''Mother Earth's Plantasia'' is an

electronic Electronic may refer to: *Electronics, the science of how to control electric energy in semiconductors * ''Electronics'' (magazine), a defunct American trade journal *Electronic storage, the storage of data using an electronic device *Electronic c ...

album by

Mort Garson Morton Sanford Garson (20 July 1924 – 4 January 2008) was a Canadian composer, arranger, songwriter, and pioneer of electronic music. He is best known for his albums in the 1960s and 1970s, such as '' Mother Earth's Plantasia'' (1976). He also ...

released in

1976 Events January * January 2 – The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights enters into force. * January 5 – The Pol Pot regime proclaims a new constitution for Democratic Kampuchea. * January 18 – Full diplomatic ...

Background

The "Mother Earth" in the album's title refers to Lynn and Joel Rapp, a couple of fern correspondents who had authored plant care books and were friends of composer Mort Garson. The music on this album was composed specifically for

plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...

s to listen to. Garson was inspired by his wife, who grew many plants in their home. Garson used a

Moog synthesizer The Moog synthesizer ( ) is a modular synthesizer invented by the American engineer Robert Moog in 1964. Moog's company, R. A. Moog Co., produced numerous models from 1965 to 1981, and again from 2014. It was the first commercial synthesizer ...

to compose the album, the first album on the

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composed entirely on the Moog synthesizer. The album had a very limited distribution upon release, only being available to people who bought a

houseplant A houseplant, also known as a pot plant, potted plant, or indoor plant, is an ornamental plant cultivated indoors. for aesthetic or practical purposes. These plants are commonly found in House, homes, Office, offices, and various indoor spaces, w ...

from a store called Mother Earth on

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or those who purchased a Simmons mattress from a

Sears Sears, Roebuck and Co., commonly known as Sears ( ), is an American chain of department stores and online retailer founded in 1892 by Richard Warren Sears and Alvah Curtis Roebuck and reincorporated in 1906 by Richard Sears and Julius Rosen ...

outlet, both of which came with the record. As a result, the album failed to attain widespread popularity around the time of its release. However, it has since gained a

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

as an early work of electronic music.

Legacy

The album also gained popularity on

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

, with the full album (uploaded without permission) gaining millions of views and thousands of comments spread over multiple different bootleg uploads. A cover of "Plantasia" was produced by

Griffin McElroy Griffin Andrew McElroy ( , born April 17, 1987) is an American podcaster, actor, writer, composer, and former video game journalist. He is known for his work on podcasts such as ''My Brother, My Brother and Me'' and ''The Adventure Zone'', as we ...

for use in a 2017 episode of ''

The Adventure Zone ''The Adventure Zone'' is a weekly comedy and adventure actual play podcast, in which the McElroy family play ''Dungeons & Dragons'' along with other role-playing games. The show is distributed by the Maximum Fun network and hosted by brother ...

''. In March

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

Sacred Bones Records Sacred Bones Records is an American independent record label founded in 2007 and based in Brooklyn, New York. The label has released recordings from artists including Zola Jesus, David Lynch, John Carpenter, Spellling, Blanck Mass, Crystal S ...

announced that they were officially reissuing ''Mother Earth's Plantasia''. The reissue is available on

music streaming services A music streaming service is a type of online streaming media service that focuses primarily on music, and sometimes other forms of digital audio content such as podcasts. These services are usually subscription-based services allowing users to s ...

and was released on

vinyl Vinyl may refer to: Chemistry * Polyvinyl chloride (PVC), a particular vinyl polymer * Vinyl cation, a type of carbocation * Vinyl group, a broad class of organic molecules in chemistry * Vinyl polymer, a group of polymers derived from vinyl ...

, CD and

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette (format) (or ''cassette tape''), a format that contains magnetic tape for audio, video, and data storage and playback * Compact Cassette, a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ...

on June 21, 2019. Angie Martoccio, writing for ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' in 2019, described ''Mother Earth's Plantasia'' as Garson's

magnum opus A masterpiece, , or ; ; ) is a creation that has been given much critical praise, especially one that is considered the greatest work of a person's career or a work of outstanding creativity, skill, profundity, or workmanship. Historically, ...

. Stephen M. Deusner, writing for ''Pitchfork'', described it as perhaps Garson's "most beloved album, at least among crate-diggers and record collectors." For the 2023 tax season,

Intuit Intuit Inc. is an American multinational business software company that specializes in financial software. The company is headquartered in Mountain View, California, and the CEO is Sasan Goodarzi. Intuit's products include the tax preparati ...

used the opening track "Plantasia" on a

TurboTax TurboTax is a software package for preparation of American and Canadian income tax returns, produced by Intuit. TurboTax is a market leader in its product segment, competing with H&R Block Tax Software and TaxAct. TurboTax was developed by M ...

advertisement. In France from 2023, supermarket chain giant Intermarche used the same track in a long-running TV advert for their '10 per cent' sales campaign.

Track listing

Personnel

score, electronics *Eugene L. Hamblin III

electronic engineering Electronic engineering is a sub-discipline of electrical engineering that emerged in the early 20th century and is distinguished by the additional use of active components such as semiconductor devices to amplify and control electric current flo ...

*Sam Nicholson

art direction Art director is a title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, live-action and animated film and television, the Internet, and video games. It is the charge of a sole art director to super ...

*Marvin Rubin illustrations

Charts

References