Syrinx
Reissue release
RVNG Intl released 3 remastered albums by the Canadian trio, Syrinx, under the title “Tumblers From the Vault”. RVNG Intl. is a Brooklyn-based company. “RVNG seeks to appease collector fandom with extravagant packaging and to remind hopeful audiophile generations of the sonic spectacle that transforms the surrounding airspace when needle presses vinyl. Of course, we’re not total curmudgeons, our catalogue is (almost) fully available across digital formats.” John is very happy to be associated with this very interesting and exploratory company.
Order a 3 xLP and / or 2xCD at the shop now
Recent Review from UNCUT Magazine
The story of Syrinx, told on “Tumblers From The Vault (1970-1972)”, is one that tells of how pop, the avant-garde and strong classical aspirations could get in a fruitful tangle on the cusp of the ’70s. John Mills-Cockell, the Canadian band’s leader, had a hinterland in trad rock (his early band, Kensington Market, were produced by Felix Pappalardi at Electric Ladyland). He had also, though, studied electronic music as an academic discipline – a key to understanding Syrinx’s two beguiling albums, collected here. The synth baroque of Wendy Carlos, and Terry Riley’s timelag meditations are useful reference points, but it’s still hard to imagine, at 45 years’ remove, quite how alien “Syrinx” (1970) and “Long Lost Relatives” (1971) must have sounded upon release, given it’s generally easier to compare Mills-Cockell’s music with subsequent electronica.
http://uncut.co.uk/blog/teenage-fanclub-septembers-album-highlights-reviewed-96284
Formed in Toronto in the late ’60s, Syrinx was John Mills-Cockell on keyboards, Doug Pringle on saxophone, and percussionist Alan Wells.
Mills-Cockell had worked with Kensington Market, recording the AARDVARK album with producer Felix Pappalardi, before moving to Vancouver to join Hydro-Electric Streetcar. He connected with percussionist Wells, and with the support of Pappalardi, they recorded the first tracks for a new album. Moving back to Toronto, the two reconnected with Pringle, who had earlier partnered with Mills-Cockell for art performances, and Syrinx was born.
Mills-Cockell formed the group with the idea of blending what he had learned in classical music with world music influences and the psychedelic pop rock that was running rampant at the time. The first Canadian groups to employ Moog synthesizers in live performances, they were playing the Toronto coffee house circuit when Bernie Finklestein, who’d just started up True North Records, caught them live and signed them to a deal in 1970.
Read more...Their self-titled debut was released that summer, running rampant with synthesized pop that blended eclectic sequencer rhythms and world beats, more often than not courtesy of conga drums. All instrumental and trippy before its time, the record featured several extended tracks, like “Appalosa-Pegasus” and “Chant For Your Dragon King,” both running over 10 minutes each, as well as the eerie “Melina’s Torch” and “Father of Light”, that made it one of the most experimental records of the ’70s anywhere.
The group toured intensively during the early ’70s, playing on bills with Miles Davis on the Bitches Brew tour, and Ravi Shankar in Montreal, and took on ambitious projects writing music for the National Ballet of Canada and the Toronto Dance Theatre. The band’s bigger than life, if not somewhat operatic approach to rock, got the attention of CTV television executives who were looking for someone to write a theme song for a new series, “Here Come The Seventies.” Syrinx was hired, and wrote “Tillicum” or the occasion.
The exposure led to their second album, LONG LOST RELATIVES in ’71, a record that almost didn’t happen. While laying down tracks at Magic Tracks Recording Studios, an accidental fire destroyed much of the studio and all the equipment inside. Undeterred, the band carried on when fellow musicians decided to hold a benefit show for them, cramming over 2,000 people into a the St Lawrence Market hall. They rented time at Eastern Sound, Thunder Sound, and Pathe-Humphries studios to finish the album.
The record was produced by Eugene Martynec again full of forays into the pop realm, often producing opuses over eight minutes long. “Tillicum” was released as a single, and entered Canada’s RPM chart in the top 100, eventually peaking at #38. Other tracks included “December Angel,” originally conceived for Peter Randazzo’s solo dance with the Toronto Dance Theatre. That song, along with “Syren,” “Ibistix,” and “Field Hymn” made up the composition called “Stringspace.”
They got some additional exposure performing on CBC TV’s program “Music to See,” and added Malcolm Tomlinson on drums and vocals for the upcoming tour that saw them play throughout Ontario and selected dates throughout Canada, and shared the stage with the likes of Deep Purple and a roster of international acts at the Strawberry Fields pop festival.
The band quietly folded in 1973 and everyone went on to do outside projects. Tracks from both albums were given a new life in the new millennium, when club DJs began sampling them. Alan Wells passed away in 2010.
Syrinx -“Hollywood Dream Trip”
Audio/video from the RVNG release
Tumblers From the Vault
2016
Front cover of syrinx “Long Lost Relatives”, second album released in 1971 with John Mills-Cockell, Alan Wells, Douglas Pringle
Bart Schoales: album design and photographs
Tillicum, theme from “Here Come the Seventies”
[audio src="https://musicplanet.com/jmcwp/wp-content/uploads/mp3/06tillicum.mp3" /]
A memoir of my time with Syrinx
Michaele Jordana1971- 72
Everyone was seated. The house lights went down, the movie rolled and the music played. And suddenly, a whole new world was upon me.
The music of Syrinx was the sound track to my coming of age as an artist.
Let me backtrack to how it all got started. It was the seventies. I had just graduated from Art School at The University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, where I grew up – and I was at loose ends.
There was nothing to keep me in my home town – so when my art school friend Stefan Czernecki invited me to work with him in Toronto on Icone, a film he was developing with producer Willem Poolman at Film Canada, I jumped at the opportunity.
Read more... There were no speaking parts – It would be a silent film set to music, a visual phenomenon filled with intricate costumes of rich fabric and feathers – designed by Stefan’s companion Granada Gazelle- with elaborate sets and ominous themes. Fast forward ten years and we’d call it an extended rock video. Then it was called an Art Film. Everything was perfect. Toronto was alive with artistic integrity – we were all driven to create something new and fantastic. We had so much to live for – and we were living for one another. After a couple months the filming wrapped and Stefan asked me to drop in at Pathe’s screening theatre to hear the film’s score locked with the picture. It was written by a new Toronto band. Inside the studio, we sat down with a handful of friends, and enter Syrinx – 3 tough looking musicians accompanied by a colorful entourage. I didn’t know what to expect. I hadn’t seen any of the rushes nor had I heard their music. The house lights went down, the movie rolled and the music filled the room with glorious sound. In its newness, every note, every sound was audible and distinct. It was stunning to me how perfectly the music of Syrinx merged with the visuals of Icone. It was hard to find words back then to describe the music because no other group in America was playing anything like it. There was Kraftwork in Europe but even that was different than Syrinx. I didn’t even try to explain the music- my relationship to it was totally experiential. In retrospect I realize the music of Syrinx was classical but also robotic, a first, thanks to the vision and talent of John Mills-Cockell and his Moog synthesizer. I had never seen anyone use a synthesizer before, and was awestruck by the number of symphonic tracks one person could perform at one time. Like the film, there were no vocals… but there was rhythm, in fact a primal beat that lured you in. This constant beat placed your humanity within a system of repetitive electronic motifs and musical patterns that registered in the moment, where it lingered, before sounding into the future. Alan Wells always looked like he was in a trance. He beat his drums with very basic motion, providing a primal quality to the electronics that were rising above the rhythm. Douglas Pringle’s soaring saxophone melodies took the audience to far away places always grounded by John’s hauntingly beautiful sequential music, and held down by Allan’s evocative drumbeat. Douglas used his own unique system of electronics and pedals to create wondrous sounds – gritty in one moment then totally clear and melodic the next. No one had heard anything like this…so hypnotically beautiful, at the same time tough and intense. Syrinx was the first cyber band in the world. They conjured up the future with new electronic machine-instruments that created music that reverberated into the hemispheres. Something was happening and I was thrilled to be part of it. Now I’ve always been attracted to sacred spaces that open up one’s consciousness. They don’t come along too often in this life of ours. It’s not about religion; it’s about the vehicle that allows the spirit to rise. Every time Syrinx played, they created this kind of space. It was the chemistry of John, Douglas and Alan – all playing music together that made Syrinx a uniquely wonderful group. This was a situation where teamwork created a musical spirit greater than any one of them could alone. Not that each musician as an individual wasn’t enormously talented. It was the way their individual sounds merged into a spectacular arrangement that for me, conjured up a three dimensional space of great architectural/musical beauty where I could move effortlessly to the beat of time. They had their following that I’d see at all the performances, people of different ages and backgrounds, both famous and infamous, all with the common love of this new sound that had not yet become mainstream – the sound of Moog synthesizer and electronics in a rock in roll band. No, this wasn’t Chuck Berry or Buddy Holly. But make no mistake; Syrinx was a rock n roll band. Their constant rhythm propelled everything forward. When they played, the audience got up and danced. Whether Syrinx performed at the chic theatre at Cinecity, or the student filled auditorium of York University; whether they accompanied The Toronto Dance Theatre or performed live at the St Lawrence Centre; whether they played in the majestic concert halls of The Manitoba Theatre Centre, Place des Artes in Montreal, or The Okeefe Centre with The National Ballet School; no matter where Syrinx performed, they attracted a growing following of people who understood the new musical space they were creating with sound. And who danced. Summer rolled around –Icone was finished and was scheduled to premiere at the Art Gallery of Ontario the coming fall. Syrinx was working on the theme for a new TV series called “Here Come the 70’s”. One blazing hot day, Stephan Czernecki suggested I join him and our friend Mimi Paige for an outing to the beach. We got in the car and drove out of town to a secluded sandy spot on the water. When we arrived, the place was deserted – just trees, endless beach and a cobalt blue sky. Stefan said “There’s no one around…. why don’t you just jump in?”. Why not? We were young and fearless – without a care in the world. There was no Internet, no digital trail. What he failed to mention was that this wasn’t just a day at the beach – he was shooting footage for an upcoming television series- but I didn’t give it a thought. A few weeks later, I was visiting my grandmother, watching television with her in her suburban Winnipeg living room – and to my complete surprise – there I was- on TV- stark naked in the title sequence of “Here Come The 70’s” – heading into the lake to the sound track of Syrinx’s Tillicum. I didn’t say a word. I don’t know if the flush in my cheeks was a give away, but if my grandmother had caught on, she didn’t say a thing. I excused myself from the living room and without missing a beat, called on a lawyer friend for a favor. The producers were reluctant to pull the shot, but in the end, the scene was removed. I knew it was my own fault. Years later, my grandmother and Douglas shared a chuckle about the whole incident. How could I ever have guessed that in just a few years time I would become a painter then a musician in fast succession, that a trip to the North Pole with Douglas, the saxophone player in Syrinx, would lead to our life long partnership, the creation of our New Wave band The Poles…and that we’d eventually have a daughter together? Now it’s come full circle. Avatar Secrets, an interactive film for the Ipad, written and produced by our daughter Ramona, features the music of Syrinx in one of the ten chapters. The Canadian electronic band that pioneered Moog synthesizers so long ago, and that changed my own destiny has contributed their timeless, hauntingly beautiful and evocative music, December Angel, again, perfectly suited to Avatar Secrets, and to the art of a new generation..
