FRED FRITH / FERDINAND RICHARD – Dropera (RecRec Music ‎– 32 / LP-1991)

Label: RecRec Music ‎– RecRec 32

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Switzerland / Released: 1991

Style: Avantgarde

Recorded August 1989 at Sound and Vision Studio, Zürich.

Mixed December 1989 at Cold Storage Studio, London.

Artwork [Lithography] – Busag Zurich

Cover – Peter Bäder

Photography By [Booklet] – Bill Gilonis

Recorded By – Andy Rathgeb

Engineer [Mix] – Tim Hodgkinson

Produced by Raymund van Santen

Translated By [English] – Fred Frith

Translated By [German] – Heike Liss

Matrix / Runout (Side 1): REC REC 32 A T

Matrix / Runout (Side 2): REC REC 32 B T

side A: ON VIT ! .......................................................................................................... 21:30

            Petite Entrée: Au Restaurant, On Se Regarde! – 3:31

            Tableau 1: Riche Et Mystérieux! – 5:56

            Tableau 2: Mauvaise Gauche! – 2:24

            Tableau 3: Deux Emballés! – 2:52

            Tableau 4: Tous Cuits! – 4:02

            Fin Tragique: Flottent Les Petits Morceaux! – 2:33

side B: ON EST MORT ! ............................................................................................. 24:54

            Enchaînement Alchimique: Nos Fantômes Naissent! – 3:42

            Tableau 5: La Mer Est Notre Mère! – 4:08

            Tableau 6: Ah, Que La Vie Est Dure! – 4:59

            Tableau 7: Allez, On Danse! – 4:08

            Tableau 8: Holà! Tu Rèves! / Fin Comique: A Quand La Suite? – 7:48

Music By – Ferdinand Richard, Fred Frith

Note:

A booklet with translation of the French text into English and German has been included for easy tracking.

Personnel:

Fred Frith – guitars, violins, keyboards, digital and analogue percussion, background vocals

Ferdinand Richard – six-string bass guitar, lead vocals

Raymund van Santen – alto saxophone, clarinet, flageolet

Dropera is a concept album by Fred Frith and Ferdinand Richard, credited as "Fred & Ferd". It was their first collaborative album as a duo and was recorded in Zürich, Switzerland in August 1989. It was released on both LP and CD by RecRec Music in Switzerland in 1991. The album's songs were sung in French and a booklet of the song lyrics in French, German and English accompanied the album.

Dropera is a "twisted rock opera" about the comic and surreal adventure of two diners in a French restaurant involving abduction, an aircraft crash, death and re-awakening. Frith and Richard composed the music, and Richard wrote and sung the song texts. The music has been described as a mixture of avant-rock, pastorale with a little improvisation.

I recommend! Great album.



If you find it, buy this album!

CASSIBER – Man Or Monkey (riskant ‎– 6.28624-01-02 / 2LP-1982)

Label: riskant ‎– 6.28624-01, riskant ‎– 6.28624-02

Format: 2 × Vinyl, 12", 45 RPM, Album, Reissue, DMM

Country: Germany / Released: 1982

Style: Art Rock, Free Improvisation, Experimental, Free Jazz

Recorded 5-16 August 1982 at Sunrise Studios, Kirchberg.

Artwork [Picture] – Gabriele Hamm

Artwork By [Cover] – B.E.C.K.

Recorded By – Etienne Conod (tracks: A1 to B3, D2)

Mixed By – Etienne Conod (tracks: D1, D3), Robert Vogel (tracks: C)

Producer – Wolfgang Hamm

All songs and instrumental pieces were improvised.

This is the TELDEC pressed DMM cut.

Matrix / Runout (Side A): 6.28624-01-1

Matrix / Runout (Side B): 6.28624-01-2

Matrix / Runout (Side C): 6.28624-02-1

Matrix / Runout (Side D): 6.28624-02-2

side 1:

A1 - Not Me ............................................................................................................... 3:34

A2 - Red Shadow ...................................................................................................... 3:43

A3 - Chor Der Gefangenen (The Prisoner Chorus) ................................................... 4:46

side 2:

B1 - Our Colourful Culture ......................................................................................... 3:04

B2 - O Cure Me ......................................................................................................... 5:53

B3 - This Core ........................................................................................................... 4:20

side 3:

C  -  Man Or Monkey ............................................................................................... 16:38

side 4:

D1 - Django Vergibt ................................................................................................... 3:09

D2 - Die Verunreinigung Des Flusses Ist Gerade Noch Erträglich ............................ 6:38

D3 - Sag Mir Wo Die Blumen Sind (Where Have All Flowers Gone) ........................ 2:41

Personnel:

Alfred Harth – alto / tenor sax, trumpet, trombone, clarinet, bass clarinet, cello [violincello]

Heiner Goebbels – piano, synthesizer, organ, violin [chinese], guitar, acoustic guitar, bass

Christoph Anders – vocals, synthesizer [korg], guitar, tenor sax, tape [prepared cassettes],                                 violin, percussion [metalsheets]

Chris Cutler – drums, whistle, noises, performer [objects], text

Peter Prochir – drums, percussion (tracks: B1)

"Man or Monkey" was Cassiber's first album. It was released in 1982 on the German label Riskant as a set of two 45 rpm LPs -- a format that turned it into a pricy collector's item.

“Man or Monkey” is a plain masterpiece using pre-composed structures as well as free improvisation (with emphasis on the latter).

For this first effort, Christoph Anders, Chris Cutler, Heiner Goebbels, and Alfred 23 Harth entered the studio with only a handful of the drummer's lyrics and a few melodic ideas. They improvised, letting structures and arrangements develop by themselves, so to speak, and singer Anders threw in a text when he felt it appropriate.

Christoph Anders rather barks and shouts than sings his rudimentary lyrics, it sounds as if he was panicking. Alfred Harth is in charge of the free jazz part, while Goebbels adds serious new music piano clusters. The whole thing is driven by Cutler’s energetic punk/art rock explosions. In their best moments Cassiber sounds as if a free jazz band is jamming with German kraut rock legend Can.

Side A presents three short improvised songs. Lyrics are more declamated than sung and the musical flooring is loosely rhythmical but very intense ("Red Shadow" is a highlight). Side B focuses on more prepared songs and Anders' singing. The festive music of "Our Colourful Culture" creates a disgusting contrast with the somber lyrics ("I came from the country/Arriba! Arriba!/They were killing my family/Ha ha ha ha"). "O Cure Me" sets the lyrics from one of Bach's cantatas against with its melodic saxophone line and its mainstream keyboard sounds, which they immediately alienated by disharmonic chords, honks, the strange vocals and an angular violin. Both of these pieces would remain in the group's live sets until the end ten years later.

Side C contains the 16-minute free improvisation "Man or Monkey" and presents a world which is completely apart at the seams, a total chaos illustrated by a collage of horror organ parts, strange speech samples, lost saxophones and trombones, dissonant guitar splinters and junkyard percussion – even from today’s point of view a very ambitious and visionary track... Other songs on D side are based on allusions to the music of Robert Wyatt (“Die Verunreinigung des Flusses ist gerade noch erträglich”) and contains nice percussion work.

To quote Chris Cutler: “Man or Monkey presents Cassiber as a band which improvises with prepared texts and an intention to arrive at coherent structures.”

(Revew By Martin Schray)

If you find it, buy this album!

LOL COXHILL – Digswell Duets (Random Radar Records ‎– RRR 005 / LP-1979)

Label: Random Radar Records ‎– RRR 005

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: US / Released: 1979

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Side A was recorded (11. 5. 78) at Digswell House in Welwyn Garden City, Herts.

Side B was recorded (26. 5. 78) at the Oxford Museum of Modern Art.

Artwork – Lol Coxhill

Artwork [Back Cover Graphics] – Mary Staples

Producer – Lol Coxhill

Matrix / Runout (Runout A, etched): RRR 005 A Pete Helffrich ALT 4-2-80

Matrix / Runout (Runout B, etched): RRR 005 B Pete Helffrich ALT 4-2-80

side 1:

A  -  11/5/78  (Coxhill–Emmerson) ........................................................................... 19:24

side 2:

B  -  26/5/78  (Coxhill–Weston) ................................................................................ 20:00

Personnel:

Lol Coxhill – soprano saxophone

Simon Emmerson – electronics [the digswell tapes system]

Veryan Weston – piano

Saxophonist Coxhill is an extremely versatile player who has played in settings ranging from punk rock to abstract free improvisation. His sense of melody and time are particularly distinctive, drawing more heavily from the jazz tradition than many of his fellow British free improvisers. This recording marks an unusual pairing of duet partners: Simon Emmerson, an electronic artist whose palette largely consists of Coxhill's playing thrown back at him in real-time; and Veryan Weston, a light-fingered pianist whose attention to melody and pulse closely reflect Coxhill's own.

These are live analog recordings from 1978, and the sound quality lags far behind what you'd find in today's recording studio. The shortcomings are definitely audible but do not substantially interfere with the music.

On the first side of this LP's Coxhill masterful works patiently, pursuing held tones and well-articulated intervals which provide his partner fuel for the fire. The rich reverb drenching the whole interaction competes with delay for the listener's attention, but the most exciting moments are when Emmerson distorts the saxophonist's tone into sharp metallic shards or multichromatic hunks of sound. You can hear Coxhill striding forward on the left channel, while Emmerson gradually builds up tension on the right and eventually chases him around the field. It's early stuff, so we're talking basic tools here... none of the computerized gadgetry that dominates interactive improvisation today. But it's done in real time, and the spirit of improvisation pervades both artists' work.

The second half of the LP's consists of mostly short embroidered pieces featuring Coxhill and pianist Veryan Weston. The call-and-response motif pops its head up here and there, as the two players feel each other out in the moment in order to determine where they're headed. For the most part, they pursue sparse, melodic improvisation. The melody may fragment or implode, but most of the time one or the other of these two players is holding up a flag in the wind. Coxhill mostly sticks to clean tones, though he demonstrates a mastery of swooshing legato runs that blur the distinctions between their endpoints. (And he's not at all opposed to sighing, whistling, or crying in the night.) Weston is a fantastic repairer, because he understands the importance of space. While he's not averse to simple lines, he often works in clusters of clusters: simple repeated or modulated pinches of the keys. At times he borrows from atonality, but when you listen closely you can usually find that local tonal centers agree heartily with the saxophonist. And Weston's pulse has an undeniable logic, though it might not hit the ground every two beats.

(Review By Staff / AAJ)



If you find it, buy this album!

THE STEVE MILLER TRIO meets LOL COXHILL – Miller's Tale (2LP-1986)

Label: Matchless Recordings ‎– MR 09

Format: 2 × Vinyl, LP / Country: UK / Released: 1986

Style: Free Improvisation, Free Jazz

Recorded at concert at the Bull and Gate, Kentish Town, London on 11 Nov. 1985.

Sleeve design (front reproduced above) by Herm

Published By – Matchless Recordings

Lacquer Cut At – Nimbus Records

Pressed By – Nimbus Records

Copyright – Eddie Prévost

Engineer [Recording] – David Lord / Ray Beckett

Engineer [Live Mix] – Phil Mouldycliff

Matrix / Runout (Side A, etched): MR 09 – A

Matrix / Runout (Side B, etched): MR 09 – B

side 1:

A - Nigh-and-Sly ........................................................................................................ 22:18

side 2:

B - Nether Eye ........................................................................................................... 24:34

side 3:

C - A Largeish Quart ................................................................................................. 25:04

side 4:

D - Nowell's Flood ..................................................................................................... 20:21

Personnel:

Steve Miller – piano

Tony Moore – double bass

Eddie Prévost – drums, percussion

Lol Coxhill – soprano saxophone

Original, enchanting music from the "Matchless" storage with selfless courtesy of Eddie Prévost.

Recorded at the Bull & Gate in Kentish Town in 1985 and released the following year. 
Steve Miller Trio was Steve Miller on piano, Tony Moore on bass and Eddie Prévost on drums

– here joined by Lol Coxhill on soprano saxophone.

This concert was financially assisted by the Musicians' Union.

Beautiful set, free and slightly liberating, but then again there's that whole sequence of cultured proper behaviour that seems to permeate most aspects of British Isles jazz approach whether it be trad or avant.               E n j o y  ! ! !

If you find it, buy this album!

VLADIMIR ESTRAGON (Alfred 23 Harth) – Three Quarks For Muster Mark (LP-1989 / Tiptoe ‎– TIP-807 803)

Label: Tiptoe ‎– TIP-807 803

Format: Vinyl, LP / Country: Germany / Released: 1989

Style: Experimental, Free Jazz

Recorded By Thomas Stern at Woodhouse Studios, 1988, Dortmund, Germany.

Illustration – Alfred 23 Harth

Mastered By – Walter Brüssow

Producer [Uncredited] – Alfred Harth

Executive-Producer – Gerd Filtgen

Recorded By, Mixed By – Thomas Stern

Parent Label: Enja Records Matthias Winckelmann GmbH

Matrix / Runout (Side A): 807 803 – A

Matrix / Runout (Side B): 807 803 – B

side 1:

A1/A2 - The Warten > Lucky ...................................................................................... 6:22

A3/A4 - Remark > Das letzte Band ............................................................................ 3:42

      A5 - Nichts zu machen ......................................................................................... 0:56

      A6 - Das Lethargische .......................................................................................... 3:28

      A7 - Wiegenlied .................................................................................................... 2:27

side 2:

B1 - Streetscenes ..................................................................................................... 12:33

        a)   Seine Freunde  ................................................ 1:45

        b)   Seine Register ................................................. 0:51

        c)   Seine Angst ..................................................... 3:42

        d)   Ich libbe Leben ................................................ 2:20

        e)   Seine Korrespondenten ................................... 0:39

        f)   Der verbleibende Haufen .................................. 3:14

B2 - March der Three Quarks .................................................................................... 2:40

B3 - Die Nachtigall ..................................................................................................... 0:29

B4 - Pozzo ................................................................................................................. 5:33

Personnel:

Alfred 23 Harth – clarinet, bass clarinet, tenor saxophone, reeds

Ulrike Haage – keyboards, sampler, sequenced by [sequenzerprogramme], grand piano

Phil Minton – trumpet, vocals

F.M. Einheit – electronics, drums, percussion [metall, steine, schrank]

Impressive project with only one amazing album in their discography. The name of the band is derived from the two characters Vladimir and Estragon from Samuel Beckett's play "Waiting for Godot". Title of the album is a quotation from "Finnegans Wake" by James Joyce. This gem was released in 1989.

Album Three Quarks For Muster Mark (went completely unnoticed) is unsung treasure trove of good ideas, lively irony and astonishing artistry. Consisting of Alfred Harth (tenor sax and clarinets), Phil Minton (voice and trumpet), F.M. Einheit (metals and electronics) and the excellent Ulrike Haage (keyboards, sequencer programming and samples), Vladimir Estragon were a paradise of lusty electronic arrangements whose preset-derived poetry was poisoned by oblique complexities and sudden animations entering the picture when less expected; there are also some charming repetitions of parts of the song, but always in a different environment, and this is only a fraction of the whole. Minton's typical parades of vocal characters depict a series of alternative abnormalities, as he accompanies absurd harmonic sequences with nonchalant schizophreny, often meshing his garbled glottology with the less consonant fruits from the rest of the group. And what about Harth's immediately recognizable, charming-but-challenging lines? Be it in a profound duo with Haage's piano (like in the initial "The warten") or leading a double-edge thematic exposition together with Minton's fiery trumpet, his playing remains connected with something that words can't give justice to, and that I can only define as "lyrically corporeal". Given Einheit's slightly more obscure role - but his duet with Minton in "Der verbleibende Haufen" is great - a special mention goes to Ulrike Haage, who composed the large part of the material with Harth; her programming sapience is a strong point of the LP's, constituting an entertaining springboard for all members to unveil their more disguised influences; she also plays a mean piano and writes in styles that respectfully nod to Lars Hollmer and Lindsay Cooper, with an additional touch of tangential sweetness...

(Review By Massimo Ricci)

If you find it, buy this album!