The _Bachdisc_ created by Chilean-born artist juan Downey, marks a milestone in the treatment of musical subjects in videodisc format. The application of video technology to the visual arts is obvious enough, having already resulted, for example, in the cataloguing and cross-referencing of the entire holdings of the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. Music is another matter. How does one add visually to something that is not only heard, but is considered to be the most subjective of the arts? Many have puzzled and despaired: Downey is the first with the requisite technological know-how to plunge in and employ visual materials in ways that are bound to affect how we listen to music. For his subject, Downey has chosen a perenially modern composer, Johann Sebastian Bach. To underscore the potential of videodisc technology. Downey attacks the most demanding - and, for many listeners, impenetrable - genre cultivated by comprosers since the eighteenth century: the fugue.


(from the album cover)