STABAT MATER: A MOOG MASS

Stabat Mater: A Moog Mass is an obscure electronic version of the infamous hymn to Mary. This album by Caldera is a bit different than other electronic artists on this site for a couple reasons - spacey, cosmic and experimental sounds are traded out for harpsichords and moogs played in the medieval style, and vocals are included that are vocoded to the point where the language being sung is incomprehensible. A Moog Mass is a strange combination of new technology (for the time) and extremely old musical material and concept, but it seems to work pretty well in my opinion. I certainly wouldn't compare this to anything by Tangerine Dream or Schulze, or anything else I've heard; based on all of the electronic music I've heard, A Moog Mass is unique. The best thing that I could compare this to would be a combination of Daft Punk vocals and Justice's musical epicness, minus the dance tendencies.

This album really is very interesting, and definitely not bad. The only part of the album that I don't care for are the male spoken introductions to each track that are backed by hypnotizing spacey sound effects, because it doesn't fit with the music at all.

If you ever have the opportunity to listen to this album, I'd definitely recommend that you do so. Something different like this is always good to experience at least once. I found A Moog Mass to be a greatly enjoyable and refreshing listen, like some experiments tend to be, but I do realize that this album is nowhere near essential listening material.

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Posted Sunday, May 8, 2011 | Review this album | Report (Review #444364)

I agree with user ColorOfMoney91 in his concepts, but this opus deserves more than 3 stars. For me it's 4, and would gave it half point extra if I wasn't listening to a dirty vinyl record. This mass preserves the monastic style besides it's dominant strange timbres, which never exceeds the rel ... (read more)

Report this review (#1467423) | Posted by dr_epf | Monday, September 21, 2015 | Review Permanlink

I bought the UK version of this album when it came out in the early 70s and it's sitting on the desk in front of me as I write this. Unlike the awful cover shown on this site, which I guess is the US version, the UK cover has a rather noble head of Christ, with a Crown of Thorns made up of electri ... (read more)

Report this review (#1275378) | Posted by Adelstrop | Saturday, September 13, 2014 | Review Permanlink

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