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As I listened to this collection of witty, graceful compositions, it occurred to me that good writing for synthesizers is a relatively rare phenomenon. Only Frank Zappa, Wendy Carlos, the lesser known Erling Wold and a handful of other composers have set out to write to the synthesizer's strengths - namely, its almost unlimited tonal pallette, flexible tuning parameters and mathematical precision. Goldman's music is intricate and sophisticated, but it is also warmer and less manic than Zappa's, and perhaps less self-conscious than Carlos's excursions into exotic tuning systems and ethnic tim-bres. Three of Goldman's six pieces use processed vocals (hence the subtitle "eloquent gibberish"), but the vocal element is no gimmick and is nicely integrated into the compositions. "Laughter of Butterflies" features children's laughter, but is saved from mere new age "niceness" by its ex-cellent compositional qualities, which include remarkably convincing synthesized saxophone counterpoint. Processed voices on the two other pieces are a bit more mysterious and experimental, and they supply a playful weirdness. I don't think Goldman is really caught up in the old self-de-feating quest for accurate synthesized approximations of "real" instruments; rather, part of his intent seems to be creating a rich collection of evocative, musically satisfying sounds.
Bill Tilland, Options Magazine, July 1993
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