Jan W. Gruber: supposed electronic artist from the 60's

[Guest nsputnik]

Jim Jupp of Ghost Box posted

to this blog post containing music that was supposedly commissioned by Philips for the Philips Evoluon Technology Exhibition at Eindhoven in the Netherlands, 1967. Another video supposedly commissioned for Krups. The tracks are credited to Dutch composer Jan W. Gruber and supposedly made in 1967. They are pretty nice tracks, but I am doubtful that it really is from that era. I had left a comment on the user's YouTube channel asking where the user got the music from and whether it was really from '67. It has been deleted and/or channel comments have been disabled. There are a total of 3 tracks on the YouTube channel Maersk NL right now.

The instrumentation is right for '67 but the production sounds a little too clean and exact to have been made around that time. If you take a listen to Tom Dissevelt's (and also by a Dutchman ) Whirling/Sonic Re-entry which was made a year later than these tracks were supposedly made the percussive loops is not nearly as in time with the other tracks as it is with the Jan W. Gruber tunes. Especially in Krups Theme with the 6 plus measures of triplets bass notes so precisely in sync with all of the other tracks. The only way to do this at this time would be with two tape loops or a tape loop and an analog sequencer but they would eventually go out of synch after a couple of measures. "Philips Expo Theme 4" has a backward mask part of a triangle-type sound right after the forward version. Super easy to do (and a popular technique) with modern production, but very a painstakingly intricate detail for '67. Also, it is too good to not find it being mentioned in the same breath as Tom Dissevelt, Raymond Scott, and all of the BBC Radiophonic composers all these years.

But I guess it is possible is has been languishing in obscurity for 45 years. After Googleing "Jan W. Gruber" a few hours after the videos were posted the only results were the YouTube channel the videos were posted to and Jim's post. So who do you think might have really made these tracks?

[Salvatorin]

I don't know, kind of reminds of this: which is 1963 I think?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szE5D-dPs_Y

[Salvatorin]

but really, listening to the track by 'jan gruber' I also get the feeling it is just someone trying to make up some fictional past.

[Nebraska]

this seems to be in the vein of jan jelinek discovering ursula bogner- including the presentation and aversion to providing information that might support the historical claim. i hope someone signs this guy up so he can release this stuff because it sounds really good

[Guest nsputnik]

this seems to be in the vein of jan jelinek discovering ursula bogner- including the presentation and aversion to providing information that might support the historical claim. i hope someone signs this guy up so he can release this stuff because it sounds really good

 

I had seen that name Ursula Bogner as an early electronic artists in the last few years and checked out a few tunes but did not find until now that most people think it is Jan Jelinek passing himself off as her. Yeah, this could be his next project.

[Guest]

 

Calling in to say this is probably faek.

[awepittance]

lot's of people making up fictional pasts these days, it's an art unto itself. Ghostbox has existed as a retro fetishization of past electronic music eras, not surprised that they would take the next logical step, rewriting history to give the music on the label more weight once people get tired of 'hauntology'