Synth pioneer Dr. Patrick Gleeson recently mastered FOUREVER, his new album exploring the edge of minimalist jazz, in quadraphonic sound at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood.
Gleeson gained early worldwide recognition for his breakthrough synthesizer scoring for Apocalypse Now and his renowned electronic collaboration as a part of Herbie Hancock’s Mwandishi septet. The Grammy-nominated Gleeson, who holds a PhD in 18th Century English Literature, commemorates Miles Davis’ 30th Anniversary memorial with this new quad release. Inspired by Davis, Gleeson opens the album with his song “PSK” (a.k.a., Post Spanish Key), improvising on themes from Davis’ 1970 Bitches Brew.
While a professor of English Lit at San Francisco State University in the 60s, Gleeson began experimenting with electronic music using a Buchla synth and other devices. In 1968, after hearing Wendy Carlos’ “Switched-On Bach,” he bought a Moog synthesizer and opened the Different Fur recording studio in San Francisco. His photo in the new studio was the first ever cover of Mix magazine, a leading recording industry publication.
The 86-year-old Gleeson is also releasing an 86-copy limited edition version of FOUREVER which includes quadraphonic vinyl, a career retrospective large-format book co-published by IN-FO.CO called FOREVER Ago and two CDs featuring a catalog of Gleeson’s past work including collaborations with Hancock, Jim Lang, Bennie Maupin, and prolific avant garde visual artist Bruce Conner, whose pen and ink drawing adorns the FOUREVER album cover. A cement-encased version with an impression of Gleeson’s handprints will also be available at select Los Angeles retailers.
All versions of the release are encoded using dublab’s Quadraphonic Universally Accessible Resource Kit (QUARK). QUARK enables semi-binaural via standard 2-channel listening or 4-speaker listening via Involve Audio hardware decoders, vintage Regular Matrix quadraphonic receivers, Dolby Pro-Logic II receivers, or any multi-channel audio interface equipped computer.
FOUREVER is immersive via all formats: digital download, streaming (Spotify, SoundCloud, YouTube, etc.), radio broadcast, vinyl and high-resolution Dolby Atmos (Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon HD). The specially formulated quadraphonic vinyl was pressed and one-step plated at RTI using a one-step process featuring Neotech’s low surface noise, semi-transparent VR900 compound.
The album’s producer, KamranV, who rebirthed quadraphonic vinyl with Suzanne Ciani and her LIVE Quadraphonic album, worked on “FOUREVER” with Gleeson following a series of quadraphonic projects, including 10-song-20-artist charity compilation decades ( in space ), the first-ever analog direct-to-disc Quad recording with Alex Lilly at Bernie Grundman Mastering, and dynamic quadraphonic audio-visual installations with dublab founder Mark “Frosty” McNeill & Alex Pelly at LACMA and MOMA PS1.
“FOUREVER” is available via all digital platforms as well as pre-order vinyl and limited edition book here.
