Friday, 29 November 2019

Double Image - In Lands I Never Saw (1986)

Gorgeous, crystalline autumnal chimes from Double Image, in their third album.  By this time, the group that had formed in the 70s as a quartet with bass and drums (and recorded a rare, unreissued ECM LP in 1979) had slimmed down to just vibraphonist David Friedman and marimba player David Samuels.  The duo swap their instruments round on the track Dusk here, but otherwise stick to their stations for a wonderful record, that appropriately came out on Celestial Harmonies.

The pure sound of just the core instruments makes for a beautifully meditative album experience, only really raising the tempo on the opening title track and on Ki.  Everything interlocks with effortless virutosity, but never sacrificing melody.  Difficult to pick a favourite, but if I had to would be the late highlight Desert Rounds.  The eerie percussion added to Woodbell also makes it a memorable album closer.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted on SGTG: Skylight, feat. David Samuels
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14 comments:

  1. Anonymous30 November 2019 at 16:18

    Oh did you do an especially good thing here.

    So I'm reading this, and I'm thinking, "Hmm - are you sure about the ECM not being reissued?" Because I thought it had been recently.

    Well, as it turns out (and I did not know this), it was in fact actually reissued digitally just this past summer. So that's great. But even better, it also reminded me that I'd heard about the JAPO Tom Van der Geld titles also being done like that - and hey presto, there they now sit on Amazon, in all their now non-crappy vinyl rip, shiny little MP3 glory. So (many) thanks to you, that's my next purchase sorted.

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    1. Alan Burns1 December 2019 at 11:06

      Awesome, good spot! I'd still prefer CDs tho...

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    2. Anonymous1 December 2019 at 19:31

      Though I'm a non-physical media person now, I get that. But I think you also know as well as I do that that's just not gonna happen at this point with stuff like this.

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    3. Alan Burns1 December 2019 at 20:01

      Must admit I did get my hopes up again after the recent wave of Touchstones, plus it was only a few years back when there was a small batch of new-to-CD ones: Five Years Later, Contrasts, that Burton one with the manhole cover...

      But yeah, the time has likely been and gone now for Manfred to be considering any more CD reissues that aren't already out there. In a way, I just wish he'd been consistent/logical in that respect: if it was something like The Epidemics that had never had a CD reissue, it would be obvious (to anyone who's ever heard it) why he'd rather it was quietly forgotten. But to never have put out a CD of, e.g., John Clarke's Faces, is just a mystery to me.

      Maybe it's time to stop fetishising CDs. If I'd been a bit older or younger, I guess I wouldn't have come of age with them...

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  2. icastico1 December 2019 at 21:45

    More likely to be re-issued on vinyl than CD at this point.

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    1. Alan Burns1 December 2019 at 23:13

      Well, that's true too - perhaps I should just look on the bright side, that vinyl's in such rude health these days.

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    2. Anonymous2 December 2019 at 01:32

      Well, I (sort of) apologize for going into real cornflake pisser mode here, but - 10-15 years from now (if not less), the post-mortem chin-scratching over why ANYBODY ever thought going back to vinyl was a good idea should be interesting. I'm kinda hoping I'm not around to see that.

      But even if you are into it for whatever reason - doing it for stuff like this is REALLY unfathomable. "Gee, I bought a music of very quiet music on vinyl and it sounds awful because of all the pops and surface noise." Well, who'da thought, huh?

      Analog "warmth". GTFO already....

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    3. icastico2 December 2019 at 05:04

      So, recently I have been listening to the vinyl records my Dad bought when he was in high school, and with a few exceptions, they sound great 60 years later. I have CDs from the 90's that won't play. Analog warmth is a myth, of course, but there are reasons vinyl is coming back.

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  3. Fernfrequency3 December 2019 at 00:25

    "Analog "warmth". GTFO already...." brilliant comment and observation on a backwards trend I want no part of i.e. vinyl unless of course the music was never released on any other medium.

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  4. Nick31 December 2019 at 23:06

    Beautiful album. FYI, Friedman & Samuels also have a wonderful mostly-duet album that predates the Double Image records: Winter Love, April Joy (1975). If you (or anyone) needs it:
    https://www85.zippyshare.com/v/G8BWoWoA/file.html

    Happy new year!

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    1. Fernfrequency1 January 2020 at 13:08

      Thanks Nick! Never knew they had another release that dates back further.

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    2. Alan Burns1 January 2020 at 13:29

      Me neither, cheers Nick.

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  5. Fernfrequency1 January 2020 at 20:31

    Btw April Joy is a P Metheny composition that officially was not recorded by the PMG until 1978 when the PMG white album debuted so its nice to hear a stripped down incarnation and on vibes no less!

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  6. Teamster27 May 2020 at 18:22

    This is lovely. Thanks for making it accessible.

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