OCTOBER 08′
ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO “PEOPLE IN SORROW”
This still startling music, which uses space, dynamics, and a wide range of emotions expertly, is as rigorous for the listener as it is evocative of its title. In spite of the challenges the group puts forth, the second track concludes with a sustained horn note that underpins the musics elegiac tension, rewarding the curious ear with an elevating epiphany that manifests defiance, perseverance, and hope in the spirit. Recorded in Boulogne on July 7th 1969, and released by Nessa Records out of Madison, Wisconsin, this record is otherwise out of print and unavailable as far as I can tell.
“In 1969, the Art Ensemble of Chicago (which had recorded just one official record, “Congliptious,” by that point in time), moved to Paris for two years and recorded eight albums during their first year overseas alone. This LP sees the innovative quartet as trumpeter Lester Bowie, bassist Malachi Favors, and both Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman on multiple reeds, all performing the 40-minute group original “People in Sorrow.”
1. People in Sorrow (Part 1) (17′14)
2. People in Sorrow (Part 2) (23′10)
[.zip]
AMM III: IT HAD BEEN AN ORDINARY ENOUGH DAY IN PUEBLO, COLORADO
For folks familiar with AMM, this one really doesn’t need much by way of introduction. However, as an entry point, it serves up (relatively) short digestible tracks that illustrate the organic genius of AMM. By the time they recorded this album, this was AMM’s third incarnation. By no means the groups most decisive or challenging work, the songs clearly demonstrate the various shades of free improv mastery that give the group it’s perrenial status as one of the finest examples within the genre.
“AMM have never been well-known to the general public, but have been, in their own way, hugely influential on several generations of adventurous musicians. AMM have been called “legendary” and “groundbreaking,” and are notable as perhaps the first musical group deliberately to try to make music not related to any establised musical genre.”
Recorded in December 1979 at Tonstudio Bauer, Ludwigsburg for ECM/Japo. The vinyl version here is the same content as the CD version currently available on ECM.
1. Radio activity (18′20)
2. Convergence (5′15)
3. Kline (8′26)
4. Spittlefields’ slide (6′50)
5. For A (8′27)
:ZOVIET*FRANCE “SHOUTING AT THE GROUND”
Some pop and crackle on this one unfortunately, but it’s a copy I found for only $12 some years back. The much $ought after 2x LP/CD classic by the seminal Newcastle upon Tyners should be in the collection of every experimental music/sound devotee. These are rich slabs of drone/sound/tribal-concréte mastery, and the last two long-ish bands alone are worth the price of admission, which in this case is a little surface noise. The first two sides contain shorter tracks, most of which are indigenous sounding loops trapped in a stew of lovely tape hiss, grouped with layers of myriad and disjointed sonic stylings. Like some fever dream in South America or Laos, with the radio on and the temperature high, these tracks penetrate deep psychic spaces with the needle just about to break the skin. This truly is a rarefied and wonderful arrangement of audible chunks that still sounds fresh and innovative today, in spite of prolific contributions to the genre some twenty years after the fact.
(Charrm CHARRMLP12) Dbl-LP, originally released on vinyl & CD by Red Rhino, 1987. Original recordings made 3-5 April, 1987. All tracks composed & performed by Robin Storey, produced by Ben Ponton & Robin Storey.
1. Smocking Erde (2′55)
2. Palace Of Ignitions (2′16)
3. Come To The Edge (8′46)
4. Revenue Of Fire (2′10)
5. Dybbuk (1′27)
6. Camino Real (1′52)
7. Stocc Blawers (2′23)
8. Fickle Whiatle, Hand Over Your Eyes (3′31)
9. Carole The Breedbate (1′49)
10. Marrch Dynamic (2′47)
11. Wind Thief (1′38)
12. Shamany Influence (21′02)
13. The Death Of Trees (15′14)
CHARLAMBIDES “ANA/KATA” 10″ EP
This was a release of 500 on Beta-lactam Ring Records back in 02′. Two sides, two tracks, recorded fall of 00′ in Austin. This is Tom Carter, Christina Carter, and Heather. These two songs are improvisational shards held together by intermittent parts vocal relay, and the ever-central sounds of TC’s guitar mastery. Periodic overlaps yield a half-dissonant, half-melodic sight-line that feels less like Texas, and more like a misty autumn walk alone through upstate NY past midnight. Damp but not wet, chilled but not cold, the hearth should only be a couple miles away. You hope the cat’s in for the night, and the ghosts of your past have already turned in.
1. ana (15′54)
2. kata (16′08)
[.zip]
CODONA
Codona was Don Cherry, Nana Vasconcelos, and Collin Walcott. There were three releases by the collective, but this Codona 1 (c.1979), is by far the finest. The tracks fuse hybrid African, Eastern Indian classical, North American Folk, Asian, Jazz, and avant-garde compositional influences, all in abeyance of their proper contexts. As gifted musicians all, the treatment of this type of fusion in any other hands could likely yield terrifying results. However, on this record, we discover the cosmic breath floats somewhere over New York ala Africa, or maybe even Appalachia, and to be sure, these vibes are intense, if not at times fanciful and over indulgent. For Cherry fans like myself, his horn and flute notes will be a highlight, piercing the fusion with the clarity of an all seeing eye, transcending everything around him, and reminding us to re-visit his recordings whenever we can.
1. Like That Of Sky (11′09)
2. Codona (6′17)
3. Colemanwonder (3′42)
4. Mumakata (8′18)
5. New Light (13′27)
[.zip]