Marden Pond - Castle Valley Impressions

Location: Provo
Year: 1980
Label: N/A
Catalog Number: CVM-801

Style: Avant Garde, Modular, Jazz, Funk

I met Marden in his tidy basement studio back in 2018 while on a trip to Utah from D.C., where I was living at the time. I came across his album Castle Valley Impressions while researching Utah music and it raised some questions. Marden’s music is not like much else recorded here. On this album there are modular experimentations with the Moog synthesizer which really caught my attention.

CVI was funded by a grant and created to accompany an installation of the paintings you see on the cover. The gallery was in southern Utah where Marden had found himself. Initially, as a transplant to the area, he was not impressed with the desolation of the landscape, but soon found an appreciation for it’s bizarre geological features.

On this album, you’ll find both Maynard Ferguson inspired big band workouts, contrasted with modular Moog experimentations. The majority of Marden’s output came post CVI in the form of many cassettes and CD’s, most of which fall into ambient territory. These will soon be easily available through a retrospect of his work on the label FountainAVM.

Marden is a very intentional and organized individual that makes the perfect college professor but, that hasn’t stopped him from exploring strange topics in his music.