Sold Date: June 25, 2014
Start Date: May 28, 2014
Final Price: £12.99 (GBP)
Seller Feedback: 1812
Buyer Feedback: 14

 The Sound Of Sight : Music for an Experiment in Imagination, composed and conducted by Ray Martin
Label: Decca – PFS 4043
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: UK
Released: 1964
Genre: Orchestral, Non-Music, Stage & Screen
Style: Theme, Special Effects

A1         Introduction Leading Into Overture To End All Overtures         
A2         Westorama         
A3         Destination Space         
A4         A Whale Of A Tale         
B1         Egyptian Epic         
B2         Hoodunnit         
B3         Tearjerker         
B4         Cartoonik         
B5         Flagwaver

Amazing extreme-stereo music and sound effect extravaganzas from Ray Martin and orchestra. Even by today's standards these pieces are beautifully recorded and produced.

This copy comes with 2 12 inch x 12 inch one sheet inserts. One explains what is happening on the record while the other is a quite beautiful phase4stereo insert explaining the technical aspects of stereo sound. The cover is by Jack Davis of Mad Magazine by the way.

Cover - VG+, some light wear but super for 1964
Inserts - VG+
Record - EX, a little light noise just here, a nice loud pressing, despite some light marks on vinyl its a nice clean, enjoyable listen with a satisfyingly deep/round sound

"The Sound of Sight may very well be the summit of the London Phase 4 concept. Like Battle Stereo, the album sounds as if one is listening to a movie soundtrack without the picture. In fact, with the subtitle Music For an Experiment in Imagination, that's exactly what Phase 4 had in mind. One of the best use of sound effects I've heard on any album of this type.

Composed and conducted by Ray Martin, The Sound of Sight goes to a new level by utilizing original music (for the most part), plus original "skits," or storylines. Gone (for the most part) is the historical context and traditional music. After opening with the "Overture to End All Overtures," the album moves to "Westorama" where Coplandesque Western music plays over a barn dance, a shoot-out with some bad men, and an Indian attack on a farm (where Maw is grabbed and scalped!). Next up is "Destination Space," where we hear an astronaut board the spacecraft and blast off. Genuine Mercury Control chatter is used in the background. Nice electronic "space effects" greet the astronaut, and then a return to earth and an ocean splashdown.

"Hoodunnit?" opens with smoky crime jazz. A hood enters a night club and shoots a man, who is rushed to the hospital and undergoes surgery -- all with appropriate sound effects, of course. Then, a shoot-out with the hood and the cops. The hood is shot, and falls off the roof screaming! "Cartoonik" follows, and we are told in the liner notes to imagine our favorite cartoon duo (Tom and Jerry is who I think they mean -- fans of The Simpsons may want to imagine Itchy and Scratchy). Jerry torments Tom while he tries to sleep, giving him a hot foot and an earache with Rock 'n' Roll from a portable radio. Jerry gets it in the end, though, when Tom throws him into a pond. Jerry sinks, gurgling! This one really does sound like the soundtrack to a cartoon. Very well done."