Edgar Froese - Aqua (1974)

Recorded in Berlin, on either side of the Phaedra sessions in England, Edgar Froese's debut solo album was released a few months after that TD breakthrough landed.  The two records make a great listening experience together, with this one isolating Froese's interest at the time in eerie atmospheres and alien burbling synth experiments.  The fact that he recorded it primarily as a fundraiser for TD equipment doesn't diminish its lasting brilliance.

The German release of Aqua (never digitally reissued) switched the sides and had a different mix in places; anyone heard it/know if it's substantially different?  Anyhow, this standard Virgin issue is an otherwordly experience in its own right - few albums sound more endlessly pleasureable on headphones.  The water sounds on the title track (recorded by Froese in his home), the landing aeroplane sound effects on NGC 891 (recorded in "artificial head" surround-sound) and much more add to the transportive magic.  Next week: a Bowie-approved mellotron paradise.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Ages
Stuntman
Pinnacles
Tangerine Dream at SGTG:
Phaedra (scroll past main post)
Encore
Force Majeure
Tangram
Logos: Live At The Dominion
Hyperborea

Gateway - Homecoming (1995)

Twenty years on from their first session together (posted a couple of weeks back), and seventeen since they'd last recorded, the Gateway trio of John Abercrombie, Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette reunited in style.  There was plenty of fire left in the trio, as evidenced right from the opening title track - after a cool, swinging earworm of a theme, Abercrombie cranks up the volume and a great group improv ensues.

As with their debut, Holland is the standout songwriter here, penning the title track and also the barreling-forwards Modern Times, the firey groove of How's Never (with a great drum solo) and also the spare In Your Arms.  Abercrombie writes three tunes, including the glowing embers of Waltz New - his guitar tone is never less than a thrill on this record, even when not at full pelt; and DeJohnette pens the closing pair, including a switch to piano on the gorgeous closer Oneness.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Gateway - First Album
Characters (Abercrombie)
Sargasso Sea / Five Years Later (Abercrombie/Towner)
Pictures (DeJohnette/Abercrombie)

Edison Denisov - Symphony (1990)

Edison Vasilievich Denisov (1929-1996) was part of the Soviet "underground" of composers who found themselves denounced by the state in 1979 - "Khrennikov's Seven" also included Artyomov and Gubaidulina.  He spent the last two years of his life in Paris before succumbing to long-term ill health.

This live recording of his first symphony (composed in 1987) dates from February 1990.  By this time, Denisov's standing in late-Soviet Russia had improved enough that the Ministry of Culture Orchestra performed it in the Moscow Conservatoire.  Rather than follow established symphonic form, the work paints dark tonal colours and textures: unsettling, almost Ligeti-like strings and sombre bells in the long first movement, and strong percussion in the third.  Wonderful, stirring and engrossing music.

link
pw: sgtg

bonus Denisov - Symphony No. 2

A concert broadcast from February 2017 in the London Royal Festival Hall, with the LPO conducted by Vladimir Jurowksi.  Denisov's Symphony No. 2, written eight months before his death, was much shorter than the first (just under 16 minutes), but covers similar terrain.  It was programmed with two other "end of life" works: Berg's Violin Concerto, and Symphony No. 15 by Denisov's one-time teacher Shostakovich.

link
pw: sgtg

Philip Glass - Analog (2006 compilation, rec. 1975-81)

Compilation released by the Philip Glass archive label Orange Mountain Music, centered around the 1977 LP North Star which originally came out on Virgin Records.  North Star comprised of soundtrack music for a 1975 documentary about the sculptor/assemblage artist Mark Di Suvero, and as such contains much shorter pieces than any other Glass release of the era.

Listening to North Star, in fact, is like a series of miniature trailers for Einstein On The Beach (link below) - the preponderance of tracks based around electric organ and simple vocal phrases definitely points the way forward to Einstein.  There's some really lovely variations on the Glass sound of time too, such as River Run and the flute tapestry of Are Years What (For Marianne Moore).  Like Glassworks, this is an ideal album for listeners who might enjoy the early Philip Glass sound, but be put off by a single idea stretching across 20-odd minutes.

The bonus on Analog is Soho News, an EP from 1981 containing "two minor works originally written in the mid-70s".  The three parts of Dressed Like An Egg are in a similar vein to the organ/voice pieces on North Star, and the real treat is an early organ rendition of Mad Rush.  Perhaps best known as a piano piece since the release of Solo Piano (link below), it was originally intended to be an organ work, and is presented here in its full 16 minute recording (Soho News originally edited it down to seven minutes).

North Star, original LP cover, 1977

Soho News, original 12" cover, 1981

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Music With Changing Parts
Two Pages, Contrary Motion etc
Music In Twelve Parts
Einstein On The Beach
Dance Nos. 1-5
Solo Piano
Dance No. 4 (Christopher Bowers-Broadbent)
How Now, etc (Steffen Schleiermacher)
Glassworks (live 2017)
Symphony No. 3 (live 2020)

Charles Mingus - Mingus Moves (1974)

After Let My Children Hear Music, his last hurrah for CBS, Charles Mingus returned to Atlantic Records for the rest of his final decade.  He assembled a new band around reedsman George Adams, pianist Don Pullen and drummer Dannie Richmond: this would be the group that recorded his other late masterpieces Changes One & Two (all links below).

Falling in between these late-career peaks, Mingus Moves (recorded in October 1973) sometimes gets lost in the shuffle or just plain underrated, but it's a great record in its own right.  Mingus' compositional touch was still strong, in the opening Canon (a deft bit of arranging that does what it says on the tin), and Opus 3 & 4, all classic pieces of writing & playing.

In between there's tracks penned by Let My Children.... arranger Sy Johnson (Wee), by band members Adams (the lovely Flowers For A Lady), and Pullen (the serene Newcomer), and an old-style ballad written by Doug Hammond and sung by him in duet with Honi Gordon that gives the album its title.  An album well worth having in any Mingus collection.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Jazz Portraits: Mingus In Wonderland 
Oh Yeah  
The Black Saint And The Sinner Lady  
Mingus Plays Piano  
Let My Children Hear Music
Changes One & Two
Cumbia & Jazz Fusion
plus:  
Blue Moods  
Money Jungle  
BBC Proms Tribute by Metropole Orkest

Esquivel And His Orchestra - Infinity In Sound (1960)

Zippy, zesty fun from Mexican bandleader Juan Garcia Esquivel (1918-2002), at the height of his powers as an ear-bending arranger.  All of Esquivel's sonic delights and little quirks are on display across 11 classic tunes: punchy brass and nifty percussion, slide guitar, "zu zu" vocals, cool little breezes of flute (as on Harlem Nocturne and Autumn Leaves, to name but two favourites) and more.  All of it pristinely rendered in RCA "Living Stereo", "New Orthophonic High Fidelity Recording" and suchlike marketing terms of the era; it's transferred to CD very well.  Esquivel became known as the king of "Space Age Pop" when this stuff came back in vogue in the 90s, but it's just great fun to listen to in any decade.

For fellow aficionados of obscure formats - an RCA Tape Cartridge release; note sides swapped compared to original sequence. (Pic: discogs.)

link
pw: sgtg

John Abercrombie, Dave Holland & Jack DeJohnette - Gateway (1975)

John Abercrombie, Dave Holland & Jack DeJohnette's first session in March 1975 sparked a classic trio that would lead to a further album in the 70s, and two more in the 90s.  The debut Gateway album, though, isn't just one of the most inspired ECM albums (amongst a mid-70s purple patch where the label churned out classic after classic), it's one of the greatest and most firey guitar trio jazz records ever made.

It all starts though in a deceptively understated mode, as the laidback groove of Back-Woods Song lopes into life with a memorable hook and some effortless finesse in Abercrombie's solos.  Next there's a short diversion to give Holland and DeJohnette the spotlight, then the album really starts to cook.  After another melodic introduction, May Dance spins out into a lengthy free-for-all, giving the group's interplay room to really shine.

The album's second half cranks up a gear with the Abercrombie-DeJohnette head-to-head of Unshielded Desire.  Abercrombie's volume and tone, not to mention sheer chops, are up there with anything John McLaughlin blasted out in the early 70s.  Jamala, another Holland-penned tune out of four on the album, offers some atmospheric breathing space before the final epic of Sorcery.  If Metheny's Bright Size Life from the same era was a dewy Midwestern sunrise, Gateway is a midday scorcher.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Characters (Abercrombie)
Sargasso Sea / Five Years Later (Abercrombie/Towner)
Pictures (DeJohnette/Abercrombie)

Laura Nyro - Spread Your Wings And Fly: Live At The Filmore East, May 30, 1971 (rel. 2004)

A gorgeous, spellbinding concert recording of just voice and piano, from the final weeks of the Fillmore East.  And what a voice, and a clutch of great songs and cover versions - the genius of Laura Nyro really shines through the sometimes ropey recording quality.

The setlist touches on all three of her classic CBS albums, including the epic The Treasure from her then-newest LP Christmas And The Beads Of Sweat, and a lovely Emmie from Eli And The Thirteenth Confession.  It also looks forward to the forthcoming covers album Gonna Take A Miracle (link below) with some classic cover tunes (and more contemporary covers like The Five Stairsteps' O-o-h Child, which I've been listening to a lot in the last few weeks), and even to 1976's Smile with a soaring I Am The Blues.

The set even includes, as its bookends, two songs that don't appear on any other Laura Nyro release, with the opening Vietnam War lament American Dove giving the album its title.  Full kudos to the archival team who cleaned up this disintegrating tape - far from being just an interesting document of the era, it's pure nourishment for the soul.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: Gonna Take A Miracle, with Labelle

László Dubrovay - Symphonia, Concerto No. 2 etc (1994)

Electronic and orchestral music from László Dubrovay, born 1943 in Budapest.  No recording dates for this collection, but everything here was composed in the 80s.  First up is the three-movement Symphonia (1984-5) which is entirely electronic - Dubrovay recorded it at the Electronic Studio of West Berlin's Technical University, using a Synclavier and Synlab synths.  The work sounds most like a composed symphony transcribed to electronics at its outset, then becomes progressively darker and more atmospheric.  Reminded me of Mikhail Chekalin in places, maybe even some of Vangelis' more avant-garde ventures.

For the rest of the album, Dubrovay's ear-bending and sometimes downright strange writing for orchestra is showcased.  Concerto No. 2 (1981) at first sounds like a nice full-bodied dronescape, then shifts into a vehicle for some brilliantly unhinged trumpeting, "almost croaking and neighing" (liner notes) at points.  Variations On An Oscillating Line (1987) takes the baroque idea of passacaglia variations and creates a queasy, trippy soundworld with it.  Lastly, Triple Concerto for Trumpet, Trombone, Tuba and Orchestra (1989) uses Dubrovay's talent for bizarre sounds to evoke "witnessing the death throes of dinosaurs", like some lurching funeral march.  Don't miss this album - highly recommended.

link
pw: sgtg

Hans-Joachim Roedelius & Tim Story - Inlandish (2008)

Stately, melancholy ambience from two masters.  The story (no pun intended) goes that the younger, American musician first met one of his biggest German heroes in 1983, and ended up staying with him in Austria for a week.  Story & Roedelius wouldn't collaborate until over a decade later, but when they did they made a handful of albums together, of which Inlandish was the third.

It's a gorgeous album that bears all the Roedelius hallmarks you'd expect: sparse, affecting melodies on piano cocooned in gentle ambient waftings and burblings.  In this case, the pair worked from Roedelius' piano sketches, with Story filling out the backgrounds.  Occasional beat-driven tracks like Downrivers and Riddled keep a bit of energy going, but mostly this is mellow meditativeness par excellence.

link
pw: sgtg

P.S. - Florian Schneider-Esleben, 1947-2020
R.I.P to one of the founders of electronic music's Big Bang, who has died of cancer at the age of 73. To celebrate Kraftwerk at the outset of their classic era, head over to Electronic Orgy, where they recently re-upped one of the most astonishing concert bootlegs ever taped.  Or hang out here and enjoy Electric Cafe from 80s Kraftwerk, when their contemporaries had began to catch up on them but they still had plenty to offer; or a recent celebration of early Kraftwerk performed by Zeitkratzer.

Nurse With Wound - Creakiness And Other Misdemeanours (2012 compilation, rec. 1991-2005)

A bit of a strange compilation, even by Steven Stapleton's standards.  Creakiness, his 17-minute collage of cartoon-inspired zaniness, had already featured on the Sugar Fish Drink compilation in 1992 (it first appeared as half of a split LP in 1991).  It was still great to have Creakiness back in circulation in 2012, at a time when Sugar Fish Drink was out of print, and it's one of his most fun adventures in sound that always deserves a wider audience.  What was odd this time around was Stapleton's decision to fill out the disc with half an hour of offcuts from his 'Echo Poeme' dark ambient project from 2005, and a single B-side from 2004.  It's all great music though, and hey, who ever said Nurse With Wound had to make any sense.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
To The Quiet Men From A Tiny Girl
Merzbild Schwet
Insect And Individual Silenced
Homotopy To Marie
Gyllensköld, Geijerstam And I At Rydberg's
The Sylvie And Babs High-Thigh Companion
Spiral Insana
Lumb's Sister 
Soliloquy For Lilith
A Sucked Orange / Scrag
Thunder Perfect Mind
Alice The Goon
A Missing Sense
Man With The Woman Face
Salt Marie Celeste
Angry Eelectric Finger: Spitch'cock One
Paranoia In Hi-Fi
The Surveillance Lounge 
Painting With Priests

Charles Ives - The "Concord" Sonata, performed by John Kirkpatrick (1968)

A sometimes tricksy but exhilarating 40 minutes of early 20th century pianism, courtesy of Charles Ives (1874-1954) and his early champion pianist John Kirkpatrick (1905-1991).  This 1968 LP was Kirkpatrick's second recording of the sonata, having played the premiere recording in 1948 and also the concert premieres in 1938/39.

Ives began work on what would become "Concord" around 1905, and it was eventually self-published in 1920.  The four movements are named for literary figures of the mid-19th century transcendentalist movement based in Concord, Massachusetts: Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Bronson and Louisa May Alcott, and Henry David Thoreau.  Ives pushes forward early 20th century American music in bold, impressionistic strides, sneaks in little quotes of Beethoven, and at one point in 'Hawthorne' calls for a plank of wood to be used on the piano for a cluster chord.

Kirkpatrick's recording still sounds rich and powerful, and this CD release adds the bonus of six tracks played by Ives himself.  Three of these recordings of parts of Concord date from 1943 (plus a tiny fragment from 1938), and two are "Emerson transcriptions with interpolated improvisations" that Ives recorded in London as far back as 1933.  These six tracks originally appeared on a 100th Anniversary box set in 1974.  The recording quality is as raw as you'd expect for the era, but it's nonetheless fascinating to hear the composer's touch on his music.

link
pw: sgtg

Michael Harrison - In Flight (1987)

Ignore the slightly corny album cover - this album is sublime.  From the mid 80s, American pianist Michael Harrison pioneered the "harmonic piano", using just intonation.  The second and third tracks here are played in this arrangement, adding a whole new angle on the solo piano genre that had become seriously overcrowded by 1987.  The Swan Has Flown To The Mountain Lake in particular is a gorgeous piece, and the longest on the album.

Reverting to standard intonation elsewhere, Harrison proves himself a great melodic and harmonic player with a nimble, meditative touch.  The opening title track had appeared on a Windham Hill piano sampler in 1985 (which I'm sure I have on cassette somewhere), but rather than commit to the label Harrison stepped sideways to another New Age powerhouse, Fortuna, for this album.  It's well produced, with just enough reverb to work in favour of this beautiful, sometimes trancelike music.

link
pw: sgtg