Take a trip back in time with Syrinx's Tumblers From The Vault, out on Revenge International Records.
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You had to be an explorer of the obscure side of early 70s rock to come across the Canadian group, Syrinx. Syrinx started in the psychedelic climate of the 1960s when John Mills-Cockell was in a multi-media group called Intersystems. Syrinx was in the first generation to take the synthesizer into more contemporary, non-classical terrain.
Their name sits along side bands like 50-Foot Hose, Lothar and the Hand People, Tonto’s Expanding Headband and other lost pioneers of electronic music. I discovered their two albums in the early 1970s and fell in love with Syrinx’s atmospheric sound, free structures and electronic melodies that seemed born of some mystical manifestations.
Now, these albums have been re-issued for the very first time as part of a collection called Tumblers From The Vault. I talked to the two surviving members of the trio, John Mills-Cockell and Doug Pringle.
Some notable quotes:
John Mills-Cockell: He told me “We’re inviting Timothy Leary and The Fugs, and uh you know, these various notables of the LSD explosion. And I’m building a series of environments, sensory environments that people will go through and have a psychedelic experience, a mind-expanding experience. And so you’re gonna do the sound for these rooms.”
Doug Pringle: We used to take the bus down to Manhattan and stay for three or four nights at the Y, and listen to to Coltrane.
Recorded 45 years ago, Syrinx is a blip in the careers of John Mills-Cockell and Doug Pringle, but the new reissue has brought it back anew. Syrinx’s Tumblers From The Vault is a 2 CD set with both Syrinx albums and a bonus disc of alternate tracks and live performances. It’s out on Revenge International Records.
Hear them talk about it in the Echoes Podcast.