Mort Garson, a genius composer with innovative creativity, is one of the founders of experimental electronic music. Far from the spotlight during his time, he is now considered one of the founders of electronic music as we know it today. Between odes to nature, songs for green plants and experimental compositions, this Canadian musician never ceases to amaze us.
It’s 1976 and the album “Plantasia” has just been released.
We are in California and entering the post-hippie era, also called the “New Age”: Following these years of openness and political engagement, the Vietnam War ends and the movement’s greatest representatives, such as Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison pass away. However, some people do not want to return to their old ways. A section of the American population is rethinking their daily lives and placing ecology and personal development at the heart of their existence.
It is during this period, in 1973, that the book “The Secret Life of Plants” is published.
This experiment, written and conducted by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird, explains how the authors used electrodes to gather information about plant’s reactions to their environment. They concluded that plants react differently to sounds, prefer jazz and classical music, and are capable of empathy. Even if the scientific community does not fully validate the experiment, this book is based on a different outlook on the world, marking a new attitude among humans, focused on “what really matters.”
“Plantasia” was initially made for the flower shop Mother Earth Plant, in Los Angeles. The album was given after the purchase of a plant in their store, and was a way to promote the growth of green plants. The vinyl copies were not intended for commercial sale at first. It was an ode to nature, very few people at that time had the opportunity to play Mort Garson’s music to their houseplants and the vinyl records were gradually given away. On the record were written the words: “Warm earth music for plants…and the people who love them.” After this experience with the Californian store, Mort Garson went back to his garage and played with the treasures of his creativity once again.
From 1968 to 1971, he produced from two to three albums per year.
His sixth album, “Didn’t You Hear?” was a collaboration with experimental film director Skip Sherwood. In 1970, the film was released, shown at a few universities, and some people had the chance to see it. Mort Garson was in charge of the entire soundtrack, mixing futuristic, pop, and disturbing sounds on this album. It is a film with a mystical atmosphere that also highlights the imagination, filmed with a low-quality camera. The soundtrack of this film reflects this experimental approach, with all the music being electronic and mostly created using synthesizers. Almost all of this soundtrack is made by the sound of the Moog, Garson’s favourite keyboard. He constantly reinvented music and its codes, seeking out its limits and detaching himself from the search for categorically earthly melodies.
His daughter Day Darmet, in “Mort Garson : même pas mort” (Mort Garson: not even dead), explains that her father was: “Quite simply a passionate man who dedicated his entire life to music […] He had two studios, one at home and another in town, which allowed him to explore all the facets of what would become electronic music.” There is no doubt that the composer knew how to make music, and he did not do it for nothing.
In 1969, during the launch of Apollo 11, CBS asked Morton to compose music for the broadcast of the moon landing. “Moon Journey” is the title that was produced for the occasion. With this piece, we remain in a quasi-video game universe and are taken on a trip between dreamlike strangeness and distorted sounds from the 1970s. Discovering all this, we might have thought that Garson’s works were well known, but in reality, few people had access to these vinyl records, and it took nearly 50 years for the expected success to finally materialize.
Between 2010 and 2020, some people randomly discovered “Plantasia” in YouTube playlists of relaxing music, and paid attention to the artist’s innovative work. Mort Garson is now considered one of the pioneers of electronic and experimental music, next to Raymond Scott. “Plantasia” is a cult work that travels through time and is part of a wave of innovative musical creations. When Day discovered people’s appreciation for her father’s work, she was “fascinated to see that people finally understand and appreciate this part of his musical career.”
In this way, “Warm earth music for plants…and the people who love them,” could also be: “Great music for green humans and their loving surroundings.”
Thank you, Mr. Garson, quite simply.
Luna Serrano
VOICES 
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