Peter & The Wolf b/w Monkey Music

Issued under the Electronic Ensemble name, ‘Peter & The Wolf’ b/w ‘Monkey Music’ is a rare privately pressed Canadian electronic single by composer and arranger Ben McPeek, released on his own Captain Audio imprint. The record documents McPeek’s lesser-known but historically significant engagement with synthesizers and electronic composition during the early-to-mid 1970s, parallel to his work in film scoring, orchestration, and commercial music.

Unlike McPeek’s better-known orchestral, jazz-pop, and library recordings, this single operates firmly in the experimental electronic realm. Both tracks are short, self-contained electronic constructions rather than conventional songs, emphasizing texture, motif, and playful sound design. ‘Peter & The Wolf’ loosely evokes narrative motion through synthesizer phrasing, while ‘Monkey Music’ leans toward rhythmic novelty and timbral experimentation.

The release was pressed in very small numbers and distributed privately, with no evidence of commercial radio servicing or national promotion. Copies surface extremely infrequently, and the record remains absent from most contemporary electronic music discographies, despite McPeek’s stature within Canadian composition and production history.

Today, the single stands as a revealing outlier within McPeek’s catalogue—connecting his curiosity about electronic sound to the broader emergence of Canadian experimental music in the 1970s, well outside the academic studio system. It remains one of the rare examples of a major Canadian composer self-issuing a purely electronic 7-inch during this period.
-Robert Williston