Classitronica: Reader Mike Leghorn sent word, via the synthesizer forum, about his progress on a new synthesized arrangement of Holst’s The Planets. So far, Leghorn has completed his versions of Mars and Mercury.
Tackling The Planets is a huge and interesting undertaking. Tomita did a seminal synth cover in the 70’s, along with Patrick Gleeson. Others have been tackling the work since.
The various versions offer insight both into the musicians making the arrangements and times, because synth technology and tastes have changed so much in the last 40 years.
Check out Mike’s arrangement and let him know what you think. You can follow his progress on his SoundCloud page.
The timbres are spot on. Excellent.
My schoolfriend Chris and I pooled our meagre finances and managed to snatch a copy of Tomita’s LP of ‘The Planets’ the day after it was banned by Holst’s family, claiming it ‘demeaned’ his work, and I’m a big fan of Tomita’s version. However, this is every bit as good. Mike, I’ll buy the final Suite without a moment’s hesitation. Good call, great sounds.
I heard this on Rugrats I’m pretty sure…You when Tommy was trying to help Chuckie escape from Reptar
Hey, this is Mike. Thanks everyone for your encouraging feedback! Jupiter is coming along nicely. I should have that done (and on Soundcloud) in a few weeks.
A commendable effort! I did the whole Planets Suite a few years back along with music inspired by it on an album entitled AD ASTRA. You can find it up on iTunes and CDBaby.com to name a few. There’s few videos from tracks on YouTube as well.
Best success to you! I would love to hear your finished project.
Rob Astor
Thanks for sharing that Rob. I sampled some of your tracks on CDBaby. Very interesting! Btw, I completed Jupiter a couple weeks ago: http://soundcloud.com/mike-leghorn/jupiter.
Mike