Released January 1970 Studio Olympic Studios Artist Sunforest Producer Vic Coppersmith-Heaven | Recorded Late-1969 Length 39:47 Release date 1969 Label Deram Nova | |
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Genres Folk music, Psychedelic folk | ||
Sound of Sunforest is the first and only studio album by the English psychedelic folk group, Sunforest. The album follows arrangements involved with medieval and electric sounds in a psychedelic style. The band's material offered diverse and unique sound, but without a hit single the album did not sell successfully.
Contents
For the album, session musicians like Big Jim Sullivan (who played the guitar on Gainsbourg's "Je t'aime") and Herbie Flowers (who also played the bass line of "Space Oddity" by David Bowie) along with multiple other classical musicians took part in recording. Two tracks from the album, "Overture to the Sun" and "Lighthouse Keeper" were re-recorded by the band to be used in Stanley Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange. The soundtrack album credits the tracks to Terry Tucker and Erika Eigen, respectively.
Popularity
When the album first came out it did not sell much, probably because it missed a hit single and also because of the multiple musical styles being featured. In October 2004, a section about Sunforest was published in the British magazine Record Collector; copies of the original record happened to fetch, in 2004, more than $100. Despite low sales, its use by Stanley Kubrick has given a hint of immortality to Sound of Sunforest, and we can also mention that the album has been repressed multiple times starting from 2000.
Musical style
Even though there is a distinct progressive musical direction throughout the whole album, it contains tracks of very different nature, that's also why it is difficult to attribute a definite style to Sunforest.
The track "Overture to the Sun" was written like a Renaissance piece, whereas "Lighthouse keeper" is rather funky or pop. "Garden Rug" includes a bit of fanfare, while in "All in good time", we can hear excerpts of the kyrie in Latin. Last, "Magician in the mountain" sets a contrast with its funk, jazz and groove tones.
Repressed discs and records released
Sound of Sunforest has had at least six reissues since 2000, some of them are non-official bootlegs.
When the album first came out in January 1970, in the UK, it had the label "Deram Nova" which is a sub-label of Deram Records, itself sub-label of Decca Records. At that time, Decca was in competition with EMI, and the Nova series allowed it to release new kinds of music.
Then came the represses:
Songs
1Overture to the Sun1:40
2Where Are You2:42
3Bonny River2:41