Syrinx was an electronic
music ensemble led by John Mills-Cockell (Arp andMoog synthesizers and
keyboards), with Doug Pringle (saxophone, guiro,bongos, bells) and Alan
Wells (congas, percussion). Mills-Cockellstudied at the University of
Toronto's Faculty of Music, and taughtelectronic music at the Royal Conservatory
of Music. The three metduring the time of Toronto's awakening avant-garde
music scene in the
late '60s. They were signed by Bernie Finkelstein, and had the secondalbum
on the True North label in 1970. Their music rather defiesdescription,
so I'm not even going to try. Suffice it to say that Syrinx were electronic
music pioneers in the same league with Bernie Krause and Paul Beaver,
and had perfected synthesis methodologies before Kraftwerk had rendered
a single bleep.
The group wasapproached by
Hobel-Leiterman Productions to create a theme for theirnew television
series, "Here Come The Seventies," which aired on theCTV network.
"Tillicum" was the result. The single was released inApril 1971,
charted in RPM at #77 with a bullet on May 8th, and reached #38 on June
5th. The track was included on their second album, "Long Lost Relatives"
on True North TNX-5. |
