Walter Carlos - "Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange" Vinyl, Album, 1972 (Columbia)

 

It's interesting to note that this album is called Walter Carlos' Clockwork Orange. They leave out the "A" that is in the original title for the film. Not only that, but Carlos is taking control over her work and presents it as music on its own merits. Nevertheless, this album is the ultimate work of electronic music, not as an experiment, but using the adventuresome aspect of that type of music into pop or classical medium. Carlos and her producer Rachel Elkind are brilliant composers.

The big thrill here is the opening piece "Timesteps," 14 minutes long and a tremendous aural adventure. Written for A Clockwork Orange but not used as far as I know is the ultimate electronic sound collage of dread/humor that perfectly fits the film or the novel's look at the near future of the time. The rest of the album is pretty much what we know of the score or soundtrack to the movie. But re-positioned by the artists that make the work representable to her own aesthetic. The last piece on the album is "Country Line," which has traces of "Singing in the Rain," but almost as an afterthought.