La Maquina de Cantar is a short LP by Argentinian electro-acoustic composer Horacio Vaggione.

It first appeared in 1978 on the label Cramps.

Ampersand reissued it on CD in 2002.

The 17-minute "La Maquina de Cantar" (The Singing Machine) relies solely on an IBM computer.

Produced in the early '70s, it features a lush synthesized tone and works by accretion.

The music is looped and the composer slowly transforms the mass by adding and subtracting layers -- another variation on the process of composition through accumulation also explored by Robert Fripp (his Frippertronics albums of the late '70s and early '80s) and Pierre-André Arcand (his "macchina ricordi").

"Ending," also 17 minutes in duration, is a duet between Vaggione and Elizabeth Wiener, both playing Moog-type synthesizers.

Here again they accumulate looping sequences to create hypnotic kaleidoscopes that recall Philip Glass' "Music in Twelve Parts," with a sound closer to Larry Fast's early albums under the project name Synergy.

When everything stops at the 11th minute to make room for a chorale-type hymn, the proceedings get very close to Rick Wakeman's The Six Wives of Henry VIII -- except Wakeman would not have repeated the theme for six minutes, multiplying the synthesizer parts until they were a hair short of breaking into oversaturation.

This is space music when it still had a place in the experimental field.

It is far removed from Vaggione's later work in academic electro-acoustic music (what he is best known for).

It didn't age very well, making it more of a historical document.