Bruce Cockburn - Further Adventures Of (1978)

Always love a bit of late 70s Bruce Cockburn around the turn of the year, so after posting the masterpiece a few years back (link below), here's the one just before it.  More jazz-inflected arrangements, lyrics taking in the expected singer-songwriterly personal reflections with a heavy dose of Christian mysticism, and that incredible guitar playing.  A couple of more muscular tracks, Standing Outside A Broken Phone Booth.... and Feast Of Fools, provide a good contrast to the lighter-hued material, and Red Ships Take Off In The Distance is one of his most dazzling instrumentals.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Dancing In The Dragon's Jaws

George Russell - New York Big Band (rec. 1977-78, first rel. 1982)

Getting into late 70s period Russell now, and starting to leave the Scandinavian era behind.  Not entirely though, as one track here - a great version of the Russell/Dizzy Gillespie co-write Cubano Be, Cubano Bop - comes from the same Swedish concert at which Vertical Event VI was recorded.  Otherwise, per the album title, we're in New York (possibly, per the album cover, at the Village Vanguard - the liners don't specify a venue) with hard grooving, bluesier material, especially on the vocal track Big City Blues.  A couple of re-arranged excerpts from Listen To The Silence, and one from Living Time, the 1972 suite released on CBS and featuring Bill Evans, highlight Russell's more complex work, and the album is rounded out by a piece from trumpet player Stanton Davis and an arrangement of God Bless The Child.

link

pw: sgtg 

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Listen To The Silence

Vertical Event VI

Al Wilson - Searching For The Dolphins (expanded edition 2008; orig. rel. 1969)

Sticking with the charity shop finds for the second post this week.  Picked this one up on the assumption it was based around a take on Fred Neil's evergreen song that I find weirdly moving whoever's doing it, and it does indeed kick off with a very nice Dolphins, Mississippi-born Al Wilson (1939-2008) in fine voice.  This is followed by a solid By The Time I Get To Phoenix - okay, so it's a late-60s pop-soul album, and a pretty good one.  

 

The original LP, on the Liberty-distributed Soul City label, came with a hot Wrecking Crew backing band - Hal Blaine, Jim Gordon, Larry Knechtel, James Burton et al - and a great Southern soul vocalist out front.  Wilson released a handful of non-album singles at the turn of the 70s, which are captured here as worthwhile bonus tracks (check out CCR's Lodi).  Then there's The Snake, sitting at the halfway point of the LP, which instantly brought back great memories of nights out for me.

In the late 90s/early 00s, Edinburgh College of Art's indie disco night on Saturdays was never complete without the DJ, who must've been a bit of an old Northern Soul boy, dropping in The Snake to bring it to the attention of a new generation of hip young kids in their skinny jeans.  So that was nice to hear again after 20 years, and it's still a belter.  Even better to hear it in the context of an album-plus, to get a broader view on Wilson's incredible voice and the classic production with those top-drawer musicians.

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa - Petit Wazoo (live 1972, rel. 2006 & 2016)

Following on from the "Wazoo" big band, Zappa spent October and November 1972 taking a slimmed-down version of his jazz ensemble on the road.  This became known as the "Petit Wazoo" band, and in Zappa's late life and after his death an official document of this group became one of the most sought-after releases by fans.

Well, he had been working on one.  When the keepers of The Vault looked for Petit Wazoo tapes in the mid-00s to compile into an album, they found tapes cut, sequenced and mixed by Zappa periodically between 1972 and 1977.  This was released in 2006 as Imaginary Diseases, and has the unmistakable stamp of being Zappa's own concept.  A couple of short pieces lead into a lengthy minor-key blues, and the album's just warming up.  A belter of a Farther O'Blivion follows, including a great drum solo by Jim Gordon, then another slinky groove-improv.  The highlights keep coming in the form of the title track and the final piece, a jam from Montreal, capping off an extremely satisfying album of great arrangements and top-notch guitar playing.

link

pw: sgtg

Plans for the 'vault release' of Petit Wazoo music were then shelved - for no less than a decade, for whatever reason (no less than 30 albums separate the two releases, so possibly the Zappa Family Trust just like to keep things varied, and certainly can't be viewed as stingy to fans, as new archive releases continue unabated to this very month).  In any case, Little Dots came out in 2016 as a vault-selected companion piece to Imaginary Diseases, and contained a couple of non-instrumentals this time: a fine but no great revelation Cosmik Debris, and a full-length (literal) shaggy-dog story Rollo.  

 

Added to this are more jam-based pieces from Kansas City and Columbia, and the two-part composition that gives the album its title.  All great to hear, and the players interact brilliantly once again, but I think the Zappa-conceived sequence of Imaginary Diseases just edges it slightly as an overall album experience.  Great to have both to listen to side by side though, as a two-hour insight into this all-too short-lived ensemble.

 

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Wazoo (Live 1972) 

Road Tapes Venue #2 (Live 1973)

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Total Immersion at The Barbican, London (live 2022)

The Byrds - (Untitled)/(Unissued) (deluxe edition 2000, orig. 2LP rel. 1970)

I used to reach for this one a lot at the turning of the seasons, and dug it out for a fresh appraisal the other day.  First released in September 1970 as a live record/studio record double, (Untitled) put in place the Byrds lineup that would prove most stable, carrying them through to the end (apart from the original lineup's reunions).  Roger McGuinn, Clarence White, Skip Battin and Gene Parsons proved to be a tight, adventurous live unit, and the collection of concert recordings that open the collection rip through material old and new culminating in a 16-minute jam around Eight Miles High.

The studio album is equally revelatory, marking a fresh high point in Byrdsian songwriting.  McGuinn at the time was attempting to write a musical entitled Gene Tryp, based on Peer Gynt and in collaboration with Jacques Levy (later Dylan's Desire co-writer).  As well as the live opener Lover Of The Bayou, songs from this abandoned project appearing on (Untitled) are Chestnut Mare, All The Things and Just A Season, working just fine as quality standalone songs.  Skip Battin comes to the fore as a writer too, on the memorable Vietnam-themed closer Well Come Back Home, and collaborative efforts Yesterday's Train, Hungry Planet and You All Look Alike.

Live and studio together, this 70 minutes of music add up to one of the strongest albums ever released under the Byrds moniker, but even more was recorded - and released as a bonus CD 30 years later.  This was my first exposure to (Untitled), on receiving a mix tape from someone with the gorgeous acoustic take on Lowell George's Willin' and seeking out the source.  The (Unissued) disc took a mirror approach to the original album, starting out with 20 minutes of studio outtakes then adding 25 minutes of further live material - and a neat little hidden extra in an accapella Amazing Grace.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: Sweetheart Of The Rodeo

George Russell - Listen To The Silence (rec. 1971, orig. rel. 1973)

Back to George Russell with another commissioned work, this time for the 1971 Kongsberg Jazz Festival, and recorded at its live premiere performance (with some studio effects added later) on 21st June 1971, Kongsberg Church, Norway.  Taking some lines from Rainer Maria Rilke, Maurice Nicoll, Dee Brown and snippets from Newsweek and the New York Times for its libretto, Listen To The Silence is a choral work calling for two choirs as well as jazz ensemble.  

 

The chanting voices get things underway before Russell, Garbarek & co enter to drive the music forward, and the work continues in this manner with the church acoustics giving the stentorian vocal delivery a definite atmospheric boost.  The instrumental sections are frequently more minimal and stripped-down compared to Russell's other work of the era, but this works in favour of the overall stark mood, and makes the Garbarek-Rypdal section at the start of Event IV all the more outstanding.  Subtitled "A Mass For Our Time", Listen To The Silence might be a bit 'of its time' in subject matter, but it remains a captivating listening experience to this day.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Trip To Prillarguri

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

Weather Report - Tale Spinnin' (1975)

Percussive fireworks and melodic fusion from Weather Report at the top of their game.  In his only appearance with WR, Leon 'Ngudu' Chancler of Herbie Hancock/Santana/many others fame is the drummer, with Alyrio Lima handling percussion and the core trio of Zawinul, Shorter and Johnson carried over from the previous album.  Tale Spinnin' gets off to a flying start with one of Weather Report's most memorable album openers, Man In The Green Shirt, and grooves onwards with a sublime Shorter composition and another lengthy Zawinul piece.  It's not all funky fusion - the highly atmospheric Badia is a definite standout, with Zawinul's eerie electronics continuing the band's early experimental strand.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

s/t debut

I Sing The Body Electric

Mysterious Traveller 

Black Market

Barre Phillips - Mountainscapes (1976)

One of the most satisfyingly avant-garde ECMs from the label's first decade, and also the first appearance in-house for reedsman John Surman, whose association with ECM continues to this day.  Recorded in March 1976, Mountainscapes was the result of the Surman-Phillips-Martin trio being given fresh purpose by the addition of Austrian electronics wizard Dieter Feichtner.  

 

The collision of free jazz and synth ooze makes for a unique and thoroughly enjoyable listening experience, with the tracklist simply a numbered suite to immerse yourself in.  Parts III and VII are duos between Phillips' bass improvisations and the eerie glow of Feichtner's synths, cut from a 40-minute free-form session (imagine that in its entireity sitting in Eicher's vault somewhere...).  The closing piece makes good use of a happened-to-drop-by John Abercrombie, adding another texture to this singular record.

link

pw: sgtg

George Russell Sextet feat. Jan Garbarek - Trip To Prillarguri (rec. 1970, rel. 1982)

More live recordings from George Russell and co taped at the Södertälje Estrad, this time back in March 1970 (although not released until 1982, when Soul Note took over their chunk of Russell's material).  This one's a belter - it may as well be Jan Garbarek's Esoteric Circle quartet from 1969 performing live with the addition of Russell on piano and Stanton Davis Jr on trumpet.  Three of the pieces here are Garbarek-penned, including two that appeared on the Esoteric Circle LP.  From Russell's catalogue we get themes from Souls Loved By Nature and the earlier classic Stratusphunk, plus a closing rendition of Ornette Coleman's Man On The Moon.  Electrifying stuff throughout, and a definite highlight in both Russell and Garbarek's discographies.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Othello Ballet Suite

Vertical Event VI

Frank Zappa - Road Tapes, Venue #2: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki (rec. 1973, rel. 2013)

From the music of Finland to someone who certainly enjoyed playing there - here's an archive recording that came out of the Zappa vault nine years ago to provide an interesting contrast to the better-known Helsinki tapes.  Road Tapes Venue #2 comes from a visit to the Finnish capital just over a year earlier, and musically provides a fascinating snapshot of the embryonic Roxy band.  Jean-Luc Ponty is on board at this point, giving a nice jazzy-prog shading, and tempos are more considered on material that would flash by in road-hardened form a year later.

After a maybe-hear-twice introduction (sounds like there hadn't been time for an in-depth soundcheck pre-show), the opening medley is a good grab-bag starter - it also jumps between shows, as does the whole release, to get the best out of a less-than-perfect collection of tapes.  Following Montana are around 40 minutes of looser improvisations and audience participation, then to open Disc 2 we get some early-stages Roxy material.  The very mellow Village Of The Sun is particularly nice to hear, including its unusual intro passage (George Duke, jeez... the guy could've made Chopsticks sound sublime).  Big Swifty, a thunderous Farther Obilvion and a Brown Shoes revival round out a really nice package, especially if you love this Zappa era as much as I do.

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Wazoo (Live 1972) 

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

Collin Walcott - Cloud Dance (1976)

Essentially John Abercrombie's Gateway Trio with a very different lead voice, in the form of Orgeon/CODONA's multi-instrumentalist (here focusing on his considerable talents on sitar) Collin Walcott (1945-1984).  This stunning record was recorded in the same month as Gateway's debut, right in the white heat of ECM's golden age with a lineup who perfectly merge jazz with Indian musical forms.  

 

Lengthy explorations giving the quartet full chance to shine, like opener Margueritte, sit alongside miniature features for Walcott and Dave Holland such as Prancing and Eastern Song.  Abercrombie is by turns liquid and languid (Night Glider, the lovely title track) and throughly electrified (Scimitar).  Walcott's sublime playing remains the star of this album, and would continue to occupy a unique space in the ECM sound world (including with a reformed Oregon) until his tragic accidental death at the age of 39.

link

pw: sgtg

Collin Walcott at SGTG:

Miles Davis - On The Corner

Egberto Gismonti - Sol De Meio Dia

Frank Zappa - Wazoo (recorded Sept. 1972, released 2007)

One from the vault, in the concert that wound up a still-recuperating Zappa's brief tour with the 'Grand Wazoo' big band, recorded in Boston Music Hall on 24 September 1972.  Band introductions come first, along with an unfortunate tale of squashed instruments under a falling speaker cabinet.  The beginning of this appears to not have been captured by the soundboard tape: apparently the missing words are "Well, here we are in Boston, ladies and gentlemen. Just to fill you in on some of the zaniness that took place earlier this afternoon."

 

That out of the way, we first get an extended blast of The Grand Wazoo title track.  If you love that album as much as I do, this is a treat to hear, as is Big Swifty from Waka/Jawaka.  In between is Zappa's improvisational vehicle from the era, Approximate.  Apparently there's a bit of shifting around in the running order to get a good fit for double-CD, so Disc 2 centres on an early version of The Adventures Of Greggery Peccary, without vocals but with specially-arranged sections for more improvisation (no mean feat with so many musicians).  A couple of short encores close proceedings: it's particularly interesting to hear an embryonic Regyptian Strut, here titled Variant I Processional March.  So much great stuff here from the Zappa albums I love best - the sound might be spotty in places but this is a wonderful concert to have.

 

Disc 1 link

Disc 2 link

pw: sgtg 

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Orchestral Favourites

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

Road Tapes, Venue #2: Finlandia Hall, Helsinki 1973

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

George Russell - Vertical Event VI (rec. 1977, rel. 1981)

Funky fusion with the customary George Russell twist of his unique compositional style, here extending to the title of this work.  Vertical Event VI was another commission for Swedish Radio, composed in 1976 and recorded live at the Södertälje Estrad in March of the following year.  Numbering the works he'd composed in Scandinavia thus far, in the liner notes Russell says he considers the Othello Ballet Suite to be Vertical Form II, Souls Loved By Nature as Vertical Form III (links below), and so on, with Vertical Form VI "represent[ing] the full crystalisation of the vertical form style of notation".

 

Being a bit of a rudimentary music theorist, I'm no closer to understanding 'vertical form' in laymans' terms than when I started reading all these liner notes on Russell's albums, but the end result is just as enjoyable to blast out.  The original first side of the 1981 vinyl contained Event I, nine minutes of the large-group forces gradually gathering steam, and Event II, a fifteen-minute groove monster.  The other three respectively highlight the grungy organ, a banjo-style detuned guitar with more funky minimalist basslines, and finally a recapitulation of the work's main themes.  Probably the most accessible of Russell's big-band 'vertical forms' that I've heard so far, and certainly tons of fun.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Othello Ballet Suite

Jaco Pastorius - s/t (1976)

This album came up in the comments recently on the last Weather Report post, so here it is.  Just over 40 minutes of smoking grooves, deft arrangements and a stellar cast of guests, all wrapped around the elastic basslines of a 25-year-old virtuoso who would cast jazz fusion in his image for years to come.

Announcing itself with bass up front, and no accompaniment but Don Alias' congas on the opening version of the standard Donna Lee, Pastorius' self-titled album features only one other tune he hadn't written or co-written, a medley setting of Herbie Hancock's Speak Like A Child.  Hancock himself is heavily featured on keys throughout the album, which is heavily percussive in places, has sumptuous arrangements in others, and gives guest spotlights to everyone from Hubert Laws to Sam & Dave.  Essential summer listening.

link

pw: sgtg

Jaco Pastorius at SGTG:

Weather Report - Black Market

Joni Mitchell - Mingus

Joni Mitchell - Shadows And Light

Tangerine Dream - Atem (1973)

Tangerine Dream in the early 70s were making great strides with each album, and now settled into their trio lineup, with this fourth album edged closer to their breakthrough sound.  The grand sweep of mellotron that opens the 20 minute title track was key to this - although Franke's thundering drums still looked back to the sound of Alpha Centauri, Froese's mellotron had established itself in the TD armoury, and Phaedra was only a year away.

Then after five and a half minutes of this dramatic introduction, Atem changes gear into becalmed ambience for the rest of its runtime - another harbringer of the near future.  Three pieces make up the second side of the original LP, starting with the humid junglescape of Fauni-Gena, looking forwards in this case to Froese's second solo album.  Circulation Of Events has the most proto-Phaedra eerie ambience of the whole album - towards the end of the mellotron/organ-dominated piece, a synth pulse gives a foretaste of the epic Berlin-school sequences just around the corner.  TD end the album with one more nod back to their more avant-garde beginnings with the vocal intro to Wahn.  After this they'd become electronic legends.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Meditation

Alpha Centauri  

Zeit

Phaedra (scroll past main post)

Rubycon & Richochet

Stratosfear
Encore

Cyclone
Force Majeure
Tangram

Pergamon

Exit

White Eagle 
Logos: Live At The Dominion
Hyperborea

Poland

Le Parc

George Russell - Othello Ballet Suite / Electronic Organ Sonata No.1 (1970)

Some more George Russell from his Scandinavian period, with Jan Garbarek making the album cover as featured soloist.  The "Othello Ballet Suite" was commissioned by Norwegian television, and this recording made by Radio Sweden in November 1967.  Othello offers just under half an hour of Russell's intricate 'vertical form' compositional style and funky arrangements.  It occasionally suggests a sort of long-form Mingus composition to my ears - complete with what sounds like little teases of Better Git It In Your Soul as a recurring theme.  All great players, including some nice skronky spots for Garbarek to cut loose, and Russell's sextet are backed by the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

The album, originally released in 1970 by Flying Dutchman, is filled out by a solo organ piece improvised by Russell on an Oslo church organ in October 1968.  This basic recording was then manipulated at the electronic music studio of Radio Sweden, giving it much more avant-garde textures and making for a fascinating closer on the album.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG: Electronic Sonata For Souls Loved By Nature

Frank Zappa - Orchestral Favourites (1979)

First LP dedicated to Zappa's orchestral music, taken from concerts held at UCLA's Royce Hall in September 1975.  An early attempt was made at pitching an album from the concerts to Columbia Masterworks in 1976, but when this fell through the music was lost in the shuffle of Zappa's contractual woes and finally emerged as one of the "ugly covers" trio (I mean, I like the cover of Sleep Dirt, but definitely not this one) in 1979.

Orchestral Favorites combines then-new material with reworkings of previous pieces, and starts with the melodic grandeur of Strictly Genteel, which in its original form closed the 200 Motels film.  Some tricksier music is next in Pedro's Dowry, one of Zappa's typically lurid seduction stories, and the brief Naval Aviation In Art? (which would later be re-done under Boulez on The Perfect Stranger) closes out the LP's first side.  Rather than being arrangements solely for classical orchestra, the Royce Hall recordings combined orchestral players with Zappa band regulars, and the Duke Of Prunes revival here is the most 'rocked-up orchestra'-style piece, complete with a later overdubbed guitar solo.  The rest of the album is then given over to Bogus Pomp, a suite of reworked themes from 200 Motels and even farther back.

link

pw: sgtg

Frank Zappa at SGTG:

Lumpy Gravy

Waka/Jawaka

The Grand Wazoo

Roxy & Elsewhere

One Size Fits All

Sleep Dirt

Shut Up 'N Play Yer Guitar

Boulez Conducts Zappa - The Perfect Stranger  

Jazz From Hell

You Can't Do That On Stage Anymore, Vol. 2: The Helsinki Concert

The Perfect Stranger (live 2018)

 

Bonus post: Macca at Glasto

Got hold of Paul McCartney's Glastonbury set from a week ago (the radio broadcast), primarily just for myself after reading reviews.  Then thought I may as well share it here for anyone who wants to pick it up.  I mean, the guy's just turned 80, and zips through almost three hours of a headline festival show drawing on one of the most legendary back catalogues around.  Blasts out Helter Skelter, turns in a gorgeous Blackbird, takes the audience through a living history lesson that spans six decades, is reasonably judicious with the most recent material, and brings out Dave Grohl and Bruce Springsteen as guests.  Lovely stuff.

link

pw: sgtg

Tangerine Dream - Zeit (1972)

On to the third of four albums making up Tangerine Dream's 'pink years' on the Ohr label, and we land on their first double album, and possibly the most audacious experiment of their career: a "Largo in four movements", each one taking up a side of vinyl.  The classic trio lineup of Froese, Franke and Baumann is now in place, but the Berlin School sequences are still a couple of years away.  Far from being ambient music that floats pleasantly in space, this is dark, heavy sound with enough gravitational pull to suck in planets (I thought for ages that album art was meant to represent a black hole, before figuring out it's just an eclipse, but it still looks great for the sounds within).

Joining the core lineup for Zeit were Steve Schroyder, making his final appearance on organ, and Popol Vuh's Florian Fricke, bringing his giant modular Moog as he was one of only a couple of German owners of the beast of an instrument at the time.  Fricke is featured on all tracks except the second movement.  Four cellists were also invited along, creating the memorable drone that introduces the album.  The resulting double-LP wasn't particularly well received, Ohr unsure how to market such a behemoth - but the right people were listening, including John Peel in England, who would become an even more important figure with the release of Zeit's follow-up.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Meditation

Alpha Centauri 

Phaedra (scroll past main post)

Rubycon & Richochet

Stratosfear
Encore

Cyclone
Force Majeure
Tangram

Pergamon

Exit

White Eagle 
Logos: Live At The Dominion
Hyperborea

Poland

Le Parc

Weather Report - Black Market (1976)

Been listening to this one a lot lately, so here comes another spotlight on the ever-shifting landscape of 1970s Weather Report.  Percussion-heavy, with plenty of groove to spare, the album kicks off with the bright melodic title track, bass handled by Alphonso Johnson as is the case for most of the album.  Not so for the track that follows, though - here comes the first entry of one of the group's most auspicious arrivals, with the slippery basslines of a 24-year old Floridian who had introduced himself to Zawinul as "the greatest bass player in the world".

There's only one other Pastorious performance on this transitional (even by their standards) Weather Report album, the strutting Barbary Coast from his own pen.  Otherwise, Zawinul and Shorter turn in an increasingly slick set of funky numbers influenced by Latin and African rhythms, some more atmospheric pieces and generally set the stage for Weather Report's commercial superstardom that would follow within a year.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

s/t debut

I Sing The Body Electric

Mysterious Traveller

Tangerine Dream - Alpha Centauri (1971)

Breaking out another 25 year old CD for fresh rip today - I got hold of Alpha Centauri on the same day as Electronic Meditation, and sat down at my Aiwa micro hi-fi to have my teenage mind blown.  In this album's lineup, there were now two recognisable names from my Phaedra cassette - joining Froese, Alpha Centauri inaugurated Christoph Franke's 16 year tenure with Tangerine Dream.  The personnel was about to stabilise even further, with erratic organist Steve Schroyder replaced just after the album's release by Peter Baumann.  But for these January 1971 recording sessions, the core lineup of Froese, Franke and Schroyder was augmented by Roland Paulyck, bringing the first ever synth sounds to TD, and flautist Udo Dennebourg.

The opening guitar noises on Sunrise In The Third System provide about the only continuity with their experimental rock debut - as soon as Schroyder's warm electronic organ fills out the landscape and Froese goes glissando, we're into spacier territory which will only become dramatically more so over the next half-hour plus.  The thirteen minutes of Fly And Collision Of Comas Sola progress from synth whooshes evoking the titular comet, before settling down to a guitar, flute and drums jam that increases in intensity until its sudden ending.  Taking up all of the orignal LP's second side, the vast title track reaches even farther into deep space and the gaseous formlessness of TD to come, memorably ending on an organ and spoken word finale.

link

pw: sgtg

Previously posted at SGTG:

Electronic Meditation

Phaedra (scroll past main post)

Rubycon & Richochet

Stratosfear
Encore

Cyclone
Force Majeure
Tangram

Pergamon

Exit

White Eagle 
Logos: Live At The Dominion
Hyperborea

Poland

Le Parc