Nils Frahm & Ólafur Arnalds - Collaborative Works (2015 compi, rec. 2011-15)

Back to Erased Tapes, with a compilation that does exactly what it says on the tin: brings together an hour's worth of EP tracks recorded by labelmates & close friends Nils Frahm & Ólafur Arnalds.  Then tops it off with a bonus 40 minutes drawn from an evening's improvisations whilst planning the reissue of the EPs.

The EP tracks find both artists in a much more pure electronic mode that they normally operate in, most notably on the superb 25 minutes of Loon, recorded 2014 and originally released as a 12" the following year.  They skirt the edges of Cluster-esque minimalism before taking a full-on dive into it with the standout tracks W and M.  This is followed by the three untitled tracks of 2012's more atmospheric Stare EP.  German cellist Anne Müller (who had previously collaborated with Frahm on 2009's 7Fingers album) proves an inspired and understated third partner on the longest track.  Lastly, the 2015 7" (recorded in 2012) Life Story/Love & Glory returns to the more familiar piano-and-ambience of Felt.

As noted above, when meeting up to arrange the EP compilation, Frahm and Arnalds decided to record a new exclusive track for it.  This turned in to an entire evening of spontaneous loveliness, and was titled Trance Frendz, receiving its own vinyl release in 2016.  The first three tracks are again in Felt mode, based around gentle piano and electronics, and washes of harmonium in 23:17 (each track is named after the time recording started).  Then there's a change of scenery with 23:52's swelling synth and harmonium atmosphere, and the pure electronics of 00:26.  Entering the small hours, everything mellows out once more with tinkling piano and music box ambience.  Essential, gorgeous music from start to finish.

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Arild Andersen - Shimri (1977)

Yeah, I know... I've probably written things like 'autumnal ECM gorgeousness' a hundred times in different posts - but this is the absolute zenith, one that oozes it from every pore.  In October 1976, Arild Andersen brought this Norwegian-Swedish-Finnish group into the studio for his second album as bandleader, and came up with this mellow beauty that was released the following year.

The opening title track shimmers like a glassy lake, with Juhani Aaltonen's sax smouldering in the embers of a lakeside campfire, before a gentle breeze carries forward the slightly more upbeat No Tears with some stunning piano from Lars Jansson.  As twilight descends, Aaltonen switches to flute for the next three songs, all of them gorgeous beyond words, before the last and longest track goes back to sax.  This finale, Dedication, gets a lot more firey than the rest thanks to the momentum Aaltonen gives it, but doesn't disturb the mood of the rest of the album - rather, it just balances it out perfectly.  As if we hadn't heard enough of Andersen's bass mastery already, he takes a solo just before the end.  For me, this is the absolute highlight of his discography.  Essential peak ECM.

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Wendy Carlos - Digital Moonscapes (1984)

In which Wendy Carlos (Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Tron et al, not to mention the groundbreaking Switched On... series) writes a full-on orchestral work about space, and records it all using digital synthesisers - with "no microphones", as proudly noted.  In a lengthy liner note, Carlos describes the process of collecting hundreds of synth voices during the early 80s that would emulate the characteristics and dynamics of orchestral instruments - certainly an impressive undertaking in its day - and then composing two astronomical-themed suites intended to appeal to a contemporary audience.

The first suite is the three-part Cosmological Impressions, evoking the vastness of space in grand style.  The remaining 41 minutes are the Moonscapes suite of the album title, covering in its nine sections our own moon and those of Mars, Jupiter and Saturn.  Some of these pieces are more immediate and impressive, others take a few more listens to appreciate, but the writing throughout is definitely ambitious and evocative, taking in all of Carlos' classical influences and creating something unique and memorable.  Imagine a Vangelis record where all the atmospherics and synth manipulation are replaced by a focus on intricate composition, and you'll at least be in the right galaxy.

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Daniel Kientzy - Musiques Contemporaines Pour Saxophones (1988)

The great avant-garde/modern classical sax master Daniel Kientzy, previously highlighted starring in ensemble works here and here, returns to these pages in an early compilation of pieces for solo saxophone.  Or indeed more than one sax at once, or sax plus electronics - it's all here at its most mind-bending, in one piece each from the seven composers listed on the cover.

If you love solo saxophone doing insane, improbable things, this is the album for you for sure; if you think it might be a bit much to sit through 71 minutes of this stuff, I recommend taking it in stages.  Personal highlights would be the blasting opener, the overture to Aurel Stroe's Eumenides opera (can never resist a Romanian composer) and the closer, Horacio Vaggione's Thema, that sounds like it's being played inside a gigantic cement mixer.  Then enjoy the frenzy of tape effects layered on to Aulodie by François-Bernard Mâche, then the slowly integrating layers of the Stockhausen piece, then the rest will be a breeze.  I promise.

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Argo - Discophonia (1981)

Early 80s electronica with a good dose of gentle funk, from Lithuania.  Argo were formed out of the Kaunas Musical Theatre in 1979, and released three albums, of which this debut is the only one available digitally.  Discophonia initially caught my eye due to that wonderful Sticky Fingers-esque cover drawing, and the rainbow's a nice touch.  Given this paired with the album title, I was prepared for something along the lines of Arp Life; turns out that Discophonia's a much more stripped-down affair.

The liner notes explain the album title as referring to the two intended purposes of the music: Disco tracks for dancing, and -phonia meaning tracks for sitting down to listen to.  Things kick off in the former mode, with electric piano, phased funky guitar, a pumping bassline, and a vocal exclaiming "DISCO!" at regular intervals.  This is just the intro to A1 (all the tracks are just titled in sequence like that) though, as it moves through different sections that show off the band's musical chops.  A2 and A3 follow with more grooves, but getting progressively more relaxed; in particular, if someone introduced me to A3 as a great lost track from a KPM library record I wouldn't bat an eyelid.

A4 is pure mellowness by contrast, featuring ethereal vocals - intended, as per the liners, to act just as another instrument.  B1 goes further by starting acapella before a mellow bassline and twinkling synths relax you just in time for its upbeat mid-section.  B2 and B3 are just absolutely gorgeous electronica to finish, with barely-there drum machines and gentle keyboards; stuff of this calibre could've sat nicely on a Sky label release from the same time period.  There's one more disco flourish right at the end to get you in the mood for starting from the beginning again.  Very highly recommended.

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Georgy Dmitriev - Chamber and Electronic Music (2000 compilation)

Equal amounts fascinating and highly listenable stuff here from Georgy Dmtiriev (b. 1942, Krasnodar, Russia), in an hour-long compilation.  No recording dates here, but all the compositions date from the 80s.  The first piece is probably my personal favourite, a 19-minute saxophone quartet, In The Spirit Of Herman Hesse (1983).  Some almost jazz-like moments give way to more complex writing, at times microtonal, towards the end.

Warsaw Fantasy, for violin and piano, was written in 1983 in response to events in Poland that year.  This one is apparently a really good example of Dmitriev's enjoyment of stylistic allusions and 'music as dialogue' - among the subtle quotations I could definitely pick out a Chopin nocturne and a waltz.  The 'Nicolo' of the title of the other violin/piano piece is Paganini, on the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Stained Glass for oboe, clarinet, alto sax and bassoon (1981) was another one that really appealed to me in its instrumentation.  It's in two parts, a nicely languid one for monotone stained glass, and a more animated one for multicoloured glass.  In the latter, there's some of the staccato pulsing in similar style to early Xenakis, which was nice.  Speaking of Iannis, in 1990 Dmitriev paid him a visit in Paris following an invitation to try out the UPIC graphic-interface composing software that he'd developed.  The result was Adagio For UPIC which closes this collection in memorable style with its eerie swishes of sound.

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Tomasz Stańko - Bosonossa And Other Ballads (1993)

YEEESSSS finally got hold of a copy of this!  Majorly out of print (seeming to have disappeared from the GOWI label's catalogue on their own website), Bosonossa is well worth chasing down.  Stańko's quartet with which he'd return to ECM the following year (on Matka Joanna - will post sometime) appear here fully-formed, and sound fantastic on this masterpiece of an album.

Six tracks in just shy of an hour means that everyone gets a chance to stretch out and showcase their considerable talents alongside Stańko.  Drummer Tony Oxley is particularly adept at sketching the atmospherics - I remember one reviewer of Matka Joanna likening him to 'a ghost dragging its chains around', and the same is true in places here.  ECM familiars Bobo Stenson and Anders Jormin contribute some stunning pianism and thick, meaty bass respectively, brilliantly rendered in a production job by Stańko himself.

As for the (sadly now late) trumpeter, he's on top form throughout, spitting out firecrackers of sound one moment then languidly breathing out the residual smoke trails the next.  His chosen material for Bosonossa is inspired as always - his 80s staple Sunia gets its most respectful and drawn-out treatment on record, and three of the other tracks he was rightly proud enough of to recast them in the initial phase of his ECM homecoming.  Fans of Matka Joanna and Leosia will therefore enjoy both a bit of familiarity, and also the sheer brilliance of these tracks in their original outings.  But to be honest, anyone who likes Stańko, or just great quartet jazz, is in for a treat here of the highest order.

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previously posted at SGTG:
Jazzmessage From Poland (1972)
Purple Sun (1973)
Freelectronic in Montreux (1987)
Bluish (1991)
Dark Eyes (2009)
Wisława (2013) 
Polin (2014) 

John Adams - Road Movies (2004)

Some of the most sublime minimalist piano music ever written, in one handy package that spans 24 years of John Adams' composing career.  That timespan makes for a collection in which familiar, widely-interpreted pieces sit alongside two that made their recording debut here, but it all feels nicely consistent and album-like.

The three-part title piece, from 1995, adds violin to the piano for a nice 15-minute road trip that rolls along rural highways at first, takes a slower look at the landscape then kicks up into an even higher gear.  The "40% Swing" subtitle of Part III comes from a MIDI sequencer setting that Adams found akin to ragtime or Benny Goodman-esque jazz.

After that, everything is pure piano, starting with Hallelujah Junction (1996) for two pianos.  The first two parts might now for some be indelibly associated with Luca Guadagnino's magnificent adaptation of Call Me By Your Name (and certainly, that was my introduction to the piece, buying this album soon after), but Adams' original inspiration was the name of a truckstop on the California-Nevada border.  Whatever it evokes, from the joyful bell-like opening onwards, it's a thing of pure loveliness, even with a bit of a knotty ending.  That hectic finale is taken even further in American Berserk (2001).  What remains is a fresh look at the legendary "Gates" from 1977, both China and Phrygian, both clearly and expertly rendered by Nicholas Hodges and Rolf Hind, and sounding as spectacular as ever.

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previously posted at SGTG: Shaker Loops

Fernando Grillo - Fluvine (1976)

Only solo album by avant-garde double bassist Fernando Grillo (1945-2013), the man responsible for breathing fearsome life into Iancu Dumitrescu's early recordings of his writing for double bass.  This four-part suite from the mid-70s makes one wonder if Grillo perhaps provided the original spark of inspiration to Dumitrescu for wringing every possible unearthly sound from the bass, whether in percussive attack or in ominous creakings and rumblings.

The sound quality is a little muted - not sure if from the original recording, or just in the mastering of this reissue.  In any case, more than enough of the unearthly tones of the bass come through here to show how unique Grillo's approach to his instrument was.  Fluvine Due made me think of early Throbbing Gristle in their more subdued moments, if Genesis P-Orridge had been a virtuoso on the bass rather than just whacking it as a percussive sound-source.  Don't know what's going on in Fluvine Tre - is that tape manipulation making the squeedgeing noises, or is it all Grillo?  Lastly, the 22-minute Fluvine Quattro packs in all of Grillo's phenomenal technique into an epic journey into the sound of one instrument.

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Mary Jane Leach - Celestial Fires (1993)

Mostly choral pieces from Mary Jane Leach (b. 1949 in Vermont, based in NYC since the mid-70s) that showcase her talent for layering multiple voices either live, on tape, or both.  This is apparent right from the opening track Bruckstück (1989), in which a phrase from a Bruckner symphony is transposed into a shimmering sea of voices.  Leach borrows another little bit of inspiration and takes it somewhere extraordinary again in Green Mountain Madrigal (1985) and Mountain Echoes (1987), which are both loosely based on a Monteverdi madrigal.  The close harmonies and dissonant intervals of the madrigal are stretched out, and the melodies passed around the singers, to gorgeous effect.

We also get an introduction here to Leach's work for instruments on tape.  The first of these two is Feu De Joie (1992) for bassoon solo plus six bassoons on tape.  With the melody directed by computer analysis of the harmonics produced by the layered tracks, and the whole piece's immersive droning soundworld, it's very reminiscent of the title track from David Behrman's On The Other Ocean.  Trio For Duo (1985), for flute, taped flute and voice, tries to meld the sound of the voice with the timbre of the flute as sounds are passed between them.  Following that, the closing track is another vocal piece, Ariel's Song (1987) for eight sopranos, gradually changing their parts in clockwise and counter-clockwise movement.  As with everything else here, it sounds stunningly lovely, and this collection comes with a huge recommendation from me.

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Aparis - Despite The Fire-Fighters' Efforts... (1993)

The Stockhausens and their percussive accomplice returned to ECM the summer of 1992 to record this sequel to Aparis.  Now using the debut album title as a group moniker, they gave this one (sadly their last together) an album title that appeared to be pulled from a news report - probably one from late November 1992, when Windsor Castle caught fire; I'm almost certain that's what's pictured on the cover.

Musically, the trio expanded and refined the palette of their debut, with 13-minute opener Sunrice starting out in ambient mode before picking up pace towards an increasingly free ending.  Jo Thönes' muscular acoustic drumming is particularly noteworthy.  The next epic, Welcome, follows a similar structure, and in between them the liquid atmosphere of Waveterms is punctuated with what sounds like zither swishes, and percussive sections that introduce sampled speech and singing from unspecified locations.

The album's second half travels from its most upbeat and jazzy (Fire) to its most fully-realised electronic and dark-atmospheric in Green Piece and Orange, with the anthemic Hannibal the perfect closer.  The keyboard work is still a bit of its time, but sits much better within the overall production (handled by the trio themselves, in one of a small number of ECM releases where Manfred Eicher isn't credited with overall control).  I'm not sure if I'd go as far though as to say that this album is preferable to the first; better perhaps to think of Markus, Simon & Jo's ECM output as two hours of fascinating, original music that leaves you wishing there'd been more, to see what other developments arose.

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Markus Stockhausen, Simon Stockhausen, Jo Thönes - Aparis (1990)

The rest of this week spotlights a little-known ECM grouping featuring two of Karlheinz Stockhausen's offspring: trumpeter Markus (born 1957), and his decade-younger half-brother Simon on saxes & synths, plus percussionist Jo Thönes.  This August 1989 recording was the trio's debut; I haven't been able to find any info on what the album name means (maybe just "à Paris" - of Paris?), but they seemed to like it enough to use it as a band name by the time of the 1993 follow-up.  That's for Friday, but today, here's Aparis the album.

The 16-minute title track is up first, setting an extended mood of subtle percussion, chilly synth and a gradual building of Markus' trumpet lead.  If a 20-years-younger Miles Davis had just been settling into his electric period in 1989, In A Silent Way might well have sounded like this.  The track catches fire about halfway in, only to mellow out again as a sequencer threads its way around a sibling horn duet.  Don't want to write a whole load about this one track, but the 'synth apeing a wailing lead guitar' ending was just too much fun to pass over.

Another lengthy piece, Poseidon, follows in a more energised free jazz mode with electronic effects that might sound dated but are enjoyable for sure, before a morse-code rhythm sets up the main body of the track.  Your mileage may vary on the synth bass.  After a mellow interlude in Carnaval, and an upbeat one in the most sonically 80s-anchored track High Ride, we're due another 13-minute exploration in Rejoice.  This one might be my favourite, coming across as it does like a piece of 80s Tangerine Dream progressive electronica with a fully-compatible jazz crossover, and it's followed by the sweet closing ambience of Peach.  If you can deal with the very much of their time synths, this album is a keeper.

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Gong - You (1974)

One more Gong/Hillage post for the time being, in the last (studio) occasion that they'd both intertwine.  This album is the sweet spot of psychedelic Gong for me, where they got to fully flex their musical muscles on four lengthy tracks, and the remaining short pieces are the ones that carry most of Daevid Allen's comic-space-opera narrative.

After You opens with two of the latter plus a short atmospheric instrumental, Hillage is the first to get the musical spotlight with Master Builder.  I'm assuming the main riff was his, as it would appear again as The Glorious Om Riff on Green, and his guitar solos here are nothing short of blinding.  The next track, the nine mind-bending minutes of A Sprinkling Of Clouds, might prefigure Rainbow Dome Musick to begin with, but the master synther in this case is Tim Blake rather than Hillage/Giraudy.

The absolute star of You, however, IMO has to be bassist Mike Howlett.  Rock solid throughout, the generous dose of psych-jazz-funk that he lays down throughout the album reaches its apex on the ten minutes of The Isle Of Everywhere.  Laying down a hypnotic bassline that Holger Czukay might've been proud of, everyone from Blake to Hillage to the French percussion team that would shortly take ownership of the band gets a chance to shine on this album high point.

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