1987 studio album by David Van Tieghem
Safety in Numbers studio album by American progressive electronic composer and percussionist David Van Tieghem , released in 1987 by Private Music . Van Tieghem and Roma Baran produced the album. It was recorded at two separate recording studios in New York City , Battery Sound and Skyline Studios. Ryuichi Sakamoto of Yellow Magic Orchestra recorded his overdubs at Avic Studio in Tokyo . The sounds and sequences were digitally transferred to floppy disks and sent to Skyline Studio in New York , where they were realized onto multitrack tape by David Lebolt via Macintosh computer, MIDI interface and Mark of the Unicorn Performer software.
Tony Levin , the longtime bassist for progressive rock band King Crimson , plays Chapman Stick on the track "Night of the Cold Noses". Safety in Numbers' music has been described as a "downtown" mix of pop , new-age , percussion music and electronic music .[ 1] Fairlight CMI digital sampling synthesizer.
After its original release, the album remained out-of-print on any format for many years. However, the album became available in 2017 via online MP3 download on Bandcamp .[ 2]
Critical reception
Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating AllMusic [ 3]
In a retrospective review for AllMusic , critic "Blue" Gene Tyranny (who also played piano on "Crystals" from the album) wrote, "not comfortably labeled New Age, or percussion music, or pop, or electronic music, Van Tieghem's music has that "downtown" mix of all these and yet is distinctly his own...from the lush "Crystals" to the droll and rhythm steady "Night of the Cold Noses." This is twisted "easy listening."[ 3]
Track listing
All tracks are written by David Van Tieghem
Side one Title 1. "Galaxy" 5:06 2. "Thunder Lizard" 5:00 3. "Crystals" 5:04 4. "Night of the Cold Noses" 5:10 5. "Futures" 4:54
Side two Title 6. "All Safe" 5:49 7. "Skeleton Key" 4:23 8. "Clear" 4:31 9. "Deep Sky" 2:43 10. "A Wing and a Prayer" 3:34 Total length: 46:14
Personnel
Credits are adapted from the Safety in Numbers liner notes.[ 4]
Musicians
David Van Tieghem – drums ; percussion (metal ashtray ; plastic milk bottle; Suzuki musical spring; scrap metal; Japanese stones; plastic mailing tube; aluminum soda cans ; corrugated plastic hose ; lamp parts; plastic sticks; bowed Chinese cymbal; Chinese gong ; Roland Octapad ); sampling (Fairlight CMI IIx and Series III; Akai S900 ); synthesizers (Yamaha DX7 and DX100 ; Korg Poly-800 ; Roland Juno-60 ; Voyetra-8 ); marimba ; piano ; clavinet ; wooden tongue drum; ceramic drums; bells ; jingle ball toy; raygun ; processed radio and television signals; drum machine (E-mu SP-1200 ); voice
Bill Buchen – African water drums; parabolic gamelan ; wooden tongue drum (tracks 5, 9, 10)
David Lebolt – synthesizers (Yamaha DX7; TX7; Voyetra Eight; memory Moog ); sampling (Emulator II ) (tracks 2, 6, 8)
Ryuichi Sakamoto – synthesizer (Yamaha DX7); sampling (Emulator II; Fairlight CMI IIx) (tracks 2, 8) Robbie Kilgore – additional synthesizer programming
Larry Saltzman – guitar (tracks 1, 2, 5, 8)
Eric Liljestrand – guitar ; EBow ; programming assistance (tracks 3, 5)
Laura Demme – voice (tracks 3, 9)
Rebecca Armstrong – voice (tracks 6)
Sara Cutler – harp (tracks 3, 7, 8)
"Blue" Gene Tyranny – piano (track 3) Tony Levin – Chapman Stick (track 4) Ned Sublette – pedal steel guitar (track 4)
Richard Landry – flute (track 4)
Richard J. Van Tieghem – shortwave radio (tracks 1, 4)
Tatsuhiko Mori – computers
Clive Smith – programming assistance
Technical
Artwork
Jo Bonney – cover designLaura Demme – design
Bill Buchen – design
Deborah Feingold – portrait photo
Paula Court – graphics photography
Howard Sochurek – front cover color image processing
References
External links
