(various artists, GNP Crescendo 2146, October 26, 1981)
Conceived by Neil Norman
Steve Roach
Tangerine Dream
Don Preston
Neil Norman
Alex Cima
Bruce Curtois
& more
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Frank Zappa engineering on track 5
Frank Zappa plays tambourine and provides engineering assistance on the Don Preston track "On The Throne Of Saturn".
I have just received that album and listened to the Preston track. It includes some percussive sound effects that are very Varesean / Zappaesque, so it's hard to believe that Zappa's contribution here is only tambourine and engineering assistance. Anybody knows better?
The real name of the piece is "The Thrones Of Saturn" Zappa did not play on the piece but some time around 1969 Zappa had me play on the 3 gongs I had at the time and he engineered the recording changing the filters as I played. I re-released the piece on a CD called Io Landscapes which can be found on my web site www.donpreston.com
IB: I have just been reading Greg Russo's excellent book, Cosmik Debris, which implies that you hooked up with Frank in 1981 to record a track called 'On The Throne Of Saturn' for the 'Music From The 21st Century' compilation.
DP: Completely wrong. The Mothers were recording 'Burnt Weeny' and I had all my gongs set up. I arrived at the studio first and Zappa suggested that we record some free improvisation with the gongs. So he engineered and I played. That is all Zappa had to do with that piece. Another error to do with that piece is the name. I originally called it 'The Thrones Of Saturn' based on a book The Inner Realities Of Evolution by Rudolf Steiner. In the book he describes beings that live on Saturn called Thrones. That track is available on the CD 'Io Landscapes' [available from Don's Store] which is mostly electronic or 'music concrete' in style. Most of the material on 'Thrones' was done with a large modular Moog.