Many Worlds Interpretation: Jon Iverson’s Cosmic Americana

Cosmic Americana recorded in a two room cottage in Los Osos, California.

I can clearly remember the first time I heard Jon Iverson’s music. It was a quiet Sunday afternoon and a friend had brought over First Collection by Iverson and Walters to the In Sheep’s Clothing hi-fi bar. The minimal cover and eagle on the inner label pointed to some sort of private press folk or avant-garde, but to my surprise, the music that came through the Klipschorns had an almost Kosmiche / Berlin School sound with warm analog synthesizers, darbuka (goblet drum), and 12-string guitar. Cosmic. Pastoral. Trippy. It was the perfect music for a fall afternoon.

Fast forward a few years and news has arrived that our friends from Séance Centre will be releasing a collection of recordings pulled from Jon Iverson’s extensive archives. Recorded in a DIY studio located inside a two room cottage in Los Osos (pictured on the cover above), Many Worlds Interpretation shines a light on the lost music of a multi-talented instrumentalist and audio obsessive raised around hippie and psychedelic culture.

The album comes highly recommended for fans of ECM, Windham Hill, Klaus Schulze’s Innovative Communication, Roedelius, Eblen Macari, Priscilla Ermel, Steve Tibbetts, and experimental sounds from around the world.

I knew this music wasn’t commercial, but didn’t care. It was inspiring working with the first computer-based synths and semi-pro gear.

For those looking to dive further into the world of Jon Iverson, Séance Centre has shared a detailed statement from the artist that we’ve included below in its entirety…

A statement from Jon Iverson:

“I worked in a Harley Davidson parts warehouse in the summer of 1976 in the San Francisco Bay Area. The goal was to save enough money to buy transportation for college and a Teac 4 track 1/4” reel to reel tape machine. By September there was a rusting monkey-vomit green car in the driveway and shiny new Teac with a Sony condenser microphone in the bedroom. At this point I had been playing guitar for a dozen years and like most children of the sixties, dreamed of joining a band.

Went to college instead to study business.

But all was not lost. 1978-1979 was spent as Weird Al Yankovic‘s roommate and we recorded and created enough songs to play shows around San Luis Obispo, California, where we were attending college. Many of those recordings have yet to be heard by the public, including the first performances of My Bologna and many other parodies of pop songs of the day. We sent tapes to Dr. Demento, we auditioned for The Gong Show and were barred from playing at the local college after one memorable performance. Wild times.

I, however, was more intent on working on “serious” music, with albums from Vangelis, Tangerine Dream and Jean Michel Jarre providing inspiration. DJing at the local college radio station and then public radio outlet provided exposure to an endless stream of obscure albums (Sky Records from Germany was a particular favourite). Most of them would never make it to the air, but my buddies and I would pass them around like exotic treasure.

Fast forward a couple more years and I had picked up a Mini-Moog and eventually a Prophet V synthesizer as well as starting a collection of instruments from around the world. The Teac and synths formed the basis for a growing DIY studio that had taken over a modest-size garage (pictured on the cover) that had been converted into a two room cottage in Los Osos, California.

The Teac was eventually joined by a rented Otari 1/2″ 8-track and then finally a vintage MCI JH-100 2″ 16-track. The compositions on this album were recorded on these three machines between 1982 and 1989. At some point an Apple II computer with Alpha Syntauri sound card and keyboard were added and then later the first personal computer sampling hardware/software kit, the Decillionix DX-1. The DX-1 forms the rhythm track for “Fox Tales” and the Alpha Syntauri was programmed to create the pulsing synth for “Naningo”. “River Fen” was tracked with both the Alpha Syntauri and the Prophet V.

I knew this music wasn’t commercial, but didn’t care. It was inspiring working with the first computer-based synths and semi-pro gear. Home studios were still rare in the early 80s until the Tascam Portastudio blew the DIY door wide-open. But I was more interested in sound quality so stuck with reels of tape instead of lower fidelity cassettes.

During the time these songs were recorded, I was also collaborating with my good friend and mandolinist, Tom Walters. “River Fen”, “Naningo” and “Fox Tales”, were solo recordings that also ended up on the first Iverson & Walters album, First Collection. The other four pieces on this new LP were never fully finished or released until now.”

Many Worlds Interpretation is available for pre-order on Bandcamp: https://joniverson.bandcamp.com/album/many-worlds-interpretation

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