Impact of sound Music by Joe Wiedermann, reviewed by PATRIC STANDFORD Orchestronics    7 35885 41372 9

Being let loose on a sophisticated synthesizer can provide the same thrill for the operator as being allowed to try out a cathedral organ, a sense of wielding a vast musical power over the sonic minions under one's fingers. After the first impact of sound, which could be disturbing for any creature caught in a corner of the chancel or hiding in the crypt, it is the musical mind rather than the machine that will induce the listener to listen -- if, indeed, that is the intention! If it is all about self indulgence, then the listener is negligible.

Joe Wiedemann seems to take himself seriously, though the evidence of these eleven tracks (which include a three-movement thirty-minute Concerto No 1 for Synthesizer) is that it may all end there. It sounds as though there is little here that many of us could not invent with a modest studio, and yet I for one would feel that having played with the machinary for an hour, it was high time either to create some real music or pay for the indulgence and leave.

There is not a great distance travelled over the field of naivety between Crunch the Numbers: ....it's always better to add than to subtract [listen -- track 4, 0:00-0:59] and Bruschetta described as an 'electro-acoustic experiment' [listen -- track 5, 0:00-0:52]. But it would be a pity to miss the romantic theme from the Concerto's second movement (a distant love is only half a harmony) [listen -- track 3, 0:00-0:54].

There are no notes -- just titles; and the composer's description of himself as creating 'a modern ensemble of rich acoustic and electronic sounds, performing a wide range of classic and contemporary styles'. I'm sure there is a place for him.

Record Box is Music & Vision's regular Saturday series of shorter CD reviews