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!

ALFRED 23 HARTH QuasarQuartet – POPendingEYE (1993)

Label: Free Flow Music Production – ffm 0493

Format: CD, Album; Country: Germany - Released: 1993

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded live 5th December 1992 at the Hindemith Hall of the Old Opera, Frankfurt

New Cover Design by ART&JAZZ Studio, by VITKO

Photography By – William Klein

Producer – S. Siebenlist

Technician [Ton] – T. Raisig

Live-Mitschnitt aus dem Hindemith-Saal der Alten Oper Frankfurt, 5. Dezember 1992.

Straight ahead energetic Jazz. Enjoy!

01. 1st2nd3rd&4th . . . 29:18

02. BukzokWestWostokSude . . . 29:38

QuasarQuartet:

Alfred 23 HARTH - tenor sax, bassclarinet

Simon NABATOV - piano

Vladimir TARASOV - drums and percussion

Vitold REK - bass

"I want more POPEYE", writes Alfred Harth. "Possessing uncompromising moral standards and resorting to force when threatened". He also refers to "my artist's way through postmodernism", which at the beginning of the 90s brought him to grow tired of "all those mixes, remixes, postmodernisms and pop" that he had gone through during the previous decade: he was ready to return to a "pure" approach, essentially based on real players and real instruments. Enter Russian drummer Vladimir Tarasov from the Ganelin Trio, a long-time admirer of Harth, met for the first time in 1992 when Mr.23 was invited by Moscow TV for a program about him; the next character after his portrait would be none other that Popeye the Sailor (hence the album's title, a word game with the ironical "end" of the "pop phase" of Alfred's career). Tarasov had imported all the early Harth albums in the USSR, playing together became a necessary consequence. The QuasarQuartet, formed by the saxophonist in the same year, sees Harth on tenor sax and bass clarinet and Tarasov on drums and percussion, plus the fabulous pianist Simon Nabatov and the excellent Vitold Rek on bass. "POPendingEYE" features two half-hour tracks in which everything (Coltrane-derived ascensions, logical freedom, contaminations of marching band rhythms, folk melodies, pyrotechnical pianism, sadly pensive reed lines) obeys to a logic that's inspired by Harth's idea of "opening to the East": in fact, besides this new musical situation, he met his current partner - South Korea's visual artist Soonjoo Lee - right at that time . Even the track titles, "1st2nd3rd&4th" and "BukzokWestWostokSude", respectively refer to the world's divisions ("...we know what the 3rd world is, but which would be the 1st?" says Harth) and to a mixture of Korean and English language to describe directions. And many directions this music points at, with a stimulating alternance of high-charge improvisations and melodic crystals that doesn't remind us about the players' originary lands, but it rather stands as a primary example of reciprocal instant comprehension: no language is a barrier when the instruments are the ones doing the talking. "POPendingEYE" - a meaningful record in the free music scene of the early 90s - has remained pretty obscure despite its quality; but it sure helped Alfred Harth to be "strong to the finish", as the Sailor himself would have it. The fact is, his creativity shined then and it still does. What finish, then? And what's your favourite brand of spinach, Alf?
Highly recommended.

_ Review by MASSIMO RICCI

Buy this album!