Sven Libaek - The Music Of Sven Libaek (Votary Records)

Format:  Vinyl LP
Cat No:  VOT015LP

PLEASE NOTE: Small crease to corner of sleeve hence it has been graded as VG+ and priced accordingly.

The Sven Libaek soundtrack story begins here. The genesis of one of the most singular modern jazz voices to emerge in documentary film music during the 1960s and 70s, an unheralded style that melded European modernism, west coast jazz and Brazilian rhythms combined with a unique antipodean disposition; a musical vision inspired by a personal experience in an alien environment together with a sound shaped by a virtuoso team of Australian jazzmen.

In the words of the albums original liner notes, “A kaleidoscope of 1960s Australia…” Compiled here is a collection of soundtrack themes composed for various early 1960s documentary and public information films produced by the Australian Newsreel Company Cinesound. All pieces were composed in the short few years after Libaek immigrated to Australia and were first recorded prior to his landmark score to Vince Serventy’s television series Nature Walkabout (1966).

Reminiscent of future Libaek documentary soundtracks, To Ride A White Horse (1968) and of course the now legendary score to Ron And Valerie Taylor’s Inner Space (1973), it is on this compilation that we first witness the unique elements that make his music so alluring, the inception of a refined jazz modernist with a wonderful pop sensibility. Hypnotic 7/4, 5/4, waltz and bossa rhythms combined with a strong focus on the tonal colours of the Vibraphone and Flute (played by John Sangster and Don Burrows respectively) but above all else, it is the first introduction to those highly individual and blissful Sven Libaek melodies.

TRACKLISTING:

A1. Happy City 
A2. Done Away With
A3. Title Unknown 
A4. Man And A Mural 
A5. Concours D'Elegance 
A6. Gold Coast Fanfare 
B1. Lake Moondara
B2. White Desolation 
B3. Theme From An Unknown Movie 
B4. Race Pace
B5. Northern Territory 
B6. Baroque Theme