Rife On Earth, by Thorsten Schmidt

Rife On Earth

by Thorsten Schmidt

supported by

Fire of Renewal This is awesome. It leaves me in Awe. The music is so mysterious and doom laden.
Doom seems to be upon us.

medicusmatt So evocative. Thank you for your work in hunting down and dusting off these long lost classics.

What about an album of the Cryptids music?

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Includes high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more. Paying supporters also get unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app.

Download includes an excerpt taken from the first episode of the TV series and a PDF guide to the music and the programme.

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	1.	Rife On Earth Main Title 01:00
	2.	Amazonia 00:50
	3.	Chronos 02:10
	4.	Rife On Earth Segue 1 00:52
	5.	Oceania 00:57
	6.	Oil Spill 01:46
	7.	Sahara 01:39
	8.	Rife On Earth Segue 2 00:30
	9.	Siberia 01:20
	10.	Cityscape 00:54
	11.	Tartaria 01:09
	12.	Rife On Earth End Titles 00:52

about

In 1978 the BBC broadcast James Burke's 'Connections' - a series celebrating human ingenuity and progress. In the interests of balance, the BBC also commissioned 'Rife On Earth' as a counterpoint. The four-part series focused on humanity's destructive impulses and their direct effect on the planet earth.

Its only transmission by the BBC in the autumn of 1978 led to accusations of fear-mongering and of fostering anti-human sentiment. At the same time, other commentators championed the series for celebrating the triumph of technology over human liberty.

The choice of Scottish game show hostess and folk singer Isla St Clair as presenter of the series now seems bizarre, and following the debacle surrounding the broadcast, she rarely ventured into serious television journalism again.

Anecdotally, the series title was a play on words parodying David Attenborough's 'Life In Earth' which was about to be shown for the first time in the spring of 1979. It has been suggested that the name 'Rife On Earth' was coined by game show host Larry Grayson, who was working with Isla St Clair on 'Larry Grayson's Generation Game' around the same time. The BBC canteen would have been full of stories and rumours about Attenborough's magnum opus, and with his love of wordplay, Grayson would have been only too keen to puncture any grandiosity.

We continue to work with Thorsten Schmidt's niece on releasing his musical archive and are delighted to present this second release ‘Rife On Earth’ here, recorded in Frankfurt during the summer of 1978 and now mastered from vintage tape materials. We are not able to disguise the age of the recordings and nor would we want to.

We hope you enjoy this music and look forward to making more of this wonderful, forgotten composer’s work available.

credits

released February 12, 2023

Composer: Thorsten Schmidt
Moog, Solina, Spanish guitar: Thorsten Schmidt
Double Bass: Heidi Fischer
Flute: Julian Grace

Recorded at Thorsten Schmidt Home Studio
Frankfurt, Germany 1978

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about

Hereford Wakes Wales, UK

West German avant garde composer Thorsten Schmidt (1934 ~ 2015) was prolific during the 1970's and 80's specializing in music for television.

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