Keith Jarrett - Jan Garbarek Quartet - Belonging (1974)

The 'European Quartet' in their first and most timeless outing, and another chance here to pay tribute to the late Jon Christensen.  Right from the pulsing opener Spiral Dance, Christensen displays just how much he deserved the gig of ECM's house drummer, and remains great throughout these six tracks, all composed by Jarrett.

Two lengthy ballads show off Jarrett and Garbarek in their prime, as do the gospel strut of Gaucho Long As You Know You're Living Yours and the nifty groove of The Windup.  A brief duet between them in the form of the title track completes a truly legendary ECM session.

There's also some classic TV footage of this band floating around YouTube - see below.

link
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Keith Jarrett at SGTG:
Gary Burton & Keith Jarrett
Expectations
The Köln Concert
Hymns/Spheres
G. I. Gurdjieff: Sacred Hymns
Invocations/The Moth And The Flame
Concerts: Bregenz/München
Setting Standards: New York Sessions
Dark Intervals
Changeless
Tribute
Vienna Concert
At The Blue Note: Saturday, June 4th 1994, 1st Set
Tokyo '96
La Scala

Jan Garbarek at SGTG:
Afric Pepperbird
Triptykon
Popofoni
Solstice: Sounds And Shadows
Sol De Meio Dia
Paths, Prints
Song For Everyone
Making Music

Gila - Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee (1973)

To follow on from the Popol Vuh postings of the last two weeks, here's a Vuh-adjacent album.  Conny Veit originally formed Gila as an improvisatory space-rock group, which split in 1972.  After playing on Popol Vuh's Hosianna Mantra, Veit decided to revive the Gila name for another album, and invited Florian Fricke and future Vuh mainstay Daniel Fichelscher (who Veit had met at Amon Düül's commune) to participate.

The album's concept was based on Dee Brown's book Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee: An Indian History of The American West, and on three tracks takes its lyrics directly from the book.  Musically, the blueprint for the forthcoming Popol Vuh sound is unmistakeable, even though Veit writes all the songs and thus everything is based more around 12-string acoustic guitars.  Fricke plays piano and occasional mellotron, Fichelscher handles drums and bass, and Veit's partner Sabine Merbach is the Renate Knaup-esque lead vocalist.  A fascinating little link in the chain of Popol Vuh's history, and a great-sounding krautrock minor classic in its own right.

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Olivier Messiaen - Éclairs Sur L’Au-Delà... (2019)

A spellbinding rendering of Messiaen's final work, recorded last September in the Barbican, London.  Sir Simon Rattle starts by talking about how moving he found the work on first encounter, before leading the 128-strong LSO through the 11 movements of Messiaen's glimpse of eternity ("flashes over the beyond" is one translation of the title).

It's powerful, hallucinatory stuff, especially when the massed ranks of percussion come to the fore in the sixth section and the eighth, and just wonderously beautiful in the sections where Messiaen's trademark birdsong take the lead.  Éclairs definitely comes across as the work of a composer aware of his imminent mortality (he wouldn't live to see the premiere), but facing it down with the faith of someone who saw death as the raising of "the great curtain" that he visualised in this music.

link
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Previously posted at SGTG:
Quatre Études De Rythme
Des Canyons Aux Étoiles
Turangalîla Symphony / Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps (EMI recordings cond. by Rattle)
Turangalîla Symphony / L'ascension (Naxos recording cond. by Wit)
Et Exspecto Ressurrectionem (Philips recording cond. by Haitink)
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem (Erato recording cond. by Boulez), etc

John Coltrane - Olé Coltrane (1961)

Always my Coltrane of choice, Olé may have been in some way influenced by Miles Davis' Sketches Of Spain from the previous year.  The sound of John Coltrane's 'Spanish tinge' album, however, was much looser and freer than those meticulous Gil Evans arrangements, and looks forward to the (further) fireworks Coltrane was just about to unleash: he'd started recording for Impulse two days prior to this Atlantic session.

The title track takes up all of the first side, and never loses your attention throughout its propulsive, thrilling 18 minutes.  McCoy Tyner keeps it on the rails throughout whilst Coltrane, Eric Dolphy (moonlighting as "George Lane") and Freddie Hubbard take turns in the spotlight.  Even the two-bass battle between Art Davis and Reggie Workman hits the spot.  The other two tracks are equally wonderful, with Dahomey Dance a great blues-based strut and the Tyner-penned Aisha an absolutely gorgeous ballad to close.

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Popol Vuh - Hosianna Mantra (1972)

After two initial albums of moog, percussion and organ, great as they were in their own way, the run of classic Popol Vuh albums that existed in their own beautiful universe began here.  Intent on producing "a mass for the heart", Florian Fricke scaled down his own input to just piano (and a little harpsichord) and brought on board sympathetic musicians.  Conny Veit's shimmering, liquid tones are the only guitar here - Daniel Fichelscher was yet to join - and bits of oboe, tambura, and violin fill out the heavenly sound.  The magical element that raised the album above stunningly gorgeous to somewhere far beyond was the voice of Dyong Yun, never better than on the epic title track.  Beyond essential music.  More from Fricke and Veit (plus Fichelscher) next week.

link
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Previously posted at SGTG:
Seligpreisung
Einsjäger & Siebenjäger
Aguirre
Das Hohelied Salomos
Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte
Coeur De Verre
Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts
Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin
Florian Fricke - Die Erde Und Ich Sind Eins

Santana - Caravanserai (1972)

Although I've heard plenty other Santana tracks that I like over the years, this is the only album of theirs that I've ever owned - it just ticks so many boxes.  Latin-jazz-funk-rock-fusion with a clear influence of Silent Way-era Miles Davis, an admitted influence of Lonnie Liston Smith's Astral Travelling on the opening track, and a cover of a Jobim tune.  What's not to like?

Caravanserai sounds best in full-length immersion on headphones, not least on the first side where all the tracks flow perfectly without a break.  The second half of the album starts as the first did, in experimental ambient mode and this time with a great percussion break, then there's a version of Jobim's Stone Flower with added lyrics.  The rest of the album is just red hot grooves all the way to the end.

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Olivier Messiaen - Turangalîla Symphonie / Quatuor Pour La Fin Du Temps (1987)

This classic double-disc release from the 80s came up in the comments last time I posted Messiaen, so about time I got around to posting it.  The pairing of Turangalîla with Quartet For The End Of Time brings together two of Messiaen's most celebrated masterpieces, and this set is also essential because it sounds so great, with world-class musicians all round.

Simon Rattle's take on Turangalîla is one of typically lush attention to detail, and makes for interesting side-by-side comparison with my personal favourite rendering under Antoni Wit (see links below), where everything is a bit more in-your-face.  The ondes Martenot does blend better with the orchestra in the Rattle version, I reckon - it's played here by Tristan Murail.

After such mind-meltingly colourful music comes the stark contrast of Quatour Pour La Fin Du Temps.  Famously written and premiered in a prisoner of war camp, the four players effortlessly evoke Messiaen's sombre but spiritually hopeful apocalypse.  The cello (Siegfried Palm) and piano (Aloys Kontarsky) duet sounds particularly affecting.  More Messiaen/Rattle next week.

Disc 1 link
Disc 2 link
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Previously posted at SGTG:
Quatre Études De Rythme
Des Canyons Aux Étoiles
Turangalîla Symphony / L'ascension (Naxos recording cond. by Wit)
Et Exspecto Ressurrectionem (Philips recording cond. by Haitink)
Et Exspecto Resurrectionem Mortuorum (Erato recording cond. by Boulez), etc

Popol Vuh - Sei Still, Wisse Ich Bin (1981)

Popol Vuh entered the 80s with one of their darkest, most ritualistic albums.  The base of their sound was still the layers of Daniel Fichelscher's chiming guitars, and Florian Fricke's piano somewhere in the mix, but the songs were becoming ever more minimal in their trance-inducing, mantric repetition.  Renate Knaup, who was now the main vocalist, has said of her time in Popol Vuh that "Florian's music makes you feel stoned when you sing it; the repetition makes you high".

After an initial blast of the Bavarian State Opera Choir, opener Wehe Khorazin settles into the first "yehung" chant of many by 80s Vuh.  This is often assumed to mean "hand in hand", as it appears alongside this phrase on the back of the Spirit Of Peace LP.  "Yehung" and "hand in hand" are however the alternating lyrics of Take The Tension High on that album, and I reckon they're just meant to be printed as lyrics, rather than a translation. "Yehung" may have some religious root, or it could just be a chant made up by Fricke that sounds good, like the "Haram dei"'s on Letzte Tage.  Anyway, enough about that.

The next track intensifies the ritual atmosphere with just percussion and chanting, before Garten Der Gemeinschaft closes the album's first half on a more calming note, led by Fricke's piano.  The second half is in a similarly less intense vein, more akin to previous Popol Vuh albums, or indeed what was to come for the rest of the 80s.  The highlight here is the lengthy Lass Los, which starts from a choral introduction and then bursts into a familiar Fichelscher chime as the vocals combine the album's Biblical title "Be still, know that I am" with the song title and more "yehung".  The little melodic motif that stretched across Popol Vuh's career (I think Fricke called it "Little Warrior") makes an appearance at the end of the final track, capping off another wonderful, if a bit darker than usual, Vuh album.  Another one next week, which I always felt was too obvious to post - but let's face it, it's too good not to.

link
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Previously posted at SGTG:
Seligpreisung
Einsjäger & Siebenjäger
Aguirre
Das Hohelied Salomos
Letzte Tage - Letzte Nächte
Coeur De Verre
Brüder des Schattens - Söhne des Lichts
Florian Fricke - Die Erde Und Ich Sind Eins

Brian Eno - Ambient 4: On Land (1982)

Been giving this Eno classic a lot of play in the last week or two, mostly at as low a volume as possible, letting it blend in with the ambient sounds coming through the open windows.  On Land was the last album in Eno's Ambient series, and was created via a kind of "musical composting" from previous recordings and environmental sounds.

Guest musicians give On Land a fresh perspective too, with no less than three on the opening track, including Bill Laswell on bass.  Jon Hassell also contributes trumpet to the all-too-brief Shadow.  As a whole, On Land conjures up (not least from the track titles and liner notes) half-forgotten landscapes from childhood, reconstructed as vague impressions.  It's both one of Eno's most organic-sounding ambient records and most alien, and does get a bit unsettling in places, verging on dark ambient, with the more soothing pieces towards the end.  Essential stuff, endlessly listenable at any volume.

link
pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:
Another Green World
Cluster & Eno
Ambient 2: The Plateaux Of Mirror (with Harold Budd)
Apollo - Atmospheres & Soundtracks (with Daniel Lanois & Roger Eno)
The Pearl (with Harold Budd & Daniel Lanois)

Masterworks Of The 20th Century 10xCD box set - posting now complete

Disc 1 - Pierre Boulez: Le Marteau Sans Maître/Livre Pour Cordes - posted here
Disc 2 - Toru Takemitsu: Asterism, Requiem, Green, Dorian Horizon - posted here
Disc 3 - Igor Stravinsky: Agon/Gunter Schuller: 7 Studies On Themes Of Paul Klee - posted here
Disc 4 - Charles Ives: The "Concord" Sonata - posted here
Disc 5 - George Crumb: Voice Of The Whale/Night Of The Four Moons etc - posted here
Disc 6 - Harry Partch: The World Of Harry Partch - posted here
Disc 7 - Extended Voices - posted here
Disc 8 - Xenakis, Del Tredici, Stockhausen, Cage, Crumb - posted here
Disc 9 - Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center - posted here
Disc 10 - The New Music, Volume 2 - see below.

"The New Music" was a short series by RCA Victrola, the first three of which were Italian recordings conducted by Bruno Maderna.  For the "Prophets Of The New" reissue series/the final disc in this box set, this CD presented all of Vol. 2 plus half of Vol. 3, spotlighting the legendary Italian flautist Severino Gazzelloni.

The first two tracks are chamber pieces that higlight the range of sonorities that Boulez and Haubenstock-Ramati could conjure up for flute, before a temporary switch in lead instrument gives us Maderna's Concerto for Oboe (played by Lothar Faber) and Chamber Orchestra.

Back with Gazzelloni for the tracks from The New Music Vol. 3, Y Su Sangre Ya Viene Cantando is the middle section of Luigi Nono's Epitaph For Lorca, with a definite Spanish tinge to its rhythmic orchestration.  Lastly, Berio's Serenade I for Flute & 14 Instruments is a great evolving dialogue between the soloist and other instruments.

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Edgar Froese - Epsilon In Malaysian Pale (1975)

Edgar Froese's second solo album, and possibly his best.  Epsilon In Malaysian Pale, which apparently is meant to mean "enveloped in the Malaysian humidity", came after Tangerine Dream had released Rubycon and toured Australia; like Rubycon, it has two side-long tracks.

The first of these is the title track, a lush junglescape of mellotron and a light touch of sequencer, inspired by Froese's visit to Malaysia.  The other is Maroubra Bay, inspired as the name suggests by TD's time in Australia.  After a dark, dramatic opening, it does end up evoking the beach about three minutes in, then sets off on a sequencer journey with plenty of Froese synth and more mellotron.  Both tracks are absolutely essential, timeless electronica.

link
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Previously posted at SGTG:
Aqua
Ages
Stuntman
Pinnacles
Tangerine Dream at SGTG:
Phaedra (scroll past main post)
Encore
Force Majeure
Tangram
Logos: Live At The Dominion
Hyperborea

Yeahwon Shin - Lua Ya (2013)

A gorgeous little whisper of an album, so light and soft it's barely there.  Lua Ya is the second album by Korean singer Yeahwon Shin, who started out with a love of Brazilian music and based her debut around Latin jazz.  This appearance on ECM grew spontaneously out of Shin visiting Mechanics Hall in Worcester, MA, where pianist Aaron Parks was was recording what would become his solo piano album Arborescence.  Shin and Parks developed an instant rapport, and recorded in the same venue together a few months later in May 2012, adding accordionist Rob Curto (who'd already worked with Shin).

The eleven feather-light miniatures (plus two alternate takes) that make up Lua Ya clock in at just over 40 minutes in total.  Curto's accordian is used judiciously, with half of the album just spare voice and piano duets.  Shin reached back to her early childhood for inspiration, basing a lot of the material around Korean lullabies, and imbuing them with her jazz influences.  The result is pure meditative bliss, perfect for late-night relaxation.

link
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Stravinsky - Agon / Schuller - 7 Studies On Themes Of Paul Klee (1966)

Been having a bit of a Stravinsky week, following a recent re-broadcast of the concert below.  But first, here's a great little record by the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which features one of the composer's later works.  Agon, completed in 1957, is a single-act ballet that dates from Stravinsky's late period when he started getting into twelve-tone rows.  It still features his flair for bold rhythms, loads of wild colour in the strings and brass, and has neat little solos for mandolin.  Reminded me of orchestral Zappa more than once, and really shows Stravinsky's influence on him.

Agon is paired on this album with Seven Studies On Themes Of Paul Klee (1959) by Gunter Schuller (1925-2015).  As well as a composer, Schuller was a jazz musician, playing on one of the Birth Of The Cool sessions, and doing occasional conducting of Mingus' work; Schuller is credited with coining the term "third stream" for the confluence of jazz and classical music, even if the concept itself dated back to Gershwin's time.

Schuller's seven representations of Klee paintings in music range from dense, dramatic orchestration in Antique Harmonies and An Eerie Moment, to outright jazz stylings in Little Blue Devil, to plain weirdness - The Twittering Machine sounds like an avant-garde cut-up of a Woody Woodpecker cartoon soundtrack.  Lots of fun.

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bonus Stravinsky - conducted by Simon Rattle
 
A concert broadcast from September 2017 at the Barbican, London, in which Sir Simon Rattle took the LSO through Stravinsky's legendary breakthrough ballets Firebird, Petrushka and Rite Of Spring in a single evening.  Exhilarating stuff, expertly executed.

link
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