An independent Classical Music label; an outlet for recordings by Michael Smythe's 'Vista Productions' company, of Lansdowne Road, London W11. For much of its life Vista concentrated on LPs, mainly of organ music, issuing over 100 during the period 1972-81. It had a rather unusual start, however: its first release was an EP called 'Breakthrough', which was described as 'An Amazing Experiment In Electronic Communication With The Dead' - the EP features a commentary written by experimenter Dr. Konstantin Raudive alongside phrases and words which are claimed to have been spoken by dead people and picked up via various electronic methods. Its catalogue number was VMS-100, and it came out in 1971. The style of the matrix number on the run-off suggests a Decca pressing. Both sides were reissued as a flexi-disc which was given away with Orbis Publications' magazine 'The Unexplained' in 1981. Michael Smythe died in 1979. His associates at Vista Productions put out a couple more LPs, one in 1980 and one in 1981, but that appears to have been the label's final fling. Thanks to Sam Mauger for bringing Vista to my attention.
Copyright 2019 Robert Lyons.