If you are into exotica, this is a place to post links to classic exotica albums. There are no rules, but I will be interested to hear about why you like the albums that you choose to post.
I will start with Les Baxter's "Le Sacre du Sauvage." Not Les's best exotica album IMO, but the album that formed the template for many exotica albums by other artists that followed.
The 10" version is thematically more cohesive, but the 12" version is the more common.
My most played Les Baxter exotica albums are Ports of Pleasure (sumptuously orchestrated) and Tamboo (exciting rhythms). But I'll concentrate now more on some of the gorgeous pieces rather than albums, eh?
Great choices! I started with "Le Sacre" only because it sort of created the exotica template, but all of Baxter's exotica albums are great, at least all of the ones on Capitol.
Tamboo! may be the best one overall, only because as an early exotica album - Baxter's second - it laid the groundwork for many of the explorations on his subsequent albums.
Next up is Warren Barker's "Far Away Places" on WB:
Remember that Notefornote Music is putting out an official WB licensed CD of Frank Comstock's "Music From Outer Space" this year. Get hyped for space age! Maybe we can get Notefornote to do that Warren Barker album too!
Wonderful idea for a thread indeed, and I wonder if you very knowledgable fellas might entertain a question about "variations" on this sound and what else might be out there.
I love a lot of the harmonies and ideas on these albums (and I still have plenty to listen through - thank you Youtube!) but in truth the rhythm section stuff just dates it too much for me sometime.
Are there any albums that encompassed this lush sound, but did so in a more "conservatively orchestral" way, a la this utterly GORGEOUS arrangement of Cyrill Scott's "Lotus Land" by the amazing Wally Stott (aka Angela Morley)? Obviously cut closely from the Exotica/sumptuous easy listening mold of the era, sans the pop-sound infusion.
This wonderful piece (previously posted on this board) is another great example:
You fellas know any great albums with more music like this - or even scores, perhaps?
OnyaBirri may or may not be already aware of those which follow, but I post them here anyway because I think these soundtracks can enter into Onya's nebulous definition of exotica - which includes luxuriant/hedonistic orchestrations and-or 'ethnic' modes.
First, the late-1950s LPs.
Tiomkin's Search for Paradise (1957, RCA)
Lavagnino's The Lost Continent (1957, MGM)
Plus a few more fictional items in contrast to the two above 'travelogue' cinema documents.
Friedhofer's Boy on a Dolphin (1957, Decca) Greek-flavored with some cues of wordless female vocalize
Never on LP, but released on a Varese Sarabande Club CD, is what I consider as a granddaddy of cinema exotica: Bird of Paradise by Daniele Amfitheatrof.
Amfitheatrof's dense orchestrations and detailed compositions are similar to the highly chromatic concert works by the likes of Szymanowski, Scriabin, Raitio, etc.
One month since my last post - and still no further feedback from OnyaBirri?
Recently, my mind thought about Florent Schmitt's music for the 1925 silent film Salammbô.
This may not be entirely 'exotica' in content, but it has enough elements from exotica to be worth at least a sample exploration. This album is also a cross-over curio as it is a film score by a 'classical' composer but produced/performed/marketed for consumers of orchestral concert programs.
I remember buying this CD (an import) @ Tower Records around 1995 when it appeared as a 'new' release. Discs issued on the Ades label can be quite rare nowadays and copies not easy to track down, but Salammbô looks to be an exception in this regard.
