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  | SPERM ~ 50TH ERECTION: COLLECTED WORKS 1967-1971
SVART 235 (Barcode: 6430065583820) ~ FINLAND ~ Avant-Garde Electronic
Recorded: 1967 - 1971 Released: 2018
This Box Set collects all the recordings by the pioneering Finnish Avant-Garde ensemble SpermFind albums by this artist led by guitarist / Electronic Music innovator Pekka AiraksinenFind albums by this artist. It includes the ensemble´s only album "Shh!Find albums with this title" and their early EP "3rd ErectionFind albums with this title" as well as the album "One Point MusicFind albums with this title" released under Airaksinen´s name, and additionally a plethora of previously unreleased recordings form the same period, more than doubling the playing time, spread over two CDs. In addition to the CDs the Box Set also includes a wonderfully researched book (bilingual) with historic background and detailed story of the ensemble.
Sperm were obviously heroes of the Finnish / European Underground / Avant-Garde movement, way beyond just their approach to music. The music was in fact just one of the elements of expression, which symbolized social, political and artistic revolution, often extremely different from the mainstream Culture. As such, Sperm, in their radicalism, opened the minds of young Fins at the time to question authority and cultural norms.
The music mixes early electronic / ambient experiments, Free Jazz and Improvised Music and in retrospect remains as radical as it was at the time it was created and lost nothing of its originality or power of expression. Actually such "audacity" and disregard of the norms is probably unthinkable today, as we have grown to become a race of intellectual chickens.
This Box Set is an enormously important document of the era, not only in Finland but in Europe as a whole. Similar radical experiments were happening all over Europe, even including the Socialist countries, and they were a reflection of the European unrest that swept the continent in the late 1960s.
Although not for the weak hearted, the music included in this Box Set and its significance is definitely something I wish everybody could experience in their lifetime, better late than never!
| | Updated: 22/08/2020Posted: 22/08/2020 | CD 2 Digipak Box Set Remastered Bonus Tracks Recommend To A Friend |
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