Joseph Byrd‘s electronic take on Carol of the Bells comes from his rare 1975 album, A Christmas Yet To Come.
A Christmas Yet To Come features traditional Christmas carols, arranged for synthesizer in a fairly restrained ‘switched on’ style.
Here’s Byrd’s Deck The Halls:
A Christmas Yet To Come appears to be out of print, but Amazon has some copies on CD and vinyl.
via funkybeatdown, Switched-On
I have this old LP and its pretty impressive when he does some less-known English pieces. He used a duophonic ARP 2600 and IIRC, a MiniMoog, but in a way that gave them a little added character as monophonic sources. Its similar to a woodwind trio in action, even with the early cheese-patches of the time. I recommend it in the same vein as an early TONTO album: quirky & quacky, but also a worthwhile part of the lexicon. As with early dub, its interesting to see what people do the first time they lay hands to these toys.
Joe Byrd is also known for his pioneering use of electronics in rock with his groups the United States of America and Joe Byrd and the Field Hippies. A huge influence on the band Broadcast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0tgPs6S_pE