Gleeson's vs Tomita's Planets

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Does anyone know which one came out first? Were they simultaneous and if so
did they know of each other's project at the time? I have both and I think
it's interesting to see both artists' interpretations of the masterpiece.


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In a message dated 1/25/01 4:26:50 AM Central Standard Time,
ErikVaubel at aol.com writes:

> Does anyone know which one came out first? Were they simultaneous and if so
> did they know of each other's project at the time? I have both and I think
> it's interesting to see both artists' interpretations of the masterpiece.

Hello,
I don't know about the timing of the releases (sorry), but I've always
wanted to hear Gleeson's version.

I love Tomita's Planets, and I seem to remember having a Gleeson album (not
Planets). I just can't remember how it sounded or exactly which album it was.

If anyone can make a CDr copy of Gleeson's Planet's, maybe we can trade for
something I have? I mostly have old prog rock (some hard to find) but I also
have a couple of older rare electronic albums (Michael Garrison, Benie and
Krause, others.).

If this interests you, please respond privately if interested.

Thanks!
Andrew Sanchez


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> > Does anyone know which one came out first? Were they simultaneous and if so
> > did they know of each other's project at the time? I have both and I think
> > it's interesting to see both artists' interpretations of the masterpiece.

For all intents and purposes they came out at approximately the same
time. It was a real coincidence that both came out at pretty much the
same time. In the Gleeson notes, the intro of which was written by
Carlos, Carlos was happy to be let off the hook for now not having "The
Planets" dangling as a potential large scale project. Clearly it was on
the minds of a lot of synthesists because of its preceived outer space
theme (the original World War I era work by Holst is well known as to
being about Astrology more than Astronomy) and very colorful content
with contrasting movements. The piece was and is very well known and
popular. They did not know of eachother's progress. Remember Tomita was
in Tokyo and doesn't speak English so he's just tied in with a few
contacts in Japan at best and his label in New York. Gleeson was in San
Francisco and dealt with Mercury, part of Phillips, don't know where
their offices were.

You can see that Tomita was building up toward more and more advanced
large scale orchestral pieces. Gleeson said that his synth at the time
had very rare polyphonic synthesis capabilities, which were key in
enabling him to work at that scale. He also utilized a lot of
sequencing, that unlike Tomita's use really hurt his results. While
Gleeson's version is very accurate its also mechanical sounding when it
shouldn't be.

As has often been said, Gleeson's version is pretty much note for note
accurate with occasional synthesized sound effects in the background,
this attracted existing fans of the work since it wasn't arranged to any
great extent. Tomita went on a couple excursions away from the work and
cut out a lot of the Uranus and Neptune movements where the same tone
colors in the original piece went on without changing for a while. He
said his main reason for shortening the arrangements was at full length
they just didn't lend themselves to interesting sounding synthesis.

Gleeson's apparent goal of just synthesizing the whole thing, while an
acheievement at the time, is far less the artistic achievement in
hindsight. While its not devoid of good moments it seems like Gleeson's
concentration was just making as good as possible synthesized
recreations of orchestral sounds and assembling the whole thing. It does
not seem he concentrated much on issues of the work as a whole and how
it relates to being synthesized more than the discovery of what it would
be like to assemble something that complex with his synth.

Both Gleeson and Tomita also did versions of the "Star Wars" theme,
neither did it with an orchestral approach. Gleeson did a whole album of
"Star Wars" soundtrack cover music. Tomita took the now dated disco
approach, Gleeson also took a "popular" approach and got not very
listenable now results. His album of original music, "Rainbow Delta" is
a fine piece of work though. He sold his modular synth for a Synclavier
and besides his main goal of soundtracks, which he still does, he did a
digital synthesis version of Vivaldi's 4 Seasons. It shares the same
problems as his version of "The Planets"

nick kent
http://mp3.com/ndkent


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In message <3A706041.387F6A59 at optonline.net>, N. Kent
<ndkent at optonline.net> writes
>Both Gleeson and Tomita also did versions of the "Star Wars" theme,
>neither did it with an orchestral approach. Gleeson did a whole album of
>"Star Wars" soundtrack cover music. Tomita took the now dated disco
>approach, Gleeson also took a "popular" approach and got not very
>listenable now results.

When the phantom menace came out, one of the DJs on my local radio
station was doing a roadshow outside a cinema. Originally, he asked
people to ring in with star wars/sci-fi themed requests. The station's
only about 10 minutes walk from my house, so (just slightly tongue in
cheek) I wandered over with the CD and handed it in....

It came back a few minutes later with a saying that the DJ wasn't
prepared to play the track. He was a little unsure if he'd get "mugged
by the wierdos here wanting a copy or beaten up because they'll think
I'm taking the piss". The look on the station employee's face had "you
sad bastard" written all over it

Personally, I think it's so bad it's good

Ian
--
Ian Sharrock. Permission to send unsolicited commercial e-mail to this
host is explicitly *withdrawn*.


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Ian Sharrock wrote:
>
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>
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In message <3A706041.387F6A59 at optonline.net>, N. Kent
> <ndkent at optonline.net> writes
> >Both Gleeson and Tomita also did versions of the "Star Wars" theme,
> >neither did it with an orchestral approach. Gleeson did a whole album of
> >"Star Wars" soundtrack cover music. Tomita took the now dated disco
> >approach, Gleeson also took a "popular" approach and got not very
> >listenable now results.
>
> When the phantom menace came out, one of the DJs on my local radio
> station was doing a roadshow outside a cinema. Originally, he asked
> people to ring in with star wars/sci-fi themed requests. The station's
> only about 10 minutes walk from my house, so (just slightly tongue in
> cheek) I wandered over with the CD and handed it in....
>
> It came back a few minutes later with a saying that the DJ wasn't
> prepared to play the track. He was a little unsure if he'd get "mugged
> by the wierdos here wanting a copy or beaten up because they'll think
> I'm taking the piss". The look on the station employee's face had "you
> sad bastard" written all over it
>
> Personally, I think it's so bad it's good
>
> Ian
> --

yes, the Tomita version.... the Gleeson album isn't so fun though. I
thought that other generic looking no name entire album of synth "star
wars" covers was a bit better.

Actually someone in Japan IMHO might have outdone Tomita a bit . Tomita
just did some in itself fine synthesis most likely inspired by Meco's
disco cover version. Someone in Japan named Masato Shimon did the Star
Wars theme and the Cantina Band theme with synths and regular
instruments... but added Japanese lyrics, like at some kind of SciFi
convention but professionally produced.

Anyway Tomita's disco-like "Star Wars" didn't hurt his reputation, hey
Deodato who did the strangely absent this year, 1970s hit disco version
of "2001" back then. Now he winds up being semi-hip in recent years
orchestrating for Bjork.

nick
http://welcome.to/synths


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