Warner Jepson-Totentanz ,LP/CD-R,1972,Iceland

commissioned by the san francisco ballet company. premiered at the san francisco opera house april 1967. performed on national tour and at the palace of fine arts 1972 and by the san francisco dance spectrum at grace cathedral 1971 - 1972. costumes and production designed by cal anderson.
warner jepson was raised in bethlehem, pennsylvania and attended oberlin conservatory. he has written scores for two musicals as well as several films and tv documentaries. in the past four years he has created total environments of sound, odor, and movement for the san francisco museum of art and was commisioned to do the centennial party for the san francisco art institute. he was on the staff of the san francisco conservatory before deciding to devote full time to composition. he resides in san francisco with his wife + children.
The a-side piece contains a long section of tape-based concrète; lo-fi pre-industrial thudding, dissonant piano stabs. and much repetition (you’ll want to crawl inside this bit and never come out...) - this gives way to a great blast of weird-synth patterns that closes out the side... on the flip there’s even further mystery layers, which slowly give way to the most amazing bit of terry riley lineage repetitive minimal synth figuring and blasted spring reverb & gated riffing. completely awe-inspiring, with a demonic-looking cover to boot (depicting some sort of skeletons-and-ghouls-as-wedding-processional ceremony no less.)

An industrial masterpiece!Years ahead of it's time!

As requested!

NOTE: this link has now been removed as this material has now been reissued on Melon Expander Records as part of a 2xCD set covering a wealth of Jepson's work. It can be found

Here