(Translated from my original Italian text by ChatGPT and Piero Scaruffi)
Classically trained, a pupil of Max Mathews (the inventor of computer music), and a builder of synthesizers around 1977, Don Slepian became well known in New Yorks avant-garde circles for organizing a series of live electronics concerts aimed at a broad audience rather than the small circle of insiders.
The cassette Electronic Music From The Rainbow Isle (1978) collected music for acoustic instruments and electronic keyboards composed during the 1970s, mostly nave experiments.
He had debuted with an album that went largely unnoticed, Computer Don't Breakdown, in which he put to use his research on computers and electronic instruments. The suite Sonic Perfume was recorded using an experimental synthesizer, but despite its science-fiction premises, the arpeggiated and reverberant figures of the piece were ideal for relaxation and therefore fit well with the new-age philosophy.
A few years later Slepian realized how his technical achievements could serve the cause of new age and began composing long, animated melodic fantasies for acoustic and electronic keyboards: Life After Life (with a folk atmosphere, thanks to the liveliness of the acoustic guitar) and Sunrise on Rhythm Of Life, Grace on Reflections.
Sonic Perfume collects compositions from the early period, partly previously unreleased. Largos is a collection of electronic reinterpretations of Baroque classics, in the manner of Wendy Carlos.
Sea Of Bliss (Hearts of Space, 1980 - Fortuna, 1986 - Slepian, 2000) contains three lengthy
suites: Sea Of Bliss (29:30) is ambient music with minimal melodic
development that releases ethereal nebulae of tinkling notes.
Awakening (24:46) reveals the similarities with minimalist repetition
and achieves an almost angelic rarefaction.
Terry Riley's influence is even more explicit in Sonic Perfume (16:06),
the multi-layered fibrillation coalescing into semi-melodic structures.
Introspection (Don Slepian, 2000) collects old material, that sound
rather dated.
