Tracklist
1 | Patchwork | 9:47 | |
2 | Old Wave | 6:54 | |
3 | Pentachrome | 7:19 | |
4 | A Folk Study | 2:04 | |
5 | Drums | 7:09 | |
6 | Appalachian Grove I | 5:23 | |
7 | Appalachian Grove II | 7:57 | |
8 | Appalachian Grove III | 3:14 | |
9 | The Expanding Universe | 28:29 | |
10 | East River Dawn | 14:17 | |
11 | The Unquestioned Answer | 6:31 | |
12 | The Orient Express | 10:03 | |
13 | Clockworks | 5:23 | |
14 | Dirge I | 2:21 | |
15 | Dirge II | 2:31 | |
16 | Music for Dance I | 8:38 | |
17 | Music for Dance II | 6:20 | |
18 | Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds | 10:40 | |
19 | Wandering in Our Times | 11:45 |
The Expanding Universe is the 1980 debut album by computer music pioneer Laurie Spiegel. The original album is reissued here as a massively expanded 3LP/2CD set, all four original album tracks plus an additional 15 tracks from the same time period, many making their first appearance on vinyl in this brand new edition. Since this album's first CD reissue in 2012, it has gone on to be widely established as a classic of 20th century electronic music. Some of the well-loved works included in this set are "Patchwork", the "Appalachian Grove" series, "East River Dawn" and "Kepler's Harmony of the Worlds", which was included on the Golden Record launched on board the Voyager spacecraft. The pieces comprising The Expanding Universe combine slowly evolving textures with the emotional richness of intricate counterpoint, harmony, and complex rhythms (John Fahey and J. S. Bach are both cited as major influences in the original cover's notes), all built of electronic sounds using the GROOVE system at Bell Laboratories during the 1970s.