and Jane Sharp, accompanied by Tyranny on piano and polyMoog synthesizer; “A Letter from Home” is a half-hour electro-acoustic narrative meditation on “the Doppler effect as a metaphor for the development of consciousness.” Out of the Blue lives up to its name: it is both surprising and familiar, revealing for the first time something that was always already there.
Press
"…my favorite avant garde pop record, with all the sublime kitsch and profoundly ironic relish of a pure postmodern moment… transferred to CD, Out of the Blue sounds still more vivid now. To use Peter Gordon’s words, this is "gorgeous" music." – WIRE (UK)
"Though sounding timeless, just try to find another album in which the AM folk pop stylings of Carole King rest heads comfortably with Poppy Nogood-era Terry Riley. Each of these four long tracks moves about though, from song to rock to minimalism and back, providing a wonderful entry into the world of this most cherubic figure of the American vanguard and modern classical." - Other Music
"classical... an ambitious and moving masterpiece... takes up half the records. It is 'Letter From Home,' an epistolary song in the tradition of Harry Partch's 'Letter' " - The New York Times
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Liner Notes
TRUST IN ROCK: An Interview with "Blue" Gene Tyranny and Peter Gordon by Ned Sublette
42 years after Trust in Rock, we got together in February 2018 to talk about it.