Electronic music and the instruments that generate it are so much a part of popular culture these days that we take it all for granted. In the digital age, pretty much anyone with some feel for modern music can generate a reasonable facsimile of it with a computer, some ProTools software and an inexpensive keyboard. But electronic music has been around long enough that there is a sense of nostalgia for the days when electronic sounds were generated via analog means, with oscillators, and vintage analog Moog synthesizers have become hot collector’s items.

Back in 1971, Paul Bley was an avant-garde jazz pianist best known for his work in bringing a Bill Evans-like sense of space and interplay to the American jazz avant-garde. Whereas most avant-garde musicians and free improvisers were fairly bombastic in their approaches, Bley, with such cohorts as bassist Steve Swallow and drummer Barry Altchsul, stripped down the free improv sound to match the dynamics of the acoustic jazz piano trio. Bley also encouraged his first wife, Carla, to explore her inspirations as a composer and arranger, much to the betterment of modern jazz. By ’71 Bley had a second wife, Annette Peacock (formerly married to bassist Gary Peacock) and began to explore the possible connections between free jazz improvisation, electronic music, and the more surreal and poetic reaches of rock music. Neither Bley nor Peacock had much idea what to do with the Moog synthesizer they were personally given by Robert Moog, but like many in that experimental era, they quickly figured out how to make the instrument do some sonically interesting things. Bley convinced Moog that his new electronic instrument could not succeed without the input of live performing artists and the ability to use the instrument to perform live. Bley’s live experiments laid the groundwork for Moog’s release of the Minimoog, a more live performance-friendly instrument that was used by rock pioneers such as Keith Emerson and Rick Wakeman.

“With the synthesizer band I made some records,” recalls Bley. “Between April 1969 and October 1971 I made ten synthesizer records, of which Annette Peacock did voice synthesis on eight, one of which she is the leader on.” By the time of the recording Improvisie on March 26, 1971 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Bley and Peacock had almost finished their journey into electronic music and electronics together. The following year Peacock would release her first solo album, I’m the One and Bley would release the solo piano album Open to Love on ECM, beginning a long association with the label.

Improvisie features two long pieces. “Improvisie” begins meditatively, with the blended sounds of acoustic and electric piano as well as the synthesizers, all supported by percussionist Hans Bennink’s playful array of sounds. As one would expect, Bennink’s role is never one of timekeeper, but rather always focused on adding additional texture to the music. Things gradually build until both Bennink and the synthesizers are providing interjections rather than mere statements, then quickly dissipate into the ending, which is again rather quiet. This is not, as some might suppose, rational music to be approached with the brain, but very emotional music that can only be apprehended by ceasing to attempt to apprehend it. The second piece, “Touching” is a Peacock composition that first appeared on Bley’s 1965 album of the same name. Here, a long intro with a willfully percussive acoustic piano solo from Peacock leads to her vocal, a gothic piece of poetry: “All of my dreams are of you/As the sun is setting slow-ly/As life seems sure to show me, how lonely/and my life's a useless waste, if I can't share its pleasure with you..." That section is followed by a section that develops a strong sense of pulsing rhythm, with Bennink throwing out a bit of an Elvin Jones groove until the rhythm dissolves into a free improv section for the synthesizers before a restatement of the lyrics and closing.

Improvisie provides a welcome document of the period’s first experimentations with live performances incorporating synthesizers, as well as filling important gaps in the discographies of both Bley and Peacock. Though there are moments when the music is a bit reminiscent of an Italian zombie flick, the overall effect is one that keeps the listener interested and demonstrates new approaches for both electronic music and free jazz that very few have ever followed up on.