This unnumbered and privately pressed 12-inch 33 RPM record, on the obscure Rulinrecords label, contains several equally obscure compositions by avant garde 20th century composer Noel Sokoloff. 

There's a lot to tell you here, so get comfortable and I'll give you what I know.

First, the studio identification. The label name is Rulinrecords, and the logo is a poodle with a ribbon in its hair. The label name is explained by the first names in the text around the lower rim: "Ruth and Lincoln Lauterstein, 54 Remsen Street, Brooklyn 2, New York" appears around the spindle hole. 

I have found very little information about the Lautersteins or their studio in Brooklyn Heights. One obituary that I found tells of a Lincoln W. Lauterstein (1917-1998), who graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School and served as a radio operator for the Army Air Forces during World War II. He then joined his father's law firm in New York, where his clients included the Metropolitan Opera. The obituary mentions his love of music and states that he "bought an old Brooklyn Heights mansion." If you check the Google maps street photo of 54 Remsen Street, you'll see that it's a 3-story terraced brick house, so my guess is he had an in-home recording studio there. I assume that Ruth was his wife at the time, although the obituary identifies his widow as "Ingeborg."

The only other printed text on the labels are the playback specifications, on either side of the spindle hole, "33-1/3 RPM" and "Inside Start." The latter instruction is particularly important. The needle does in fact start at the inside of the record and ends at the outside edge. Information that is not provided on the labels includes a recording date, although other Noel Sokoloff records from this same source seem to have originated in the early to mid-1950's. The labels also do not identify which is side one and which is side two, so I've made my own determination on that. And, although they don't state playback times, I can tell you from my own playback that Side One lasts about 20 minutes. Side Two has two separate tracks, with no connecting groove between them (you have to manually move the needle from the end of track 1 to the start of track 2). The first track lasts about 13 minutes, and the second track about 5 minutes.

Next, the labels also have some typewritten text relating to the musical content of the record. The side that I've come to consider as Side One contains two pieces, and the typewritten text on the label reads "Noel Sokoloff -- 1. String Quartet. 2. Pastoral Suite. The record manifests as a single track, but there are several pauses between different musical pieces. And there is no artist credit on the label - whoever is playing the pieces is not identified.

Side Two has two tracks, which are also labeled as Noel Sokoloff compositions. Track No. 1 is labeled as:

"Seven Songs" (6) - Chloe Owen (soprano), K. Zimmerle (pianoforte)

And track # 2: "Epithalamium" - Norma Davidson (violin), Florence Weber (pianoforte)

Some footnotes on those names. I haven't found anything on K. Zimmerle or Florence Weber, but Norma Davidson shows up as a violinist on the roster of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. And Chloe Owen (1918-2020) had a long career as an operatic soprano, most of it in Europe. For a quick biography, check out the "Bach Cantatas" website.

I don't see any catalog or matrix numbers, either on the labels or etched into the runoff area. As far as I know, this might have been the only copy of this recording ever made.

For another footnote, here's a bit of a bio of the composer, Noel Nikolai Sokoloff (1923-1998). Born in Ohio, he was the son of Nikolai Sokoloff, who was the founding conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra, and later the director of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra. Noel went on to become a composer in his own right and taught for many years at the Mannes School of Music in Manhattan. He later became an Episcopal minister, serving in Washington D.C., New Hampshire, New York and San Francisco. He was the cousin of pianist Vladimir Sokoloff, and his wife, Nancy Boyd, was the daughter of North Carolina author James Boyd. 

If eBay approves it, I've uploaded a hand-held smartphone soundclip video of part of one of the Chloe Owen songs. That should give you an idea of the type of music we're dealing with, as well as an understanding of the playback quality. As you can hear, there is a lot of miscellaneous background hiss and crackle, and I'm afraid that's going to be typical for the entire record. The record does have a multitude of needle digs and scratches, but I suspect the recording itself might have been made with inferior technology. The background hiss aside, Side One plays through fine on my Audio-Technica turntable, with no skips or jumps, but Side Two didn't two as well, with two needle stops or repeats - the first one during the sixth of the seven Chloe Owen songs, and the other near the end of "Epithalamium." Both appear to be caused by nasty little needle scratches, and, to be fair, both played through fine on my trusty old Garrard turntable, which has a heavier needle weight. Because of variations in tracking ability, filtering technology and needle weights, I can offer no guarantees as to how well it will play on your equipment. Please also check the pictures for any label damage or issues.

As a final footnote, we have a few more Noel Sokoloff records or acetates on ebay, and we also have a couple more that are not on ebay. If you're interested in obtaining details of the whole collection, please contact us through the "Ask Seller a Question" link.