Edward Artemiev - "Ode to the Herald Of Good" {Russia} [1980] (electronic prog)

I always thought of Edward Artemiev as of a daring experimenter who has been pioneering electronic music in the USSR since as early as 1960. He is generally most known for his ambient alien-sounding dronesque soundscapes, and for his numerous quite recognizable film scores. Having that said, I was quite surprised when I discovered his "Ode to the Herald of Good", an experimental cantata composed on account of Olympic Games held in 1980 in Moscow. The approach taken by Artemiev and his band on this album resulted in the 'Ode' becoming a full-blown electronic progressive album with synthesizers and sequensors largely giving way to performances by three choirs, a rock group and a symphonic orchestra. The album still shows noticeable traces of what is Artemiev's core competence, but it is definitely much more in the rock - namely symphonic progressive - vein than most of his heritage that I know of. The only exception would probably be "Warmth of Earth", another Artemiev's work so screamingly falling into the category of prog that it was re-released by Musea some time ago.

Tracklist:

1. A Torch
2. Herald of Good
3. Harmony of the World
4. Perpetual Progress
5. Beauty of the Earth
6. Interlude
7. Sport, You are the World

I don't know the exact line-up for this album. It must be quite extensive as it includes Artemiev's rock group called "Boomerang", "Melodiya" Jazz Band, State Orchestra of Cinematography, State Russian Choir and many others. The original LP cover is also not available, so I used that of the CD re-release of early 2000s. Th re-release was called "Three Odes" and contained two relatively short pieces in addition to the "Ode to the Herald Of Good".

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