Album Review: Unusual Sounds: The Hidden History of Library Music by Various Artists

With explosions of popularity in both broadcast television and genre filmmaking at the end of the 1960s, the demand grew for inexpensive soundtracks, incidental music, themes, and other such easily accessible sounds to score the floods of new media being produced. Library music filled this role, offering a library of sounds prefabricated for use in film and categorized by mood, tempo, genre, or instrumentation. The companies that produced these libraries of pre-recorded sounds hired composers and players for sessions where volumes of generic music were recorded, offering a far cheaper alternative to creating original music for any given production.

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The world of library music is not one for the weak of heart. Among a mind-boggling number of albums, you are hit with a dizzying array of composers, cloaked pseudonyms, micro labels, limited pressings and endless question marks. Add in some insanely steep prices on the online market, and exploring the seemingly endless vaults of library music can often feel like an impossible task. Luckily, the expertly curated Unusual Sounds compilation makes the journey incredibly easy.   The collection serves as a musical companion to David Hollander's ….

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