Irving Soloman "Irv" Teibel – Environments 2: Ultimate Thunderstorm (1979)

NOTE: Side A and B identical, 30x2 min

(The Music Of The Future / The Magic Of Psycho-Acoustic Sound)

Syntonic Research, Inc.
Catalog No: SC 99002
Atlantic Records distribution

This is from the series that started it all: every environment based / natural sound recording based album, processed or raw, with music accompaniment or not, and regardless if it was marketed as new age, therapeutic, or "psychoacoustic" as Irv described it, this broad genre started with the Environments series. Every other tape I'm covering this week emerged from the influential wake of this release. FYI this series is now available in app form via The Numero Group.

This originally appeared in 1975 on the LP format as side one of "Environments 4" and titled "The Psychologically Ultimate Thunderstorm." Same recording is repeated on both side A & B for continuous playback with additional instructions of suggested speaker placement, volume levels, EQing NOT using Dolby, etc.

As with other releases Irv Tiebel isn't credited on this tape. This was notably recorded in an urban setting, not overdubbed or generated from white noise or other synthesis. Not sure if it was was processed by his colleague Louis Gerstman, who used unprecedented computer processing on Environments 1 to make, ironically, the raw recordings of ocean waves sound more authentic.

Description from his archival website (which is an incredible resource run by his daughter Jennifer Ballow and well worth diving into) as follows: "As one of the quintessential storm recordings, it’s interesting to note that “Ultimate Thunderstorm” was captured from Irv’s balcony in Manhattan. The story goes that he had tickets to the theater but decided to skip the performance when he saw an epic storm move in. “Gentle Rain in a Pine Forest” is an extraordinary example of the sound masking properties of rain. It’s one of the most popular recordings in the series and has been featured at the Smithsonian."