It was a late summer evening in a quiet village in southeastern Vermont. My aunt would often listen to WHOM broadcasting from High on Mount Washington. It was an early NPR type station that would run Star date with Joel Block and various classical and unsual musical choices. This next one was so unusual in fact that I feel it deserves its own post. We were in the kitchen, when the strangest sounds began to emanate from the stereo speakers. I somehow had the foresight to drop a cassette into the deck and press record. What we were hearing was an experimental song called Agony. It sounded like space, aliens and crunching battle. As I recall not only that precise moment but the aura of that period in my life, I cannot help but imagine spaceships hovering over the forests and valleys of the green mountains at twilight. The song went on for quite a while. At the time it felt like we sat there listening to it for 5 minutes or more before I hit record. As I look at the length of the piece, I must have started recording almost immediately.
When they song was over, I pressed STOP but not before the radio announcer said “That piece entitled Agony by Turkish composer…” I held on to that K-Mart brand 60 minute cassette with “Agony” stylistically written in 3 or more colors of magic marker ever since. I can’t explain my attraction to this piece. It really isn’t a song in any sense. Maybe my love of sound effects and the unusual are responsible.
Over the next two decades, I would frequent libraries or telephone NPR radio stations and ask if they new anything about a piece called “Agony” by a Turkish Compser. No such luck. Once I even played my low fidelity K-Mart copy to the local NPR guy who thought it was weird but knew nothing else about it. When the internet became a fixture in my home, I would routinely search for Agony and Turkish Composers. Even the world wide web had forgotten about this strange composition.
A few years ago, my search ended. I was able to track down Agony and its Turkish Composer, İlhan Mimaroğlu. Somebody had a site and even posted a few of his compositions including the coveted Agony. Of course I downloaded them all instantly. I was going to post a link to that site but I just went to check it out and it is gone. I’ll have to make a note about this towards the end of the year when i rediscovered Agony. I wonder if anybody else in the world likes this as much as I do.
İlhan Mimaroğlu – Agony