CLEARLIGHT-CIRCUITS MAXIMUS, LP, 1984, USA
With a cover that begs you to overlook it and a name more commonly associated with a 70's French prog band and the 60's psych pop unit, this lost slab of brilliance from the sadly deceased mind of visionary avant gardist and occult initiate Jerry Hunt managed to slip past many, with his work in Clearlight seeming to have been deliberately omitted from any discussion on the Jerry Hunt homepage or much of anywhere else online that refers to his work. Don't let it slip by you.
Hunt's mad genius and completely singular mysticism-steeped approach rendered him marginalized during his life, which ended in 1993 at his own hand after a cancer diagnosis, though a spate of posthumous releases of his electronic works on Tzadik, CRI and ?Whats Next? managed to raise his profile a tad. Despite ultimately becoming an atheist, Hunt would litter his recordings and performances with ritualistic invocations of the sundry mystical systems that he'd once steeped himself in, from Rosicrucianism to Kabbala to Enochian Magic. I've never fully recovered from seeing an old video of Jerry's, with the grand old man madly puckering and blowing out his lips in accordance with some private ritualized system, or, elsewhere, leaping about the stage in coded occult gestures while waving about rattles and other props which in turn triggered various electronic sounds by his movements. His universe is best explored at length here, but during the time that he was engaged in his more formal solo experiments, Hunt was also a member of this Dallas-based ensemble that also featured one-time Doc Severinsen sideman turned Dallas Symphony Orchestra percussionist Ron Snyder and which would produce two albums during their lifetime, the first of which "As Above, So Below" will follow soon.
01. Circuits Maximus 20:40
02. Circuits Maximus (Finale) 8:24
03. Pete's Tango (Solo) 4:28
04. Ohm Sweet Om 5:23
Composed By – Jerry Hunt (tracks: A to B1, B3), Larry White (tracks: A to B1, B3), Pete Brewer (tracks: A to B3), Ron Snider (tracks: A to B1, B3)
Design [Cover Design] – Heinz Hennicke
Electronics [Emulator] – Jerry Hunt
Electronics [Moog Source], Performer [Woodwinds] – Pete Brewer
Engineer [Recording] – Bob Gentry
Guitar [Pedal Steel] – Larry White
Mastered By – Allen Zentz
Mixed By [Mixing Engineer] – Larry White
Percussion – Ron Snider
Producer – Ron Snider
Producer [Associate] – Larry White
Hunt's mad genius and completely singular mysticism-steeped approach rendered him marginalized during his life, which ended in 1993 at his own hand after a cancer diagnosis, though a spate of posthumous releases of his electronic works on Tzadik, CRI and ?Whats Next? managed to raise his profile a tad. Despite ultimately becoming an atheist, Hunt would litter his recordings and performances with ritualistic invocations of the sundry mystical systems that he'd once steeped himself in, from Rosicrucianism to Kabbala to Enochian Magic. I've never fully recovered from seeing an old video of Jerry's, with the grand old man madly puckering and blowing out his lips in accordance with some private ritualized system, or, elsewhere, leaping about the stage in coded occult gestures while waving about rattles and other props which in turn triggered various electronic sounds by his movements. His universe is best explored at length here, but during the time that he was engaged in his more formal solo experiments, Hunt was also a member of this Dallas-based ensemble that also featured one-time Doc Severinsen sideman turned Dallas Symphony Orchestra percussionist Ron Snyder and which would produce two albums during their lifetime, the first of which "As Above, So Below" will follow soon.
01. Circuits Maximus 20:40
02. Circuits Maximus (Finale) 8:24
03. Pete's Tango (Solo) 4:28
04. Ohm Sweet Om 5:23
Composed By – Jerry Hunt (tracks: A to B1, B3), Larry White (tracks: A to B1, B3), Pete Brewer (tracks: A to B3), Ron Snider (tracks: A to B1, B3)
Design [Cover Design] – Heinz Hennicke
Electronics [Emulator] – Jerry Hunt
Electronics [Moog Source], Performer [Woodwinds] – Pete Brewer
Engineer [Recording] – Bob Gentry
Guitar [Pedal Steel] – Larry White
Mastered By – Allen Zentz
Mixed By [Mixing Engineer] – Larry White
Percussion – Ron Snider
Producer – Ron Snider
Producer [Associate] – Larry White