Jon Brooks hipped me to Jan W. Gruber, reportedly a Dutch electronic artist operating in the 60s and 70s according to the few scraps of info on the web. Jim Jupp posted about Jan on the Belbury Parish blog back in 2012 with no other info, there are three tracks on YouTube, retrofitted with period footage, and a Soundcloud page exists with 14 tracks dating back a few years. The rest of the info on the web seems to consist of people asking who Gruber is and debating whether it’s all a put on by a modern artist mimicking old styles.

I had to question the authenticity behind the pieces myself as they sound too polished and advanced for their time plus Basta have done several extensive Dutch Electronic masters compilations over the years and Gruber has never been mentioned. I’d peg the style as up there with Raymond Scott, The Radiophonic Workshop or Tom Dissevelt / Kid Baltan, or equally at home in the Ghost Box camp but Brooks maintains it isn’t him at least. Old or new, it doesn’t matter, the music stands up and speaks for itself and I’d buy this if it was available in a minute.