George Harrison-
Electronic Sound

Date: 1969
Zapple Records, Hollywood, CA

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In honor of the passing of George Harrison, I decided to feature one of his lesser known albums as 8-track of the moment. Featuring just two long tracks performed on Moog synthesizer, this was some pretty unusual music to be coming from a Beatle in 1969. In those days, only groups like the Beatles or the Stones could afford or have access to a Moog. It's pretty good stuff if you like electronic noodling, but it's not for the "My Sweet Lord" set.

Here's what allmusic.com has to say about the release:

"Hard as it is to believe, George Harrison, guitar picker, was also an electronic music pioneer - as these two lengthy, abstract tone poems for early Moog synthesizer reveal. A naif in the electronic sphere, George had a lot of help putting this music together, particularly from ace California electronic composer Bernie Krause. Krause is given "assistance" credit for the latter piece instead of the former - which is significant because "No Time Or Space" is the masterpiece of the record. Dramatically structured, unearthly in its pitchless writhing, flamboyantly manipulating pink and white noise from the opening electronic gun battle onward, "No Time Or Space" is still an entertaining listening experience - and some of its passages would turn up later in the "I Remember Jeep" jam from Harrison's All Things Must Pass album. The shorter "Mersey Wall," recorded in Harrison's Esher bungalow with his own Moog, is a low-key, drifting affair, not quite as virtuosic in its handling of abstract sound, nor nearly as theatrical. 

"Though scoffed at when they were released, these pieces can hold their own and then some with many of those of other, more seriously-regarded electronic composers. And when you consider that synthesizers were only capable of playing one note at a time and sounds could not be stored or recalled with the push of a button, the achievement becomes even more remarkable. Alas, George never followed up on this direction which, like the Zapple label, was abandoned after this release." — Richard S. Ginell