Meditative Sound Environments

Alga Marghen prsents the second and final chapter in documenting Charlemagne Palestine and Simone Forti seminal collaborations. The new “Meditative Sound Environments” LP is more centered around electronic music and also includes a unique two-voice work based on Simone’s chanting, the magically suspended “Simone Tape”. All the tracks of this new LP present only previously unreleased recordings. In summer 1970 Simone Forti was invited by Allan Kaprow (one of the Deans of CalArts) to do an evening of dance at the Pasadena Art Museum and for this performance she asked Charlemagne Palestine to try developing a new kind of work together
It immediately clicked!!!! In January 1971 in Pasadena they did their first “Illuminationss”. All of a sudden they were doing a new kind of jamming together. Everybody in the audience loved it because it was so dreamy and they found amazing how a man and a woman can act in that strange, very dreamlike oriental way as in trance,,,,,together. This kind of collaboration between man and woman was uncommon at that time. Mostly other artists were doing very structural works while with “Illuminations” it was totally like they were on magicness drugs. These performances had certain fixed elements. the piano or some electronics like in “Meditative Sound Environment”, the title track of this LP
It turned out they liked red lights so they started to always do it in red light. Also they liked to do it in a resonant spaces. It became more an approach than a piece, because there were never two “Illuminations” that were alike. Edition limited to 365 copies with liner notes by Charlemagne Palestine and Simone Forti.” (label info)