What are you listening to?

Wed, 11/12/2008 - 11:11pm by Clarence Cromwell

Bo Hansson's 1972 album "Lord of the Rings" is like "a Renaissance fair with MOOG synthesizers," in the words of one staff person at Encore Recordings of Ann Arbor.

Patrick Pyne said he took the 36-year-old LP off the shelf and put it on the turntable one afternoon last week, because he likes the psychedelic vibe of the MOOG synthesizer. He has also enjoyed a Hansson album entitled "Magicians hat," which he described as "silly, but a good record."

Hansson also used drums, guitars, standard organs, and a saxophone to produce the album. But the MOOG is what lends the music its ethereal sound.

Pyne, a musician himself, said he likes the artistic innocence he perceives in Hanssons work, which he summed up as unpretentious. He said he's also been listening to Bruce Haack, another musician who used synthesizers to compose, but who built his own.

"This is just stuff that has been attracting my ear lately," he said.

Pyne plays various instruments for a local band called Wide-Eyed, for which he is also in charge of recording and producing. They've played at the Blind Pig, and at Ypsilanti's Dreamland Theater. More information about them can be found at Wide-EyedRock.com.