Alan Parsons Project, The - Tales Of Mystery And Imagination
Label: 20th Century Records
Catalog#: 6370 243 A
Format: Vinyl, LP, Album
Country: Italy
Released: 1976
Genre: Rock
Style: Pop Rock, Prog Rock, Symphonic Rock
Tracklist
A1 A Dream Within A Dream
A2 The Raven
A3 The Tell-Tale Heart
A4 The Cask Of Amontillado
A5 (The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether
The Fall Of The House Of Usher
B1-i Prelude
B1-ii Arrival
B1-iii Intermezzo
B1-iv Pavane
B1-v Fall
B2 To One In Paradise
Notes:
The album was recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios, London, between July 1975 and January 1976.
Mastered at Abbey Road Studios, London
Printed Inner Sleeve
Discogs Url: http://www.discogs.com/Alan-Parsons-Project-Tales-Of-Mystery-And-Imagination/release/1793102
Tales of Mystery and Imagination is the debut album by the progressive rock group The Alan Parsons Project, released in 1976. The album's avant-garde soundscapes kept it from being a blockbuster, but the interesting lyrical and musical themes — retellings of horror stories and poetry by Edgar Allan Poe — attracted a small audience. The title of the album is taken from a popular title for Poe's macabre tales of the same name, Tales of Mystery & Imagination, first published in 1908 and many times since under this name. Critical reaction to the album was often mixed; for example, Rolling Stone's Billy Altman concluded that it mostly failed at reproducing Poe's tension and macabre fear, ending by claiming that "devotees of Gothic literature will have to wait for someone with more of the macabre in their blood for a truer musical reading of Poe's often terrifying works".[1]
This album was released in the U.K. originally with a different name. Simply called The Alan Parsons Project, it was successful enough to achieve gold status but later that year the same album was released under the name ofTales of Mystery and Imagination.
"The Raven" features actor Leonard Whiting on lead vocals, with Alan Parsons performing vocals through an EMI vocoder. According to the album's liner notes, "The Raven" was the first rock song ever to feature a digital vocoder.
The Prelude of "The Fall of the House of Usher", although uncredited, is based on the opera fragment "La chute de la maison Usher" by Claude Debussy which was composed in 1908-1917.[2]
Tales of Mystery and Imagination peaked at #38 on Billboard's Pop Albums chart. "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr And Professor Fether" peaked at #37 on the Pop Singles chart.
The original version of the album was available for several years on vinyl and cassette, but was not immediately available on CD. This was due in part to Parsons' desire to rework some tracks. In 1987, Parsons completely remixed the album, including additional guitar passages and narration (by Orson Welles) as well as updating the production style to include heavy reverb and the gated drum sound of the 80s. The CD notes that Welles never met Parsons or Eric Woolfson, but sent a tape to them of the performance shortly after the album was manufactured in 1976. In 1994 Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) released the original 1976 version on CD (UDCD-606), making the original available digitally for the first time. In 2007, a Deluxe Edition released by Universal Music included both the 1976 and the 1987 versions remastered by Alan Parsons during 2006 with eight additional bonus tracks. [i]wikipedia[/i]
Technical Information:
Washed LP>
AT120E>
Dual CS 505-3>
Kenwood C1>
Gold platted Cable>
Edirol R09HR @ 24/96>
Sandisc Extreme III SDHC Card>
HDD
Wavelab 5
ClickRepair 3/0 (manual mode)
Recorded and mixed at Abbey Road Studios, London, between July 1975 and January 1976.
Mastered at Abbey Road Studios, London
Tales of Mystery and Imagination is an extremely mesmerizing aural journey through some of Edgar Allan Poe's most renowned works. With the use of synthesizers, drums, guitar, and even a glockenspiel, Parsons' shivering effects make way for an eerie excursion into Poe's well-known classics. The instrumental "Dream Within a Dream" has Orson Welles narrating in front of this wispy collaboration of guitars and keyboards. The EMI vocoder is used throughout "The Raven" with the Westminister City School Boys Choir mixed in to add a distinct flair to it's chamber-like sound. Parsons' expertise surrounds this album, from the slyness that prevails in "(The System Of) Doctor Tarr and Professor Feather" to the bodeful thumping of the drums that imitate a heartbeat on "The Tell-Tale Heart." "The Fall of the House of Usher" is a lengthy but dazzling array of musicianship that keeps the album's persona in tact, while enabling the listener to submerge into it's frightening atmosphere. With vocalists Terry Sylvester, John Miles, and Eric Woolfson stretched across each track, this variety of different singing styles adds color and design to the album's air. Without any underlying theme to be pondered upon, Alan Parsons instead paints a vivid picture of one of the most alluring literary figures in history by musically reciting his most famous works in expert fashion.