A truly monumental and mind-blowing revelation that can’t be missed, Erratum, C.A.R.E, and Studio Forum deliver what might just turn out to be the most singular, striking release of the year: the first ever reissue of TO’s lone LP “Manifestations Of Spirit From Within Electronic Electro-Acoustic & Acoustic Space”, created by the duo of Will E. Jackson & Stefan “Z’EV” Weisser and privately issued in 1976. Resting at the juncture of experimental music, radical environmental activism, field recording and tape music, pioneering modular synth / electroacoustic practice, the emergence of industrial music, and the early new age interspecies communication protocols, this minimal masterstroke appears two and a half decades on as a remarkably prescient creative statement, foreshadowing our own environmental crisis, that sounds like nothing else before or since.

Encountering three imprints - Erratum, C.A.R.E. (Centre d'archives et de recherches exotiques), and Studio Forum - joining forces for the first time, there have been few releases that have left us as speechless as “Manifestations Of Spirit From Within Electronic Electro-Acoustic & Acoustic Space”, an astounding, body of historical recordings by TO, the duo of Will E. Jackson (1945-2019) & Stefan “Z’EV” Weisser (1951-2017), made in 1976 and privately issued later that same year.

The meeting of Will E. Jackson and Stefan “Z’EV” Weisser belongs to one of the great radical ferments of the early 1970s: the wild and free creative context that was CalArts, which brought together figures like James Tenney, Morton Subotnick, Harold Budd, Simone Forti, Charlemagne Palestine, Allan Kaprow, Susan Allen, Nam June Paik, and numerous others under a single roof. Z’EV, who studied poetry, belonged to the inaugural revolutionary relaunch of CalArts in 1971. Will E. Jackson arrived the following year, first studying under Allan Kaprow, before moving on to Serge Tcherepnin's CalArts synthesizer workshop, and began building his own modular synthesizers, later explaining "It was in a CalArts workshop that my Serge System synthesizer was built, along with eight others. Mine just happened to be the first to make a sound and fly...a year later to land on the deck of the first anti-whaling expedition in history.”

The birth of Jackson and “Z’EV” collaboration under the heading of TO dates to CalArts. Around 1973 Jackson co-founded the experimental collective, Cellar-M, alongside Naut Humon and Rex Probe, which then came to include “Z’EV” - having played percussion since his teens - as a full member in 1974. Following two years of activity, Cellar-M - having previously relocated to San Francisco - split into two duo projects: Naut Humon and Rex Probe forming Rhythm & Noise, and Jackson and “Z’EV” forming TO. Occasionally performing under the name “Center for Inter-Species communication”, TO was heavily influenced by Will Jackson’s participation in the inaugural 1975 Greenpeace V campaign to save the whales, the objective of which was to demonstrate the ability of cetaceans and humans to communicate through sound. Answering the call, Jackson brought aboard his Serge#1 modular synthesizer to broadcast sounds on underwater speakers, recording the sounds as the reciprocating songs of the whales that came to investigate. These recordings rest at the centre of TO’s lone LP, privately issued by the band in 1976, and remaining virtually unobtainable ever since.

Originally issued as two, side-long pieces - “ASIDE” and “BESIDE” - recorded live on May 8th, 1976 and accompanied by the crucial note of "CLOSE EYES AND PLAY LOUD”, this brand new edition of “Manifestations Of Spirit From Within Electronic Electro-Acoustic & Acoustic Space” comes with new subtitles and information relating to some of the source material used by the artists: the first side being "Working Class" - drawing upon mixes of Spatial poetry Performances at Various UC campuses, - and the second side being “Song for Cetacea” - featuring recordings of Humpback Whales and Russian Whalers on a ship's radio - and the short piece Sawtelle Waves. Featuring Z’EV on his Universal Percussion System, and Jackson on Serge Modular System, Guitar, Screwdriver, and Voice - both working together in real time into the prerecorded and manipulated source material - these recordings represent an astounding meeting of numerous worlds, from environmental activism and interspecies communication, live tape music and electroacoustic practice, free improvisation, and foreshadowing of ambient music. Filled with swirling textures and tones, at times flirting with a droning form of psychedelia, the sounds of the natural world and bristling electronics and the incredible percussive drive of Z’EV’s inventions, “Manifestations Of Spirit From Within Electronic Electro-Acoustic & Acoustic Space” stands completely apart from the pack of its moment. In fact, there’s really nothing quite like it before or since. It’s hard to believe, given its significance on so many historical levels, that it’s remained out of print for nearly half a century.

Tragically, TO ceased its activities during the summer of 1977, leaving “Manifestations Of Spirit From Within Electronic Electro-Acoustic & Acoustic Space” as the project’s only release. Jackson went on to join Ether Ship, a pioneering group of “sonic xenolinguistics”, and began to participate in the legendary “Extraterrestrial Intelligence Ether Ship Transmission for Star Net Pilot Program”, which was recorded in the presence of Jacques Vallée in 1978. Z’EV began to pursue his groundbreaking solo career in 1977, beginning to build the singular practice and body of work, constructed around radical new techniques orbiting around his own adapted and self-built instruments, constructed from industrial metals and plastics, that would carve a deep path within avant-garde music for the remainder of his life, laying important groundwork for the emerging movement of Industrial music. Jackson and Weisser would reunite later in 1977, one last time, for Ether Ship’s performance of “A Cosmic Journey”, filmed with Gary Schroeder’s cutting-edge video synthesizer, and then moved into their own directions, leaving TO to be largely lost to the shadows of time.

Encountered two and half decades into the 21st Century, and nearly 50 years after it was laid to tape, TO’s lone 1976 LP, “Manifestations Of Spirit From Within Electronic Electro-Acoustic & Acoustic Space” reveals itself to be not only incredibly prescient as we enter an unprecedented environmental crisis, but remarkably ahead of its time and strikingly fresh. While many have flirted around the border of the territories it touches on, over the years since, there’s really nothing like it. Profoundly minimal and restrained, while dense in both meaning and sonority, and as calming and meditative as it is aggressive and forthright, it’s a true marvel of the highest order that doubles to shed light on the origins of these two crucial artists’ early careers.