Picking up from where I left off last week, it had been fun but challenging to find one website detailing all of the albums released as part of the Phase 4 Stereo collection. Usually, Wikipedia and Discogs are excellent resources for providing detailed records of past media from all creators/producers whether it’s movies, music, or tv. Many individual tracks from the Phase 4 collection can be found on YouTube, but again, it seemed like there was a lot missing.
The 45Worlds site seemed promising as well, but had only the British releases on the London subsidiary of Decca. I finally hit pay-dirt with http://rateyourmusic.com. I was overjoyed to see all of this series listed in chronological order with pictures of each album cover. Little did I realize just how many titles I was unaware of until finding this site! Now there’s even more to search for while out perusing the thrift stores and nostalgia shops around Phoenix. These are usually my first sources for vintage records since it’s not possible to afford everything for sale online.
One of the Phase 4 titles that I found in good condition from a local antique store some fifteen years ago is one of the earliest original releases. This one is International All-Stars: Great Film Themes From Many Lands (1962). So far, I’ve not encountered any of the other titles through second-hand sources, but have listened to some single tracks from a few of the albums such as Strings Latino (1968) on YouTube. My favorite track from that one is “Granada” that packs a lot of feeling into just under three minutes.
Alternatively, the song has an arousing spell akin to patriotism, hauntingly sad and then it almost made me get up and dance! Undoubtedly, there is much more to Phase 4 Stereo than can be found on YouTube or even streaming services like Amazon or Spotify. However, I’ve quickly discovered that I’d still missed out on a great deal of the Phase 4 offerings during the 18 years that titles were released. The rateyourmusic site listed no fewer than a whopping 477 titles in the collection ranging from big band, classical, opera, contemporary, dance, exotic percussion, festival orchestra, film scores, guitar, gypsy, piano, and world music.
As I scrolled through the site — it was like sensory overload, there was so much available it was a little challenging what to focus on first. The cover art for each album was mesmerizing alone, so it was easy to get lost in that. However, since film scores are among my favorite types of instrumental music I figured this is a good place to start and branch out from there. Over the summer I’ll be investigating Phase 4 Stereo much further and post stories about individual titles that may bring the most listening enjoyment and which may also be available for purchase at acceptable prices.
