SOUNDS OF SALVATION - An exploration in worship LP (Reflection RL 310)
This is the album that has inspired this blog (obvious from the title really!). What they call a blind punt, quite literally picked up off the floor of a local flea market where someone had unceremoniously dropped it.
This is one difficult album to explain.
Released in 1974 by a Christian group from Cambridge University, it ranges from a long introduction of sound collages depicting everyday life (strangely akin to the KLF's Chill out album), through a very dark Psychedelic track "Overseers", then through prayers, acid folk & twisted rock.
It really does need to be listened to in it's entirity as it does flow despite the strange marrying of styles.
The female voices are particulary strong, along with some superb guitar work, especially in the more acid moments. What manages to really make this work for me are the arrangements, they are very different from traditional arrangements, and that makes for a refreshing listen.
I don't feel that the soundfiles i've uploaded are representative of the album as a whole, but they are an introduction to a strange world; a world where people ask the Lord what it is like to burn & where peoples eyes are scratched out so we can see through them.
As a foot note, the stamps on my copy show that it once belonged to a hospital radio station. Now there's a thought!
Although inactive for many years the group behind Refection records have now come back together & are releasing the albums on CD.
I hope i have inspired at least one or two of you to buy the CD.
If anyone connected with this album is reading, we would love to hear your recollections.
