YUGEN MySPace
December 17, 2008
YUGEN PLAYS LEDDI - Uova fatali (2008, ITA, CD)
YUGEN MySPace
September 20, 2008
MAURICIO KAGEL
September 15, 2008
CARTOON-BIGORNA (2003, CD, BRAZIL)
Official website
Tracklist:
1. Prologue (3:29)2. From The Hands Of God (3:48)3. Knight’s Nightmare (6:37)4. King’s Song (3:38)5. King’s Fugue (1:49)6. She Smiled (3:43)7. Guinevere (5:41)8. Marriage (2:17)9. Show Me Where Love Lives (2:33)10. Lily Fears (1:31)11. The Warning (5:51)12. March Of Despair - A) She’s Coming B) Cool Down Emily Whith C) Song Of Despair (4:52)13. Apocalypstic Man (3:56)14. Alberich’s Blues (3:00)15. Letter To Marion (5:17)16. In The Gates Of Hell (1:07)17. The Last Battle (9:29)18. The Great Gates Of Freedom (4:35)
here
FIRYUZA-S/T (1982, LP, TURKMENISTAN)
This is great music, very complex and beautiful compositions in a perfect progressive/jazz-rock stile.
Tracklist:
1. Ashkhabad 2. Native Land 3. Chapyksuar 4. Dialog in Aul.
here
NOUVELLES ETHNOLOGIQUES DE L'OBSCUR MUSEUM-NEO MUSEUM VOLUME 1 (1985, LP, FRANCE)
Tracklist: 1 Une sidérurgie no.4 / 2 Une sidérurgie no.1 / 3 Une sidérurgie no.5 / 4 Erreur d’errance song / 5 Premier élément / 6 Eléments de paraphrase / 7 Rahcuoba pro afghanIntervenants
Credits: Alain CASARI Saxophone alto, Antoine GINDT Guitare, Contrebasse, Piano, Daniel KOSKOWITZ Drums, GUESTS:, Jacques VEILLE Trombone, Pascal SIEGER Saxophone sopranino, Jérôme BOURDELLON Clarinette basse, Flûte basse, Raoul BINOT Saxophone ténor. (Thank you alexei!)
Recommended!
Update
THE GHOULIES-DOGGED BY DOGMA (1982, LP, ENGLAND)
Tracklist: 1.Listening To My Neighbour Singing 2.Sexist Conversation 3.Social Workers 4.Hollow Cost 5.Make Sure Your Garage Is Large Enough 6.Stabbing Cats 7.CS's 8.Look Mum No Hands (Parts 1-3) 9.A Large Lounge And Yawn.
link
BONFIRE-GOES BANANAS (1975, CD, NETHERLAND)
Tracklist:
1. Delirium (3:14) 2. Contrast (5:10) 3. Vuurstaal(Part 2) (3:10) 4. Chinese in Europe(Part 1) (3:17) 5. Circle (6:29) 6. The Sage of the Running Nose (18:50) a) Running Nose b) Cabaret c) Third Eye d) Cabaret Again e) Running Nose II Bonus Track: 7. Contrast (Single Version) (3:38) 8. Circle (Single Version) (2:48) 9. There's Always a Reason (Previously unrelease demo Track) (5:16) 10. Ohne Wort (Previously Unrelease demo Track) (5:14)
YOG SOTHOTH-S/T (1984, LP, FRANCE)
Update
PSYNKOPAT-HAR VI NAGON SILl...(1978, LP, SWEDEN)
Tracklist:
Side A 1. Eskapistel nr 601 (4:59) 2. 43 (4:14) 3. Love, Love Lavemang (4:59) 4. Kroppsraga (3:22) 5. Blazer - Vargen i Vilda Väster (1:18) 6. Torrboll (4:05) Side B: 1. I Peugeoten (3:46) 2. Har Vi Några Tvångstankar (2:21) 3. +39 C (5:59) 4. Har Vi Någon Basist (0:39) 5. Har Vi Någon Demokrati (5:21) 6. Fusk, Mina Viet - Congas (1:51) 7. Banal Böj (3:54)
August 16, 2008
RASCAL REPORTERS-HAPPY ACCIDENTS (1987, CD, USA)
An extraordinary progressive duo featuring Steve Gore and Steve Kretzmer on guitars, keyboards, bass, clarinet, percussion, drums and voices. Special guests include Dave Newhouse (The Muffins) on saxes and flutes, Nick Didkovsky (Doctor Nerve) on guitar, Dave Kerman and James Grigsby (U Totem) on percussion, Guy Segers (Univers Zero) on bass and Steve Feigenbaum (Random Radar utility outfielder) on guitar. The Rascal Reporters have been making challenging music for more than a quarter century and this is their 1988 masterpiece, originally on lp, but released here with over 30 minutes of bonus material. The complexity of the compositions and ideas here will thrill and astonish fans of rehearsal intensive progressive rock. (DMG)
link
Rascal Reporters web site
POCHAKAITE MALKO-DOPPELGANGER (2006, EP, JAPAN)
aaaahhh!!!
CHEER ACCIDENT-SEVER ROOTS TREE DIES (1988, LP, USA)
Of the band's three members at the time, two (multi-instrumentalists Thymme Jones and Chris Block) play Mellotron, apparently borrowed from one Ted Dominick, whose sleeve credit reads "who else would have a Mellotron?" It isn't actually used until track four, the lengthy Avoid The Invisible, with what sounds like a cello line under one of the more 'normal' parts of the song, before a fantastic discordant strings part takes over. There are more cellos on Severed (the lyrics of which give the album its name), but that appears to be it.
Tracklist: 1.Fight for Innocence 2.Death & Taxes 3.Uncle Dale 4.Avoid the Invisible 5.Severed 6.Heaven 7.Black & White 8.Cutting Off My Arm So I Don't Have to Shake Hands 9.Tree Dies
(Planetmellotron)
here
June 21, 2008
Decibel – Fiat Lux (2003, 3xCD Box-Set, Mexico)
As a term, Rock In Opposition (RIO) is used to describe a large variety of second generation progressive rock bands and their derivations up to the present day. Originally a single concert coupled with a loose organizational spirit, RIO disintegrated rather quickly, but at the same time this epithet lingered and spread past its European roots. Arranged in March 1978 in London by Henry Cow (England) and Stormy Six (Italy), the Rock In Opposition concert at the New London Theatre additionally featured Samla Mammas Manna (Sweden), Etron Fou Leloublan (France), and Univers Zero (Belgium). Later official additions to the roster accepted Art Bears, Art Zoyd (France), and Aqsak Maboul (Belgium). According to releases at the time, and resulting from charged debates between the bands, RIO groups adhered to the following criteria:
(A) That of musical excellence. This depending on their collective evaluation of the same.(B) That of working actively outside the establishment of music business.(C) That of having a social commitment to Rock.
In practical terms, this meant collaboration in tours, distribution and manufacturing of music, cross-promotion, and general development of alternative outlets in media. Of course, someone had to go and bring up politics, which irrevocably ended the formal RIO relationship. Stormy Six, avowedly Communist as only Italians know how, accused Univers Zero of only being concerned with formalism and Samlas Mammas Manna as apolitical. Stormy Six were then labeled too populist, and after several concerts in 1979 the bands dropped the RIO label. However, the informal links made proved to last, as did the notions of management which set up such enterprises as Chris Cutler’s Recommended Records.
RIO was a survival method as much as an active statement. Early progressive rock had the support of album-oriented FM radio, major labels willing to put out side-length songs, and large audiences devoted to experimentation within the rock format. Even Henry Cow, which had begun on the Virgin label, found that by the late 1970s the music industry had degenerated so much they released their 1979 effort Western Culture on their own imprint. Mainstream progressive rock had shifted to a ghostly shell of itself, with acts like Styx and Journey assuming the mantle and herding it into large football stadiums. Prog rock, which succeeded solely on the margin in the first place, suddenly had no middle ground. While the punk movement takes credit today for introducing so-called DIY methods into music, it was partly the punk phenomenon that ended the limited taste for prog in the music industry.
For record labels, punk rock’s legacy, more than anything else, was the re-establishment of the single-oriented band as the quintessence of how to make money in music. To this day we suffer under the yoke of albums drenched with filler songs and produced by committee. Thank you Mr. McLaren, may I have another?
As a response to the cultural malaise of the time, RIO also reached backwards into musical roots that subsequently insured their limited financial success. Stockhausen, Cage, Kagel, and Boulez were drawn from, as well as the radical strains of European and American jazz. As with most avant-garde movements in the 20th century, this led to an international communion of sorts, both in and out of Europe. Bands that had existed in solitude found an idiom and, most importantly, a small market for their efforts. It was in this era that the Mexican group Decibel achieved a small amount of success and produced some stunning music.
All the studio work and some live material by this band are collected on the 3-CD Mio Records set Fiat Lux, featuring their 1979 full length El Poeta del Ruido, a track contributed to a 1982 Recommended Records quarterly LP, and several albums recorded in the 1990s by a revamped lineup. While Mexican psych rock goes back to bands such as The Spiders and Los Dug Dugs, the 1970s brought more symphonic groups like Nueva Mexico and Al Universo. Decibel were a rare exception to the prog acts of this period in Mexico, and were well versed in European groups such as Faust, Magma, Gong, and the Italian prog masters Il Balletto di Bronzo. The lineup centered around keyboardist Carlos Robledo, bassist Walter Schmidt, and percussionist Jaime Casteneda (Scmhidt and Robledo began playing together as Decibel in 1974). Three months after the original 1978 RIO festival in England, Decibel performed at a RIO festival at the National Autonomous University of Mexico in Mexico City, which can also be heard on the Fiat Lux set.
The centerpiece of this set is certainly the 1979 album El Poeta del Ruido, released in a pressing of 1,000 and distributed in the UK by Recommended in 1980. The title track is a gem, equal to any of Henry Cow’s structured pieces and in most places darker. The song includes a complex structure, odd electronic manipulations in the background, and percussion and keyboards sped up to a blindingly fast speed. Equal parts Uncle Meat and Magma, the track is brilliantly delicate in some instances, removing all the portly elements associated with their Zeuhl forebears.
Few tracks on the album share this structure, however. Several stand out as Stockhausen-inspired, with abstract loops comparable to Raymond Scott or Cluster. Others summon the more chaotic elements of Faust’s Tapes. Overall the album goes beyond many of the RIO associated records of the age, as it consistently defies expectations in both form and instrumentation. The live performances from this era are equally impressive; during one point is hard to distinguish Decibel from any good live AMM recording. Lastly, Decibel does not deserve the designation of “Chamber Rock,” a term of slander for most musicians rather than praise. Against the cold dexterity of bands like Univers Zero and Art Zoyd, Decibel stands out as engaging and provocative.
The question remains surrounding RIO: Opposition to what? Although these bands disagreed between themselves over the answer, a general idea surfaced. These bands committed themselves to existing and working outside the traditional avenues of the music industry, whether by fortune or design, with the recognition that when large amounts of money changes hands art becomes the last priority. The wide range of beliefs between these musicians - from the communist dogma of Stormy Six, the extreme leftists in Henry Cow, the Latin surrealism of Decibel, or the whimsy Zappa-styled politics of Samla Mammas Manna - all agreed on the enemy. RIO became one of the many glorious failures between art and the Left that pepper our history, a Popular Front for the post-1960s avant-garde. Importantly, this was done before our so-called information revolution, and few could imagine it taking place today, when the queue of bands willing to play ball at any costs literally stretches coast to coast. RIO confirmed that the social function of art is to a large extent determined by the artist, and when that role is relinquished, there are forces eager to fill the opening. If John Grierson was right, as art being not a mirror but a hammer, then it begs the question whether art is a weapon or a tool. Decibel and their contemporaries understood it, rightly so, as both. (By Kevan Harris)
June 02, 2008
CRY FREEDOM-VOLCANO (1976, LP, GERMANY)
Tracklist: 01. Euthanasie-Suite (9:50) 02. Ländlich (7:50) 03. Epitaph (3:47) 04. Volcano (10:36) 05. Mambo auf Burg Eckbertstein (6:00) 06. Bayrisch Blue (2:56)
Musicians: Gerhard Billann (keyboards), Klaus Braun (drums, percussion), Klaus Kukla (bass, bells), Rudi Madsius (guitar, vocals), Didier "Sont"Urbassik (saxophones).
REQUEST! I search the other two lp's "Sunny days" (1979) and "Nobody's fool (1980); if someone have one of these album please contact-me!
here
LACRYMOSA-BUGBEAR (1983-84, CD, JAPAN)
On the first full-length album of the Japanese band Lacrymosa, they already had developed completely their doom-ridden, avant-garde, chamber rock. With an instrumental line-up that includes violin, oboe, clarinet, saxophone and cello, it is probably no surprise that they often sound like a modern chamber music ensemble, albeit supported by a rock music rhythm section. Often the band sounds about as creepy and threatening as Univers Zero. It is not hard to imagine this music as part of a horror movie soundtrack. There are several beautiful, almost pastoral melodic sections, but usually within a few bars musical elements foreshadowing upcoming disaster or threat fill the sonic air. Lacrymosa is significantly harsher and darker in sound than the somewhat similar Japanese band Zypressen, who have a more delicate take on "chamber rock". Bugbear is a great album and recommended listening for anyone into the RIO scene or avantgarde rock. (Gnosis)
HET PANDORRA ENSEMBLE-III, DISASTER ELECTRONICS (1978, LP, HOLLAND)
Tracklist: 1.Door mekaar (D. Planteijdt) [10:07] 2.Kanon pittoresk (D. Planteijdt) [10:47] 3.Ritme 7000 (D. Planteijdt) [2:40] 4.Drei (D. Planteijdt) [4:37] 5.Karotten (D. Planteijdt) [15:08]
Musicians: Gert-Jan Blom (Bass guitar), Wouter Planteijdt (Guitar), Wilfrid Snellens (Drums),
Dolf Planteijdt (Guitar), guest musicians: Roland Brunt (flute), Kaspar (organ).
Review: Let me start by saying that this album is Holland's best kept secret. It is an excellent album that contains some of the best progressive music recorded in the Netherlands. It is experimental, complex and very exciting.The Pandorra Ensemble was an experimental band led by the Planteijdt brothers, who both played guitar. The music is completely instrumental, and except from one track, it is bass (in the style of Chris Squire or Peter Vink), drums and lots of guitars. If compared to other bands, they have something in common with King Crimson. This shows in their avant garde type of rock and also in the guitar playing of Wouter Planteijdt which resembles the style of Robert Fripp. If Crimson had recorded an album in 1978, this is how it could have sounded. Other references are Djam Karet and mathrock from bands like Don Caballero.The album consists of three long tracks and two shorter ones. The first track is Door Mekaar. The main feature of this track is two guitars playing together and against each other. The opening has a Canterbury feel over it. After a quiet center part the song is build up again with a bass solo and ends with a fantastic guitar solo. A great track that really defines the sound of the Pandorra Ensemble. The second track is Kanon Pittoresk. With it's repetitive themes the start of this track is the closest they come to mathrock. Halfway, the most breathtaking minutes of the album pass you by. The rhythm of the song changes and a guitar solo that bring tears to your eyes start. At the end the same solo is played again, but this time up-tempo. To slow things a bit and for the listener to take a deep breath, the album follows with two shorter tracks: Ritme 7000 and Drei. The first is guitar and bass and on top of that a flute, played by Roland Brunt. It is a nice little tune. The second is best compared to the opening of Crimson's Lark's Tongues In Aspic, part 1. In the middle a few people shout numbers in German, although almost not audible. This is a sort of intro to the closer of the album, Karotten. This one starts very quiet but soon they pick up some sort of groove with a heavy bass guitar and some great soloing ( a mix between Akkerman and Fripp). When the song becomes quiet again and you think the album is over, they play a sort of reprise with a very beautiful and melodic piece of music.The musicianship of all players is very high. But a special word goes out to both guitarists. They can easily be added to the list of great dutch guitarist, where they complete the top three with Jan Akkerman (Focus) and Joop van Nimwegen (Finch). The production of the album is also very good. There is one point of criticism about this release: this album should be released on cd as soon as possible. And not some vinyl rip, but a proper remastered album. And then everybody who wants to add an excellent album to it's collection can get it. (Dutch progressive rock)
click here
OCTOBRE-SURVIVANCE (1975, LP, CANADA)
Starting out on the superb (and relatively lengthy) almost-instrumental Tendre Torture (sweet/soft torture), Octobre shows that Flynn’s songs were not their only strength, and the ever-changing track is a small tour de force. Christiane Robichaud’s choirs are to be heard on both instrumental, each starting the vinyl sides. In this regard, Baptême De L’Air (aerial christening) is another stunning instrumental that shines like the sun. At the time, Quebec’s political conscience was in full bloom, and the artistic/cultural revolution in full prime, and En Famille celebrates a festival where 100 000 partied on the Mont Royal and celebrated like a family feast, but something is brewing in Flynn’s mood as not right. La Valse à 11 Temps is definitely one of Octobre more “prog” tracks, sounding like Crimson would had Fripp been from La Belle Province. Of course, you understood that the track is in 11/4, no doubt a remnant of their concert with King Crimson headlining.
L’Oiseau Rouge (red bird) is one of the best-produced tracks where the group’s full dynamic range is emphasized, and they sound like Supertramp (Asylum) meeting Mahavishnu Orchestra, if you can picture that. The closing title track is Flynn’s more personal text on the album about his feeling in the music industry, and Hebert’s excellent drum rolls save the track from sinking in cheesyland. Another filler is Encore Ce Soir, no doubt inspired by the whining of Flynn’s girlfriend.
Tracklist: 1. Tendre Torture (instrumental) (6:27) 2. Cet Instant (4:05) 3. La Valse À Onze Temps (4 :11) 4. En Famille (3:29) 5. Baptême De L'air (instrumental) (3:26) 6. Tu T'en Vas Encore Ce Soir (4:26) 7. L`Oiseau Rouge (4:48) 8. Survivance (3:43) Musicians:
Pierre Flynn / keyboards, lead vocals- Jean Dorais / guitars - Mario Légaré / bass- Pierre Hébert / drums (progarchives)
click here
ODYSSEE-WHITE SWAN (1978, LP, GERMANY)
May 10, 2008
Jox – Joxifications (1982, LP, France)
Tracklist:
A1. Dessous les lauriers blancs (6:26)
A2. Promenade au gre des vagues (4:25)
A3. Millesime 80 (7:50)
A4. Metig (4:15)
B1. Projet pour une ballade sur les cimes (7:54)
B2. Sequences (7:05)
B3. Secondes Noces (6:03)
B4. Effervescence (3:28)
LE GRAND NEBULEUX ET LES LAVEURS DE CONSCIENCES-LES PIRATES DU CORTEX (1978, LP, FRANCE)
link
RATIONAL DIET-S/T (2007, CD, BIELORUSSIA)
Fantastic R.I.O.!!!
link ...Buy it!
Jacques Thollot – Cinq Hops (1978, CD, France)
Man, I must be getting old. All these things from 25-30-35 years ago that I remember and own or owned are now being touted as lost classics. "Lost?, I've owned that for...uh...years...uh...never mind..." Anyway, this is a very good French jazz/rock/zeuhl album from 1978 that came out on the short-lived Free Bird label. Thollot is a drummer who played with some noted free and avant jazz players in the 60s and 70s, such as Sonny Sharrock, Sam Rivers, Don Cherry, Eric Dolphy, Jac Berrocal and many others. This title however is completely different. The record label hype, all in French that I can read badly suggests that it's meeting of a trilogy of styles: the jazz/rock universe, such as Weather Report, French classical music as typified by Poulenc and Debussy and lastly rock in opposition sounds of Art Bears and John Greaves. I really don't hear rock in opposition at all, but eliminate them and throw in Zeuhl via Zao, Yochk'o Seffer, Alain Eckert Quartet (will THAT album ever be reissued on CD?) and I'd agree pretty strongly with their take on this. The lineup is Elise Ross-vocals, Francois Jeanneau-soprano sax & flute, Michel Grailler-piano, Yamaha electronic piano, Francois Couturier-keyboards, Jean Paul Celea-double bass and Jacques Thollot on drums, percussion and keyboards. Elise sings in a rather classical style and these are obviously jazz and jazz/rock players but it's pretty strongly zeuhl, baby. Very nice and great to see this available again! (Wayside) Great crazy prog!!!! here
LOUIS SCLAVIS QUINTET-ROUGE (1992, CD, FRANCE)
Sclavis began his musical education at the conservatoire de Lyon at age 9, where he studied clarinet. He began performing with the Lyon Workshop, where he met Michel Portal and Bernard Lubat. He then joined the Brotherhood of Breath of Chris McGregor, and later the Henri Texier quartet.
He began his work as a leader in 1987, with his first album Chine. The track Duguesclin has actually been a hit in France, due to its lively, middle-age inspiration. In 1995, he created, along with Henri Texier and Aldo Romano, a trio named the African trio which achieved considerable success, even outside of the French jazz community.
He frequently performs with the cellist Ernst Reijseger and was one of the first to combine jazz with French folk music, working most prominently with the hurdy-gurdy player Valentin Clastrier. (Wikipedia)
Great music!! Here
May 03, 2008
Henry Cow - Live In Sweden (1977, bootleg)
May 01, 2008
CALOMITO-INAUDITO (2005, CD, ITALY)
Calomito are a six-piece Italian band who use: violin/viola, guitars, alto/soprano saxes/percussion/weird vocal efx, Fender Rhodes/synth/organ, electric bass/double bass and drums, the sound is a mix of progressive, r.i.o., Canterbury and jazz touch with a mediterranean influence that sometimes reminds of the fantastic Area, Gong, or Zappa … complex compositions, skilled musicians, a really good debut album!
Support this artists!! Buy this great cd!!!!
myspace
link in comment......
LOW FLYING AIRCRAFT-S/T (1987, CD, ENGLAND)
Tracklist: 1. Sybilization (3:17) 2. Fourth dimension (3:14) 3. Baptism by fire (2:46) 4. Poolside (5:34) 5. Abstract Blue (5:32) 6. Moronathon (3:13) 7. Amnesia (2:59) 8. Reflection (8:45) 9. What did you do (2:06) 10. Radically conservative (3:04)
Guest musicians: Ron Linton (Tenox sax), Eric Drew Feldman (DX7), Paul Burwell (percussion, sqweek drum, bowed metal, whirled tube)
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SHADOWFAX-WATERCOURSE WAY (1976, CD, USA)
LIBRA-MUSICA & PAROLE (1975, CD, ITALY)
Mainly a rock album with large use of acoustic parts and some jazz-rock and funky influences, Musica e parole has some PFM similarities and a few interesting prog moments, like in the 13 min. long closing track Inquinamento (originally sung in roman dialect and renamed Pollution in the US version), and gave the band the chance to be signed in the States with Motown, that issued it in a revised english-sung version (simply called Libra) in USA. One of the album tracks, the funky Beyond the fence, was sung in english even in the original LP version, and was recorded live or with fake audience overdubs.
A year later, with D'Andrea leaving and ex-Goblin drummer Walter Martino joining the band, Libra released an US-only second album, Winter days nightmare, much more commercial than the previous one and with strong (obvious considering the label) funky influences. This was not successful and the band returned to Italy.
A final Libra line-up, including keyboardist Maurizio Guarini from Goblin and guitarist Carlo Pennisi from Flea, released a third album in 1977 as a soundtrack to the film Shock (but the LP was misspelt as Schock), by director Mario Bava, much in Goblin style, before disbanding. Federico D'Andrea died in 1978, run over by a car. (italianprog.com)
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HERMETO PASCOAL E GRUPO-MUNDO VERDE ESPERANCA (2002, CD, BRAZIL)
Known as o bruxo (the sorcerer), Hermeto often makes music with unconventional objects such as teapots, children's toys, and animals, as well as keyboards, button accordion, melodica, saxophone, guitar, flute, voice, various brass and folkloric instruments. Perhaps due to his growing up in the countryside, he uses nature as a basis for his compositions, as in his Música da Lagoa, where the musicians burble water and play flutes while immersed in a lagoon: a Brazilian television broadcast from 1999 showed him soloing at one point by singing into a cup with his mouth partially submerged in water. The folk musics of rural Brazil are another important influence on his work. Pascoal comes from a remote corner of northeast Brazil, an area that when he was born had no electricity. He learnt the accordion from his father and practised for hours in the shade as, being an albino, he was incapable of working in the fields with the rest of his family.
Hermeto's career began in 1964 with appearances on several Brazilian recordings with relatively small groups. These now-classic albums and the musicians involved (Edu Lobo, Airto Moreira, Elis Regina, Cesar Camargo Mariano and others) established widely influential new directions in post-bossa Brazilian Jazz. After joining Moreira in his Sambrasa Trio in 1966, the two went on to form Quarteto Novo and release an album which would do much to launch the careers of Pascoal and Moreira. Pascoal would then go on to join the multi-faceted Brazilian Octopus, to play on Airto's recordings and then to recording in his own right.
He initially came to the international public's attention through an appearance on Miles Davis' 1971 album Live/Evil, which featured Pascoal on several pieces (which he also composed). Davis has said that Pascoal was "the most impressive musician in the world". Later collaborations involved fellow Brazilian musicians Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. From the late 1970s on he has mostly led his own groups, playing at many prestigious venues, such as the Montreux Jazz Festival in 1979. Other members of the group have included bassist Itibere Zwarg, pianist Jovino Santos-Neto and percussionists Nene (his colleague from Quarteto Novo in the 1960s), Pernambuco and Zabele.
Hermeto is a prolific composer, famous for his project Calendário do Som, in which he composed a song every day for a year so that everyone would have a song for his or her birthday (Wikipedia).
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TIM BERNE-SANCTIFIED DREAMS (1987, CD, USA)
Though Berne was a music fan, he had no interest in playing a musical instrument until he was in college, when he purchased an alto saxophone. He was more interested in rhythm and blues music--Stax records releases and Aretha Franklin, especially--until he heard Julius Hemphill's 1972 recording Dogon A.D..
Hemphill was known for his integration of soul music and funk with free jazz. Berne moved to New York City in 1974. There Berne took lessons from Hemphill, and later recorded with him.
In 1979, Berne founded Empire Records to release his own recordings. He recorded Fulton Street Maul and Sanctified Dreams for Columbia Records, which generated some discussion and controversy, due in part to the fact that Berne's music had little in common with the neo-tradionalist hard bop performers prominent in the mid-1980s. Some regarded Berne's music as uncommercial. In the late 1990s Berne founded Screwgun Records, which has released his own recordings, as well as others' music.
Beyond his recordings as a bandleader, Berne has recorded and/or performed with guitarist Bill Frisell, avant-garde composer/sax player John Zorn, violinist Mat Maneri, guitarist David Torn, trumpet player Herb Robertson and as a member of the cooperative trio Miniature (group).
Recent years have found Berne performing in several different groups with drummer Tom Rainey, keyboardist Craig Taborn, bassists Michael Formanek and Drew Gress, guitarists Marc Ducret and David Torn, and reeds player Chris Speed.
Berne's complex, multi-section compositions are often quite lengthy; twenty to thirty minute pieces are not unusual. One critic has written that Berne's long songs "don't grow tiresome. The musicians are brilliantly creative and experienced enough not to get lost in all the room provided by these large time frames." (Wikipedia)
7-Terre Haute (7:40)
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JULVERNE-COULONNEUX (1979, LP, BELGIUM)
In fact, Julverne has shared musicians with Univers Zero, including Dirk Descheemaker and Michel Berckmans. So there is really no surprise that there are similarities in style to both bands. However, Julverne is more like Univers Zero's happier, more cosmopolitan younger brother. The ensemble's first album was released in 1979, and unlike their more aggressive musical brethren, Julverne don't have any drums. In fact, they only seem to be a rock band by comparison, as this truly seems to be a chamber group performing original music with influences of Satie, Bartok, Debussy, and the less dissonant measures of Stravinksy. The instrumentation is typical of chamber music with piano, strings, horns and winds, and these are arranged in many lovely ways over Coulonneux's ten-track duration. In fact, the similarities to Univers Zero and Art Zoyd are largely the musical format, as this is never angry or strident in the least. However, Julverne was certainly considered an experimental band by the musical collective that made it up, and the compositions reflect an exploratory ethic in their use of keys, modes and arrangements. Without getting into music theory, it can still be said that most of the compositions often start out in a fresh and accessible mode before veering off into a tangent belying the 20th Century influences of the band. It's a gorgeous album and rather idiosyncratic, even in comparison to the ensemble's RIO-drafted contemporaries.
A Neuf was an even more mature effort, starting with an ambitious three-piece suite. While Julverne's chamber music approach implies a sort of serious study, musically there were bits of humor sneaking into the compositions nonetheless, such as the second part of the suite, "Un Peu Pretentieux" (A Bit Pretentious). Musically this is also true, with the ensemble's occasional tangents into sly, goofy, or zany territory. One may be listening to some beautiful arranged chamber piece before the whole group speeds off in another direction, as if Bugs Bunny was yet again leading Elmer Fudd off on another wild goose chase. In fact, if anything sets apart Julverne from cousins Univers Zero, it's this omnipresent playfulness. Only a group of skilled musicians and composers could pull off such a thing in such complex and involved compositions. Not a piece of music is anything but entertaining here, rich in ideas, spontaneity, dynamic diversity and mood. Perhaps it's more a tribute to such classy music that Julverne finds itself in such company with bands like Univers Zero in Belgium's most interesting lineage of experimental chamber music ensembles.
While the first two albums by Julverne might be considered the formative work of the ensemble, the band would release two more albums, 1983's Emballade and 1986's Ne Parlons Pas de Mahleur, before dissolving. In 1992, the Igloo label would release a retrospective of these albums (Le Retour du Captain Nemo) including a great deal of music from the early albums. Julverne also reformed recently to release 2000's Le Pavillion des Passions Humanies. (gnosis2000.net)
April 13, 2008
Música Urbana/Blay Tritono/La Rondalla de la Costa – Banda Sonora De La Pel.licula: Primera Aventura De Pepe Carvalho "Tatuaje" (1978, LP, Spain)
This is the RARE third LP of Musica Urbana in fact it's a soundtrack of the film by Bigas Luna (1978). The Ensemble Musicale is completed by the Musica Urbana, Blay Tritono and La Rondalla de la Costa. here
Yūgen – Labirinto D'Acqua (2006, CD, Italy)
2 Catacresi 6:35
3 Omelette Norvegese 1:07
4 Corale Metallurgico 7:33
5 Danse Cuirassée (Période Grecque) 1:03
6 Brachilogia 3:11
7 La Mosca Stregata 0:56
8 Quando La Morte Mi Colse Nel Sonno 9:23
9 Skellotron 003 1:23
10 Le Rovine Circolari 6:53
11 Anastomosi 1:28
12 Danze Corazzate 3:49
13 Labirinto D'Acqua 1:21
14 Incubi Concentrici 4:42
Bass – Stephan Brunner
Bass Clarinet, Contrabass Saxophone, Subcontrabass Saxophone, Bass Flute, Tárogató – Peter Schmid
Clarinet, Bass Clarinet – Marco Sorge
Drums – Dave Kerman (4), Mattia Signò
Electric Guitar, Classical Guitar, Keyboards – Francesco Zago
Electric Piano, Mellotron, Organ, Synthesizer [Moog] – Paolo «Ske» Botta
Harpsichord, Percussion, Shakuhachi, Theremin – Giuseppe A. Olivini
Mandolin, Lute – Tommaso Leddi
Music By – Francesco Zago
Music By [Themes] – Erik Satie (1, 5)
Performer [Sculture Metalliche Suonate Da] – Markus Stauss
Piano – Maurizio Fasoli
Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Bass Saxophone – Markus Stauss
Vibraphone, Marimba, Glockenspiel – Massimo Mazza
Violin – Elia Mariani