MNEMONIST ORCHESTRA – Mnemonist Orchestra (Dys ‎– DYS 01 / LP-1979)

Label: Dys ‎– DYS 01

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

Style: Free Jazz, Abstract, Noise, Experimental

Recorded in March 1979, Fort Collins, Colorado (U.S.A.).

Artwork [Booklet Art] – McGregor, Yeates, Hougen

Artwork [Labels] – Yeates, Hougen

Photography By [Jacket Cover] – McGregor

Concept By [Jacket Cover] – Sharp

Conductor, Tape [Taping Assistance] – Bruce McGregor

Engineer [Sound Engineering] – Mark Derbyshire

Producer – William Sharp

Matrix / Runout (Side A runout, etched): DYS 01 A RD 18404

Matrix / Runout (Side B runout, etched): DYS 01 B RD 18405

"DYS 01" was recorded in March 1979, Fort Collins, Colorado (U.S.A.). The musicians improvised within loose arrangements intended to suggest the concept of each piece. All pre-taped sounds were mixed live with the other instruments.

Record contains an 8 page insert with various art prints made by the project. LP in thick, handglued cover. Limited to around 100 copies.

side 1:

A1 - Input .................................................................................................................. 12:00

A2 - Vulnerable, Then Functional ............................................................................. 11:40

Side 2:

B1 - Corrosive On Contact ....................................................................................... 11:20

B2 - Stasis ................................................................................................................ 15:40

MNEMONIST ORCHESTRA:

Steve Chaffey – drums, percussion

John Herdt – electric guitar, percussion (A2, B2)

Torger Hougen – spoken word, illustrations

Bruce McGregor – tape, conducting, photography, illustrations

Dave Mowers – trombone, percussion

Hugh Ragin – trumpet, percussion

Steve Scholbe – alto saxophone

William Sharp – tape, conducting, arrangements, production, cover art, design, piano (A2),

5-string electric guitar (B1)

Randy Yeates – spoken word, illustrations

Additional musicians:

Dave Calvin – bass guitar (B1, B2)

Dave Marsh – bass guitar (A1, A2)

Nicki Relic – piano [prepared piano]  (A1, B1, B2), spoken word (A1)

Mnemonist Orchestra is the eponymously titled debut studio album of the free improvisation ensemble Mnemonist Orchestra, released in 1979 by Dys Records. – Extremely Rare LP...

The album was recorded in March 1979 by a group of friends and collaborators coming from diverse backgrounds, including musicians, visual artists, and scientists. Interested in the possibilities of spontaneous interaction among a diverse group, they intended the album to be an exploration of the effects of technological saturation on society, particularly upon children. The music drew heavily from musique concrète and film music, both of which would continue to influence the ensemble's future works.

There are thirteen in Mnemonist Orchestra : trumpet, trombone, alto sax, guitar, piano, bass, vocals, percussion, etc. Mark Derbyshire is the tape manipulator who brings together hundreds of free fragments; Bill Sharp is the ideologue and the spokesperson. The four movements of the symphony take place in an absolutely chaotic and uncoordinated way, independent and random sound elements follow each other quickly: monologues, jazz improvisations, background distortions, toy noises, electronic fanfares, and so on to infinity. Input is the archetype: free instruments and voices at the Art Enseble Of Chicago, with the clownesque trumpets, the other instruments that agree with indifference and nonchalance, guitar distortions, bells.the chirping of a sax in an electronic tornado leads to a crazy hard-rock for guitars forgotten with frantic and dissonant harmony of the winds. In Corrosive a tenuous piano sonata is hit by a chaotic free jazz jam. The masterpiece is Stasis , another disconnected delirium of wind instruments on a percussive carpet made of random gongs, broken objects, clock ticks, beaten metal sheets; a decaying orgy of crumbling sounds. They are absurd pieces that owe more to avant-garde jazz than to rock or electronics. Their paranoid ritual develops according to a very specific emotional thread, a convulsive gesticulation that leads to psychic collapse through a progressive rarefaction of the material.

(Review By: Achim Breiling)



If you find it, buy this album!

DAVID MURRAY CHAMBER JAZZ QUARTET – The People's Choice (LP-1988)

Label: CECMA Records – CECMA 1009

Format: Vinyl, LP, Album / Country: Italy / Released: Apr 1988

Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation

Recorded at Passport Recording Studios, New York, NY USA.

Producer [Album] – Francesco Maino

Producer [Session] – Kunle Mwanga

Engineer by – Gennaro Carone

Illustration, Cover Art and Layout by – Giovanni Fanelli

A1 - Booty Butt Baboon Breakdown ..................................................... 5:18

A2 - Thanks ......................................................................................... 10:19

A3 - Mingus Eyes .................................................................................. 8:55

B1 - Kahil's Turnaround ........................................................................ 8:24

B2 - Capetown Strut / Kwelli: Dyani? .................................................. 10:50

David Murray – tenor saxophone, bass clarinet

Hugh Ragin – trumpet, flugelhorn

Abdul Wadud – cello

Fred Hopkins – contrabass

".....if I die tomorrow, I would be happy with my (recorded) legacy, give or take one or two, three or four.  I've made some albums that'll stand the test of time."

David Murray

David Murray has created one of his masterpieces, in the press CECMA Records, the stunning "The People's Choice" with "Chamber Jazz Quartet". Hugh Ragin plays the trumpet and flugelhorn, Fred Hopkins is on the contrabass, often played with a bow, and great Abdul Wadud on cello.

Marvelously!

If you find it, buy this album!

ASSIF TSAHAR / HUGH RAGIN / PETER KOWALD / HAMID DRAKE – Open Systems (2001)

Label: Marge – 28
Format: CD, Album; Country: France - Released: 2001
Jazz Style: Free Jazz, Free Improvisation
Recorded on May 4 & 5, 2001 at La Fenêtre Studio, Paris.
Painting – Obeye Fall
Design – Laurent Groffe
Engineer [Assistant] – Sylvain Delafosse
Engineer, Edited By, Mastered By – Philippe Maté
Photography By – Thierry Trombert
Producer – Gérard Terrones

... Drake and Tsahar were in Paris as guests at a friend’s wedding. Turning the celebration into a busman’s holiday, the two subsequently went into a studio with veteran German bassist Peter Kowald and American trumpeter Hugh Ragin, who were specifically invited to take part, and produced OPEN SYSTEMS. It’s more than 72½ minutes spread among seven compositions that relate as much to hard core energy music of the late 1960s as the former disc does to spirituality...

... Take the saxman’s “ The Lizards in the Maze ”, one of four Tsahar compositions elaborated here. Beginning with a powerful Wilbur Ware-type string-punishing intro courtesy of Kowald, the freebop head soon gives way to a selection of solos. Even when he soars at the top of his range, Ragin still properly balances every note. In contrast, the tenorist’s tone sometimes slips into altissimo, but is always made up of staccato-inflected sound particles. Probably reminding Drake of his long-time employer Anderson, the percussionist usually meets Tsahar’s steaming thrusts with protracted tattoos, then follows the duet with a calm but heartfelt solo that starts off heavy on the snares and cymbals, but then turns proper attention to all parts of the kit.

Building from an early Ornette Coleman Quartet type of head, “ The Call ” offers more of the same, with Drake in his Ed Blackwell role providing a steady rat-tat-tat and Kowald as Charlie Haden providing the rhythmic bottom. On “ Lonely Woman ” -- a real Coleman line -- he authors a solo which has the different strings on his instrument dialoguing with themselves, and that let’s you know that his assumed identity here was just momentary role playing. Channeling Don Cherry, who spent some time in Paris himself, Ragin not only to creates whinnies and smears to follow Tsahar’s lead, but manages to expose a tiny, melodic passage of modulated beauty, built on short, sharp ascending horn bursts. Odd man out with his tenor tone obviously closer to John Coltrane’s or Ayler’s than Coleman’s alto conception, Tsahar spews out a well-nuanced solo, and after time spent chasing the brass man through the stratosphere, elaborates another motif that drags everyone back to the initial theme.

This drawing together seems to be the motif behind Tsahar’s “ Dream Weaverts ” (sic), dedicated to the newly married couple. Although Ragin, using a sort of funky burr sometimes sounds as if he’s playing Charles Mingus ’“ Weird Nightmare ” or Ayler’s “ The Truth Is Marching In ” -- and what are the brassman’s views on marriage? -- the bowed bass and bass clarinet mirror one another with irregular reverberating vibrations. Despite sections where each horn appears to be heading in a contrasting direction, they pull back to meld together before the end. Is there a wedlock partnership metaphor here somewhere?

Finally, Drake presages the pietistic passages he’d be singing three weeks hence in New York on “ Hearts Remembrance ”, where his measured Arabic (?) chanting is complimented by reverberating didgeridoo-like vocal sounds from Kowald and Ragin. Manipulating the buzz of the frame drum and adapting the bass clarinet ’ s natural resonance and some meshed, muted trumpet, the four allude to timeless, primitive music...

_ By KEN WAXMAN



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