Liz Story - Unaccountable Effect (1985)

Liz Story's follow-up to her debut Solid Colors (see last week) offered another album's worth of superior Windham Hill solo piano, but with a couple of surprises bookending the album.  The most striking of these was the opening title track, in which Story collaborated with Mark Isham on synth to create a beautifully atmospheric piece.  On the album closer Deeper Reasons, Story collaborates with a percussionist (and also plays some herself) to eerie dramatic effect.

Everything in between these two new-sound tracks is performed by Story alone, but even here there's a definite progression from her debut.  The Bill Evans aficionado of Solid Colors has matured more into her own sound, and perhaps became more of what might be termed a New Age pianist, but still very much on her own terms.  There's no denying Story's considerable talent and lightness of touch on all of these tracks, and I think I'd go as far as saying that this is my favourite Windham Hill piano album that I've heard yet.  Definitely the most satisfying on repeat listens.

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Scott Walker - Climate Of Hunter (1984)

Still can't believe that this is the year we lost Scott Walker.  Been giving this album, his sole release of the 80s, a fresh appraisal recently, so here it in its short & sweet icy glory.  Written and recorded quickly in 1983 after a sluggish start at reactivating his solo career, Walker assembled a team of high-profile session musicians for Climate Of Hunter.  On tracks two and three, Mark Isham drops by for some subtle shading.

A largely muted and mid-tempo affair, only really catching fire on Tracks Three, Five and Seven (yup, that's their titles - Walker didn't want song titles to 'get in the way' for half of the album), Climate Of Hunter is an intriguing cross between an 80s update of his late 60s albums and a pointer towards Tilt a decade later, with song structures gradually dissolving here.  The seven Walker compositions show his wordplay becoming ever more abstract, and the closing cover of Tenessee Williams' Blanket Roll Blues, backed only by Mark Knopfler on bluesy guitar, suits Walker down to the ground.  More next week.

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Previously posted at SGTG: Tilt | Soused

Van Morrison - Beautiful Vision (1982)

A late December-early January favourite of mine, and Van Morrison's most accessible album of his 1980-87 period that we've dug into in recent months.  Musically and structurally, Beautiful Vision was an obvious step back from the epic meanderings of Common One, and gifted Morrison's live repertoire with some of its most enduring classics.  While live versions would lift up the tempo on some of these (go seek out Glastonbury 1987 for a turbocharged Northern Muse and many other wonders), they're equally good here as sedate/midtempo Caledonia Soul healers.

In the lyrics, Morrison celebrates life with his Danish girlfriend of the time (Vanlose Stairway), delves into the occult writings of Alice Bailey (Dweller On The Threshold), and not for the first or last time looks back to his formative salad days (Cleaning Windows).  Several instrumentals were recorded for Beautiful Vision, but all bar one were held over for future albums.  The one that deservingly made the cut was the sublime Scandinavia, which closes the record with Van on piano and Mark Isham on synths.


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Previously posted at SGTG:
Saint Dominic's Preview
Common One
Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart
No Guru, No Method, No Teacher

Van Morrison - Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart (1983)

Some more 80s Van, still with Mark Isham on board (the latter sticking overwhelmingly to synths here), and seeking enlightenment in an even more introspective and meditative realm than on Common One.  Foregoing even words at times - clearly encouraged by the reception of Beautiful Vision (1982)'s closer Scandinavia - four of the tracks here are instrumentals, and the rest of the album is more lyrically sparse than any other in his canon.  Inarticulate Speech is a Van Morrison record consisting entirely of deep cuts - even the 'live favourite' is a mostly spoken-word catalogue of the poetic strive for the transcendent throughout history.  But like Common One, if you give such a sleeper album a nudge, it'll repay with sublime listening experiences from then on.

The opener Higher Than The World opens on clouds of Isham synth, with Morrison sounding initially overawed by some meditative state/spiritual experience before rejoicing in it.  This is followed by the first instrumental, Connswater; if it sounds a bit too Riverdancey for some ears, fear not - each subsequent instrumental will just get more and more wonderful.  The first part of the title track is (paced like most of the album) a sedate piano-led piece with only some wordless backing voices, and the second part's lyrics are mostly the title plus "I'm a soul in wonder".

On the fully-sung tracks, Van balances his metaphysical interests (in the album's first half) with evocations of home and childhood, and the power of memory and belonging (on the trio that sit together on side two).  With the stunning album closer September Night, he hits on a moodpiece so evocative that his voice becomes a primal cry.  Grab this album for these September nights and beyond, and it'll paint them in colours as stunning as nature.

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Van Morrison - Common One (1980)

For the second Friday in a row, some magnificently mellifluous Mark Isham - this time in a supporting role to the living legend that is Van Morrison, on possibly his most ambitious album ever.  Common One kickstarted a seven-year run of albums that were deeply spiritual, meditative and sometimes esoteric, even difficult to get in to - but never less than hugely rewarding.  It's fast becoming my favourite Van era, so may well be posting more.

Common One starts off with the slow, gentle Haunts Of Ancient Peace, ushered in with a plaintive Isham performance.  Following this are the epic fifteen and a half minutes of Summertime In England - seriously, how to even describe one of Van Morrison's greatest epic tracks of his whole career?  Just listen to these joyous evocations of Wordsworth, Coleridge, T. S. Eliot, William Blake, Yeats et al, as Morrison pursues his red-robed muse through the jazzy uptempo sections and heart-rending waltz time sections, and you will realise it ain't why, why, why, why, why, why (etc), it just is.

As a comedown from this lengthy transcendent journey, the album continues with three shorter, much more conventional songs.  The self-explanatory Satisfied, the mellow loveliness of Wild Honey and Spirit with its quiet-verse, uplifting chorus structure are all great tracks, but there's still one more epic to come.  The second fifteen-minute track on the album, and its perfect, meditative closer, is When Heart Is Open, a beautiful experiment in ambient formlessness.  Even more so than the earlier Saint Dominic's Preview, Common One largely stands or falls on the strength of the two longest tracks that dominate its running time, and for me they make it an indispensable classic.  It's an album that might take one or two goes to get its hooks into you, but once it does it'll never let go.

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Mark Isham / Art Lande - We Begin (1987)

Another 80s ECM one-off; the decade in the label's history that never ceases to make me think "wow, that's just gorgeous" or "seriously, wtf?", or sometimes both, as in the case of We Begin.  Recorded by Rubisa Patrollers Mark Isham and Art Lande in January 1987, on its release later that year We Begin must've caused a bit of consternation among even hardened ECM fans when they heard its opening moments.  Anyone who stuck with the album, though, will have found another minor classic to cherish.

That first sound on opening track The Melancholy Of Departure is a drum machine; not just a low-key accompaniment, but a full minute of big, brash beats before Isham's trumpet and synth join in.  His lovely, contemplative melody continues to unfold with subtle piano from Lande; their stately progression completely at odds with the unchanging, Trans Midwest Express rhythm galloping away in the background.  This pairing sounds so wrong at first that it's almost comical, but after a few listens I was hooked on it.  The eerie ambience of Ceremony In Starlight that follows is another weirdly appealing piece, and not just for how uncannily Jon Hassell-like Isham sounds.

The rest of the album, apart from a lengthy shared composition, switches Lande into the driving seat.  The absolutely gorgeous title track shows what the album's opener would be like without the beats, before some subtler percussion is added back in for the brief Lord Ananea.  On the album's second half, the 10-minute Surface And Symbol is arguably the album's most successful exploration of rhythm and texture, with Isham layering his trumpet parts over the insistent percussion.  After that, we get a lovely Lande piano solo in Sweet Circle, and a fanfare duet to close.  All in all, one of the most memorable oddities in the ECM catalogue; it Sometimes shouldn't work, but in Isham and Lande's hands just does.

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Art Lande - Rubisa Patrol (1976)

Pianist Art Lande has previously featured on these pages in an early 80s trio; this is the first album by his 70s quartet, who would subsequently take their name from this album.  And winding back to '76 with ECM puts us square in the middle of the label's first phenomenal purple patch, when almost every release was an instant and lasting classic.  So prepare for something pretty special as far as 70s jazz goes.

Digging this album out after not having listened to it in quite a while, the first thing that struck me was just how good it sounds.  This is where the renowned 'ECM sound' really started to crystallise, and the recording quality is a joy to behold even before you get started on how good the music is; you'd barely believe it was forty years ago that ECM's Jan Erik Kongshaug rolled the tapes.

Lande is on top form throughout this mostly laid-back programme, but Rubisa Patrol is very much a group effort.  Trumpeter Mark Isham is arguably the star player here, with his mellifilous tone wringing every possible drop of beauty from these melodies (two of them from his own pen).  However, the first sound you hear on the album is a bamboo flute played by bassist/flautist Bill Douglass, who also gets the spotlight (on regular flute) on two takes of Jaimi's Birthday Song.  As mentioned above, this is a wonderfully relaxed record, but the Isham composition For Nancy does pick up the pace a bit for variety, and the minute-long Bulgarian Folk Tune even more so, making for a memorable halfway point on this stunning album.

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