Tales of Mystery and Imagination
| Tales of Mystery and Imagination | ||||
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| Studio album from The Alan Parsons Project | ||||
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Publication |
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admission |
July 1975 - January 1976 |
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| Label (s) | 20th Century Records | |||
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Format (s) |
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Title (number) |
11 |
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running time |
42:41 |
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| occupation | Alan Parsons , Eric Woolfson , John Miles , David Paton, Arthur Brown , Stuart Tosh , Ian Bairnson, Billy Lyall, Andrew Powell , Daryl Runswick and others. a. | |||
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Alan Parsons |
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Studio (s) |
Abbey Road Studios , London |
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Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the 1976 debut album by The Alan Parsons Project . The theme of the album is the musical implementation of some of the stories by Edgar Allan Poe . The title of the album is taken from a collection of short stories by Poe. The album is the first in a series of concept albums by producer, composer and musician Alan Parsons .
concept
Tales of Mystery and Imagination is based on selected works by the author Edgar Allan Poe and sets them to music in a mixture of rock songs and symphonic music, mixed with quotations from his texts, the pieces convey the dark, melancholy atmosphere of Poe's works. In The Raven , the actor takes Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, while Alan Parsons over a EMI vocoder singing. According to the notes in the album booklet, The Raven was the first rock song to use a digital vocoder. The prelude to The Fall of the House of Usher uses fragments from Claude Debussy's opera fragment La Chûte de la maison Usher , which was composed between 1908 and 1917. The Fall of the House of Usher is an instrumental suite in five movements that lasts more than 16 minutes and takes up most of the second LP side.
The dark green cover of the album is adorned in the middle with a stretched, Egyptian-looking band, which is continued on the back in a loop. There a mummy is indicated, the representation of which is continued in the interior view of the hinged cover. Inside there is a chronological overview of the life and work of Poe and - which is rather rare - the texts of the titles are illustrated with sketches and photos on four integrated sheets and finally the further information about the album.
production
The tracks for the album were recorded between April and November 1975 in London's Abbey Road Studios . The musicians included well-known musicians such as the singers Arthur Brown of the British band The Crazy World of Arthur Brown in The Tell Tale Heart , John Miles in The Cask of Amontillado and (The System of) Dr. Tarr and Professor Fether and Terry Sylvester from The Hollies in To One in Paradise . In addition to musicians like Keith Johnson , Eric Woolfson , Andrew Powell , bands like Ambrosia and Pilot were involved, along with keyboardist Francis Monkman from Curved Air and Sky . Different line-ups were put together depending on the title.
Track list
The original version of the album comprises 11 tracks with a total length of 42:41 minutes.
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A Dream Within a Dream (Instrumental) - 4:14
- After a dream in a dream (1849)
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The Raven - 3:58
- After The Raven (1845)
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The Tell-Tale Heart - 4:39
- After The Treacherous Heart (1843)
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The Cask of Amontillado - 4:34
- After Das Fass Amontillado (1846)
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(The System of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Fether - 4:21
- According to the system of Dr. Tar and Prof. Feder (1845)
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The Fall of the House of Usher: I. Prelude - 7:03
- After the Fall of the House of Usher (1839)
- The Fall of the House of Usher: II. Arrival - 2:40
- The Fall of the House of Usher: III. Intermezzo - 1:00
- The Fall of the House of Usher: IV. Pavane - 4:36
- The Fall of the House of Usher: V. Fall - 0:51
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To One in Paradise - 4:47
- After To One in Paradise (1833)
The thunderstorm in the track The Fall of the House of Usher: II. Arrival was recorded in artificial head stereophony .
Publications
In 1976 Alan Parsons and Eric Woolfson had sent Orson Welles a script with narrative texts for the instrumental pieces, which Welles recorded on tape and sent back to the musicians. These recordings were only used for the presentation and promotion of the LP. For the CD version released in 1987, the album was completely digitally remixed and edited. Parsons and Woolfson added the recitations of Orson Welles, who has since died, to the work. The first CD release of the “dramatic new version” of the concept album according to the advertising text was also a special event because of this. At the same time, the new version was released as a vinyl edition, which, however, was primarily intended to promote the new medium of CD: The cover of the record reads For best results this album should be heard on Compact Disc .
On April 30, 2007, a new "DeLuxe Edition" was released, which combines both the 1976 original and the 1987 remix on a double CD with demo versions and sound experiments (Mercury, Universal ).
reception
The album was recorded mixed by music critics. For example, Rolling Stone's Billy Altman thinks : " ... that it doesn't accurately reflect Poe's tension and macabre fear ... " and that "... lovers of Gothic literature have to wait for someone who has more of the macabre in their blood to find Poe's often terrifying Works to read musically more truthfully. ” Nevertheless, the album still enjoys a certain cult status among fans of the Alan Parsons Project . In July 2010 Classic Rock magazine named it one of the " 50 albums that built prog rock ".
Web links
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination at Allmusic (English)
- Tales of Mystery and Imagination at Discogs
- Reviews of Tales of Mystery and Imagination on the Babyblauen Seiten
- Overview of various publications at Musik-Sammler.de
Individual evidence
- ↑ Booklet of the CD version from 1987, p. 22
- ↑ Booklet of the CD version from 1987
- ^ Billy Altman: Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery & Imagination. (No longer available online.) In: Rolling Stone website. September 23, 1976, formerly in the original ; accessed on May 14, 2020 (English). ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )
- ↑ Classic Rock Magazine . No. 146 , July 2010 (English).