PATHFINDERS, THE - Imagine Something Yesterday

"Recorded by The Pathfinders -- Roger Cleghorn and Malcolm Garrett -- Imagine Something Yesterday is a compendium of playful explorations with analog synthesizers and distorted found sounds, made without an actual release in mind. Former art and design students at Manchester Polytechnic, The Pathfinders were sharing a flat together in London when Malcolm was establishing his graphic design studio, Assorted iMaGes, on Tottenham Court Road and Roger was studying for a Fine Art MA at Chelsea. These experiments from the 15th floor of a tower block in the Isle of Dogs, London were captured directly on a reel-to-reel tape recorder over a period of a few months at the tail end of 1980 and the beginning of 1981. Further embellishments were made at Chelsea School of Art. The equipment used included Yamaha CS-10, ARP Axxe, EMS VCS3, TEAC A-3340, Bang & Olufsen Beogram 1202, and Beolab 1700. Listeners may identify the aural influence of electronic pioneers such as Cluster, Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno, Cabaret Voltaire, or Throbbing Gristle and they would not be wrong as these were indeed some of the musicians whose records were frequently played at home by The Pathfinders around that time. With almost 40 years having elapsed since recording, memories are sketchy with regard to who made what noise where -- The Pathfinders could hardly be described as being musicians who jammed together -- but everything ended up compiled onto a couple of cassette tapes, where they have languished ever since -- the "master" reel-to-reel tapes seemingly lost forever. Only one track from these sessions, "Long Shadows", was previously published, on Touch's 1983 Meridians 1 compilation. Imagine Something Yesterday features almost all of the other surviving recordings. A tantalizing additional 14 minutes of sound remains unreleased, the full running time being just too long for comfortable release on one cassette. The Pathfinders remain Roger Cleghorn and Malcolm Garrett." - The Tapeworm .