Well, this one's quite the oddity. It took me a couple tries of listening to find the right headspace for this sort of thing. The majority of it appears to be various acapella experiments from vocalist Suzanne Doucet with occasional guitar accompaniment. It was a 3xLP release that apparently came with a mirror in the center part of the cover (seems to have fallen off from most surviving copies). Presumably, each of the three records are sectioned as "Trip (In / Out) / Flip Out (Wrong/Right) / Meditation (Point / Circle)", with every track being full-sided containing various movements.
LP A/B: Trip (In / Out)
A1. Beginning
A2. Analysis of Tune
A3. To Hear Inside
A4. A Very Simple Song
B1. Misty Tour
B2. Water Sound
B3. Television
B4. Organ Dreams (A Very Simple Song)
LP C/D: Flip Out (Wrong / Right)
C1. Childrens' Golden Garden
C2. To Become a Child
C3. Children's Golden Garden
D1. Everything Returns
D2. Indian Child
D3. The Theory of Relativity
LP E/F: Meditation (Point / Circle)
E1. Atomical Fantasy (Electronic)
E2. Incarnation
E3. Childhood's Church
E4. Life Train
E5. Dream of Love and Death
E6. Atomical Fantasy
F1. A Verdi's Soul Born Again
F2. Mind Beat
F3. Himalaya's Way
F4. Heaven Bridge
F5. Out of Time
F6. Atomical Fade Out
In Depth
I would say the first 10 or so minutes (A1 and A2?) of this album seem deceptively insubstantial compared to everything else, picking up almost immediately by the second half of side A (In) with some interesting guitar experiments. Side B (Out) has all these strange watery vocal effects and psychedelic synth organ drones.
The second LP "Flip Out" goes right into more crazy vocal experimentation, including lots of pitched up chattering reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma." The second side (Right) has more intense experiments with field recordings of various kinds of voices, starting off with what sounds like a rollercoaster filled with people speeding through an enormous cold and empty metal chamber. There are a couple parts to Right that are even straight-up noise. The second half of Right, into more high pitched voices reminiscent of the previous side (Wrong), with strange hypnotic singing.
I really like the start of Meditation: Point, which I presume to be Atomical Fantasy (Electronic). More of those bird like synth noises reminiscent of Morton Subotnik. I felt pretty bored from the sections after that one, which sounds like random percussion banging and someone who doesn't know how to play recorder and accordion. I acknowledge examples of non-musicians such as Cosi Fanni Tutti's trumpet playing in TG. I guess it's all subjective as to when such things are enjoyable, and I'm not sure if I can give a consistent answer as to why and when I'm into something like that. The second half of Point has some pretty cool atmospheric musique concrète, followed by more silly recorder noodling, random baroque organ, and more accordion drones which are kind of cool at times. This LP side started out promising but mostly lost my interest by the second half, with occasional redeeming elements here and there.
By the final LP side (Circle) I feel pretty uninterested. More percussion banging without variation, just a straight beat and not a particularly interesting texture that doesn't stop for the first 7 minutes, over more random accordion and organ noodling. At around 7:30 there's some guitar plucking. It's slow, and seems like it would be cool if I was anticipating some epic buildup, but knowing there will be no payoff, no lead up to any sort of coherent progression I find that I just don't care. The strumming remains pretty much the same with little variation before going into some other random section of field recording and recorder. Now I mostly just feel relieved that the album is almost over. I do like the section at around 13 minutes, that has shingles and more of those bird synths noises. It really seemed like there was potential here for a really far out LP, but this just isn't it. Most of the time it seems there's little thought put into how these sounds are presented, given little to no melodic or rhythmic variation, any interesting elements being almost incidental. Perhaps I just don't see what she sees in these experiments.
Overall
Whether you find this album enjoyable all depends on your threshold for prolonged minimal sound experiments, primarily vocals, accordion, recorder, and organ. If you have the patience for modern classical artists like John Cage, or liked Pink Floyd's "Ummagumma", Mike Patton's "Adult Sounds for Voice", the original Amon Düül, or maybe John and Yoko's "Unfinished Music No. 1-2" this is right up your alley. It was a challenge to get through with occasional payoff. It seems like it tries to come off as a highly conceptualized experiment but instead falls flat, sounding random, amateur, and limited in its scope and understanding of avant-garde musical possibilities. It is kind of neat that a mostly conventional pop singer would want to go far out and do something like this, but perhaps if she'd applied herself a little more or learned some instruments instead of what sounds to be like a collage of noises quickly thrown together it could have been more interesting. But on the other hand, maybe there's also a place for amateur stream of consciousness experiments like this too. You decide. 4/10
