Running time: 10:43
Release date: August 12, 2008
Formats: MP3 and CD

The full title of this EP is almost longer than the music itself… Mellotronic: Far Out Sounds! (And Other Space-Age Hyperbole).

The common thread amongst the three tracks on this EP is the Mellotron, an archaic and fragile instrument that was cutting-edge technology in the 1960s, and an integral part of any credible prog rock keyboardist’s arsenal in the 1970s. The Mellotron is an analog sampler — each key on its keyboard was connected to a spring-loaded strip of magnetic tape, on which were recorded 3 separate tracks of real instruments playing the note corresponding to the key pressed. Originally envisioned as a hobby instrument for the home, with several tape banks dedicated to rhythm section backing tracks, the instrument eventually caught on with professional musicians looking to achieve the sound of a live orchestra on stage or in the studio, without the need to hire a bunch of session musicians. Perhaps the most famous of all recordings to prominently feature the Mellotron is the Beatles’ “Strawberry Fields Forever.,” though that song displays no shortage of session musicians on real instruments as well.

But here the Mellotron is used first to accompany an otherwise modern-sounding electronic track (”Mellotronic”), then as an “orchestra in a box” (”Interlude,”) and finally to help capture the retro-futuristic sound of the late 1960s (”Lunar Landing”). All Mellotron sounds used here are not played on an actual Mellotron, but rather on the software instrument M-Tron, which is a meticulous recreation of the Mellotron’s original, idiosyncratic sound for the digital age… no fragile tape banks required.

In honor of the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 lunar landing, the event that inspired “Lunar Landing,” I made a music video for the track in July 2009: