In a Wild Sanctuary

Beaver & Krause's fascination with electronics did little to temper their enthusiasm for blues-rock, classical, gospel and jazz, each of which were used for selected tracks on these two radical albums reissued by Warner Archives in 1994. The first veers from spiky computer-pop to Switched-On Bach classical interpretations, evocative space music to soul-jazz numbers complete with Hammond organ, plus a bout of tribal percussion with a South-seas melody on "People's Park." The partly live album Gandharva is more of the same, except for the final five tracks, which were recorded live at Grace Cathedral. The Moog is the star of the show on several tracks, and while a few reeds do enter, it's all part of the same mood (for once on the LP). Taken together, In a Wild Sanctuary and Gandharva are two of the wildest LPs to come from the electronics boom of the early '70s.