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Jorgen Plaetner - A Forgotten Pioneer.

Louie Bourland | Garden Grove CA | 08/12/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Danish composer Jorgen Plaetner (1930-2002) is a forgotten pioneer of electronic music. Unlike the works of Karlheinz Stockhausen, Morton Subotnick and Iannis Xenakis which have become well-known and legendary, Plaetner's electronic creations have been obscure and forgotten at best. With the release of eight of his electronic works on this CD from the Danish Dacapo label (distributed by Naxos in the U.S.), we can finally hear just how innovative and ahead his time Jorgen Plaetner really was.



The CD opens with a 1962 work entitled "Beta". After a brief introduction of wavering sinewave tones, we are treated to a mass of synthetic rhythms that are not to far removed from todays techno and industrial music. This definitely does not sound like anything from over 40 years ago but more like the music of today.

"Modulations" also from 1962 features random note sequences stacked ontop of each other which build with intensity and distortion until at the end, it sounds like an analog computer gone mad.

"Nocturne" from 1963 provides a brief change of pace with its chirping and oscilating sine waves accompanied by a live flute. The flute/electronics pairing on this piece is very reminiscent of the music of early Kraftwerk and brings to mind "Morgenspaziergang" from their classic album "Autobahn".

"The Lovers" from 1965 once again brings in a human element to the electronic sounds - this time in the form of the spoken poetry of Poul Borum. The industrial-like sounds combined with Borum's spoken words bear a striking similarity with what was heard on the first two albums by the band Kluster ("Klopfzeichen" and "Zwei Osteri"). These two albums feature the same principle of dramatic text read over electronic noise as is the case with Plaetner's work heard on this CD.

"Figures In Water" from 1971 is more of an abstract electronic work with various blips, bleeps and drones that occur at random. From the middle of this piece onwards, the sounds become quite similar to that of Morton Subotnick and are in the same vein as his classic electronic piece "Touch".

"Hieronymus Bosch" from 1974 is also a study in random abstract sounds and the silences between the sounds and notes play a major role in this piece.

"Sonata For Tape Recorder" also from 1974 can be considered the centerpiece of the entire CD. This 14-minute work is a tour-de-force in musique concrete and tape manipulated sounds. The first half of the work consists mostly of the manipulated sounds while the second half shifts into the pure electronic sounds. There is definitely an influence of Karlheinz Stockhausen heard in this work.

Finally, this CD closes with the 1962 work "Alpha" (the companion to the disc's opening piece "Beta"). Unlike the techno-charged rhythmic excursions that made up "Beta", "Alpha" is a rhythmless textured work that experiments with volume, crescendo and abrupt cut-offs in the sine wave generated electronics.



The question that kept popping into my mind as I was listening to this CD was "Why wasn't Plaetner more well known?". The music heard on this CD is some pioneering stuff indeed and was way ahead of its time when it was created. While I doubt that many of today's electronic artists will never site Plaetner as an influence because of his obscurity, his presence is definitely felt into today's electronic music whether it be the above mentioned Kluster and Kraftwerk or industrial dance bands like Prodigy.

With this said, Jorgen Plaetner's "Electronic Music" from Dacapo Records is definitely essential. If you enjoy electronic music whether it's from the early days or more recent, this is a disc that is an absolute must."