Baxter, Les
Jewels Of The Sea
Jewels of the Sea is a 1961 orchestral album by American composer Les Baxter. The album was inspired by fantasy ideas of the ocean from pop culture, such as mermaids and sea nymphs, sunken ships, and legendary underwater cities such as Atlantis. Musically, Jewels of the Sea is characteristic of Baxter's work, with its use of a traditional European orchestra, primarily percussion instruments and strings, combined with more exotic instruments such as electronic keyboard and electric organ. Baxter often includes a vibraphones in front of the backdrop of diffuse string washes. A theremin-resembling ondioline is then prominently placed in the center, a forerunner of the synthesizer that was heretofore used in Frank Hunter's Exotica opus White Goddess (1959), its vibrato sounding like a warped fiddle, adding a mysterious scent to the arrangement. Spiraling harps resemble the underwater undulation, a choir of mermaids rises in juxtaposition to paradisiac flutes and orchestra bells. All tracks are original compositions with the exception of "The Enchanted Sea", an arrangement of Claude Debussy's La mer.