Various Artists — I’d Love to Turn You On-Classical and Avant-Garde

I’d Love to Turn You On is a highly worthy, consistent, and genre varied three-CD compilation that digs into the sonic influences on 60’s counter-culture artists such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Syd Barret, Frank Zappa, Soft Machine & more. The release appears on El another one of the Cherry Red family of labels.

The three-CD set comes in a card slip- with each disc coming in its own CD sleeve. The sets topped off with a  thick thirty five-page booklet, this features write-ups & explanation for each of the compilations fifty-two tracks- which makes for a generally fascinating read.

The first disc focus in on The Beatles & their famous producer George Martin- the discs fifteen cd starts with traditional classical music from Bach & Beethoven.
After to this, we move into more avant modern classical fare from Xenakis, Stockhausen, Berio & Cage.  Before moving onto Bernard Herrmann’s score for Psycho( which was the main influence on the strings in Eleanor Rigby).  Then we dart off to some Shakespear, Ravi Shankar, Debussy & Holst. This first disc flows in a very pleasing/ surprising manner- blending together more harmonic & Avant fare very well.

Moving onto the second disc, and we have a few more tracks that influenced The Beatles/ Martin- going from Vaughan Williams to Bach. By track five we dip into more jazzy fare with two tracks that influenced Pink Floyds Rick Wright & Syd Barret- taking a Bill Evans & Sun Ra track, before, darting back to more traditional classic fare with a Handle track. As we move on we get a Ravi Shakar track, a classic John Coltrane track, a Thelonius Monk track, and few more jazz tracks. Before the disc is topped off with a selection of Stravinsky( influence on Syd Barret & David Bowie), and an Edgard Varese track( a Zappa influence).

The third & final disc takes in influences on the likes of Soft Machine( Wyatt & Ayers), Scott Walker, Nick Drake, Antonio Carlos Jobim, and Joa Gilberto. And this disc starts with a tenor & piano piece from Benjamin Britten, before moving on orchestral music from Sibelius & Delius, then light classic touched French pop balladeering of Jacques Brel. Of the three discs, this one a lot more classical music influenced, but once again it’s varied  enough moving between piano, guitar to orchestrated fare.

It’s always nice to come across compilation that mangers to balance good track flow & different type/ genres, with being at the same time is informative/ interesting - and that’s what exactly what I’d Love to Turn You On mangers to do- of interest of course to those who want to see how/ what influenced various 1960’s acts, but also for those looking for a varied-but-listenable compilation.