Beaver & Krause
Gandharva

We are at the end of the 60s, when a certain Robert Moog invented a gadget that took his name, and rock music changed, perhaps as it had never happened before. The invention (the mini moog) attracted a considerable number of musicians from avant-garde backgrounds who saw rock music as a means to bring their creativity to more people. And it worked wonderfully. Perhaps the "bar intellectual" was also invented with the moog…
The fact is that two American talents, Paul Beaver and Bernie Krause, emerged from these circles and, equipped with keyboards, organs, and the inevitable moog, began to compose albums of great interest. Obviously, they had no impact at the time, but today they are considered among the fathers of electronic music.
They made a few albums, I can't tell you much about their debut "Ragnarok Electronic Funk" because it's hard to find, but already with their second "In a Wild Sanctuary", the two assembled curious cosmic scores on beat generation motifs.
They adored the Beatles and the Beach Boys, and it shows, except that alien flows suddenly rage over the candid melodies. They used flutes, percussion, exotic instruments. In the scene, the two gained fame, but poverty was devouring them, and the massive use of drugs was distancing them from performances, crucial for promotion.

We are in '71 and with the help of various friends, including guitarist Mike Bloomfield, they recorded what is a mature and beautiful album.
"Gandharva" is a soundtrack for a non-existent film, recorded in the cathedral of San Francisco. It is disarmingly beautiful, and in just 35 minutes, one can find various musical genres, from the technological neuroses of the very brief opening "Soft/White", to the captivating psychedelic blues of "Saga of the Blues", from the vocalizations of the spectacular chorister Patrice Holloway in "Walkin'" (with a curious resemblance to "Great Gig in the Sky" by Pink Floyd...) to the gospel of "Walkin' by the River".
The pinnacle is reached in "By Your Grace", only pipe organ (of the cathedral...) and sax, a dense and melancholic melody.

An admirable record also for its technical details, the quadraphony, the "deep" recording for the environment used, and the inevitable use of technology.
With "Gandharva", they achieved a magical balance, which unfortunately did not continue due to the worsening conditions of Paul Beaver, who died in 1975. This is what rock was: experimentation, invention, inspiration, and sacrifice. Unfortunately.