ProgNotFrog

Birdland "Darkness Of Light" (1980,former-YUGO,jazz rock)

2012-01-31T18:30:00.006Z

Birdland "Darkness Of Light" (1980,former-YUGO,jazz rock)

You can read the information of this band here.

This first album is the masterpiece as well as the 2nd album.

I will UL only WAV(LOSSLESS) file because mp3 is ULed here

The mp3 file has also good sound quality .

track1

ふるさとのなつかしい民謡　Furusato no natsukashii minyoh (1970,jazz rock,Japan ,omnibus)

2012-01-31T02:56:00.003Z

ふるさとのなつかしい民謡　Furusato no natsukashii minyoh (1970,jazz rock,Japan ,omnibus)

This is a LP that was released as a series for the instrumental easy listening music.The series were released at leaset about 15 LPs from 1970 to 1971 in Japan as mail order only ,not sold in the shops at all.

This album is the tenth album of the series and all of the tracks are Japanese traditional music called 民謡　"Minyoh".Some sing,others dance to the song.But in this album ,Minyoh are cooked as jazz rock.

Very delicious and cool !!!!!

side A

1. そうらん節　Sohran Bushi 1:01
2. 北海盆唄　Hokkai Bon Uta 1:45
3. 斉太郎節　Saitara Bushi 1:40
4. 花笠踊り　Hanagasa Odori 1:20
5. 相馬盆唄　Sohma Bon Uta 2:09
6. 草津節　Kusatsu Bushi 1:31
7. 小諸馬子唄　Komoro Mago Uta 2:07

side B
1. 佐渡おけさ　Sado Okesa 2:21
2. 串本節　Kushimoto Bushi 1:39
3. 安来節　Yasugi Bushi 2:23
4. よさこい節　Yosakoi Bushi 1:41

5. 黒田節　Kuroda Bushi 2:10

6. おてもやん　Otemoyan 2:04

played by...

ジミー竹内とザ・エキサイターズ　Jimmy Takeuchi & The Exciters

A-1,6,B-2,6

中島安則とラテン・リズム・キングス Yasunori Nakajima & Latin Rhythm Kings

A-2,4,5

中村八大とニューサウンズ・オーケストラ　Hachidai Nakamura & Newsounds Orchestra

A-3,7,B-1,4

原信夫とシャープス・アンド・フラッツ Nobuo Hara & Sharps and Flats

B-4,5

track9

Gold - "Night Ride" {USA} [1979]

2012-01-28T21:41:00.006Z

Killer little known private press with all original songs written by lead singer/guitarist Bob Wamnes. Great driving hard rock/blues rock/classic rock with some good fuzz guitar and rough vocals thoughout. Sort of a garage/bar band feel. Recorded in Florida. Sounds more early to mid 70's. Label - Sun Song 7783 - Florida private press rock LP. Interesting stuff, ranges from straight-up hardrock to a couple laid-back numbers to the prog / jazzrock style "New York, New York". Somewhat lo-fi recording (done on a Teac 3340S, according to the back cover) - http://www.popsike.com/

01 Boogie
02 Rock and Roll
03 Everlasting End
04 Love City
05 Night Ride
06 Ain't nobody
07 Hard lovin woman
08 You (know my secrets)
09 New York New York
10 Til you go

Thanks to Osurec :o)

Side A...
Side B...

link in comments...

Jun Fukamachi "Alien Majyu Kyo" (1985,prog fusion,Japan)

2012-01-26T15:44:00.003Z

Jun Fukamachi "Alien Majyu Kyo" (1985,prog fusion,Japan)

Alian Majyu Kyo (エイリアン魔獣境) was very famous SF novel in Japan at that time.

This album is a imaginary original soud track of the novel.

It has never been released as CD format since the first release in 1985.

I believe it is a forgotten Japanese prog fusion gem.

Enjoy !!!!!

All composed and arranged by Jun Fukamachi

personel

Jun Fukamachi 深町純　....key

Hideo Yamaki 山木秀夫....ds (ex,KAZUMI BAND、SHOGUN、近藤等則IMA )

Yasuo Tomikura 富倉安生.....eb

Akira Wada　和田アキラ .....eg (Prism)

All of the members are from a Japanese fusion band "Keep"

track list

エイリアン魔獣境 (side A)

1. Requiem 7:29

2. Treasure Hunter 4:07

3. The Dinosaur Age 4:41

4. Twilight Zone 2:55

エイリアン魔界航路(side B)

1.Neptune 4:50

2. The Legend of the Ark 4:34

3. Lima 3:20

4. Wandering in the World of Spirits 6:16

track1

Messengers - First Message (Germany,1975)

2012-01-24T13:58:00.003Z

"We're not trying to start a revolution
With words we may say,
We're not trying to practise prostitution
With music that we play--
We just enjoy what we do,
Hope you enjoy it too--"

This is the forward to the record written by the band. Great, huh?

Some time ago we shared the second album from this huge german band (Children of Tomorrow), the highlights of which were the Stravinsky homage, Sacrewinsky, and the Colony Suite. This is their debut effort, less adventurous and more soul-rock. Most songs are written by the amazing Bernhard Jobski, although the band has about a dozen members. Note that this is the same man who is responsible for the masterpiece one-off symphonic record Einstein in Eden from 1981.

A good point of comparison for this record would be Morse Code from Canada, in their earlier days, or Dr. Music. The simplicity of the songs is surprising considering the education of Jobski. Vocals are by Antonia Maas, who sounds sometimes like a german Mary Hopkin. To me, it's a bit annoying and distracting that a cover version of Stevie Wonder's All is fair in love appears as the first song on side 2. The next song Ballerina is my definition of a throwaway song with no redeeming qualities. If this was a person, it would be a dangerous offender on death row that lost all his appeals and is due to be electrocuted tomorrow and hopefully, the chair will malfunction and there will be hours of smoke. Subsequently "Actions" demonstrates a few progressive soul moves. Note the unfortunate title "Gang bang" (another Jobski composition, a bluesy rocker), and listen carefully to the lyrics, "Being the only girl in a rocknroll band... she never wants a f---ing gang bang." No kidding?
The last track is recorded live in Berlin at the "Treibhaus", very reminiscent of Chicago, standard american horn-rock.
Otherwise, the songs are pretty accessible and enjoyable.

What led them to abandon the fm-radio tunes for a full-out progressive album their next time round? I'm guessing the 'time was right' in Germany, the late seventies were without a doubt a heyday for prog in that country although it had been abandoned elsewhere. How sad that this heyday only lasted a few short years before being swept away by synthesizers, new wave and punk. Yet in that brief shining moment we have uncountable treasures still to explore... So stay tuned in the next couple of weeks...

Members:
Antonia Maas (lead vocals), Joe Körner (trombone, [tenor horn] saxhorn, vocals), Peter Förster (soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, clarinet, flute), Bernhard Jobski (trumpet, flugelhorn, piccolo, backing vocals), Thomas "Doc" Neviger (trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion, vocals), Peter Tüllmann (trumpet, flugelhorn, percussion, backing vocals), Nono (keyboards, backing vocals), Michael Gechter (guitar, violin, vocals), Thomas "Keule" Schiedel (bass, piano, 12-string guitar), Olaf "Vicking" Gustafsson (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Stefan Holm Jr. (percussion, congas), Erling Jensen (vocals), Jürgen Scheele (trumpet, flugelhorn), Thomas Glanz (keyboards), Earl Stanley Bostic (bass), Frank Lüdeke (woodwinds)

Actions:

Gangbang:

Natdamperen - Boogieman eats "frikadeller" 1976

2012-01-21T14:42:00.012Z

Continuing on with Natdamperen, this from 1976 carries on with the long drawn out jazz jam sessions a la From, here in particular the band is performing live, you can hear a bit of applause and the sound is far from perfect compared to the previous studio recording (even taking into account some warps on the first record and scratches on this rip). It's all instrumental, and very little of the simple kebnekajse folk-jazz appears, except in a reprise of the song pa gaden from the first album and the last song, by Nordenhof (who is the pianist). All tracks are written by saxophonist Ole Kuhl, except where I've indicated others, and the live concert took place at the Peoples House in Arhus on June 3 and Aug. 6, 1976. Note that their last album, Visions, went on to more accessible and listener-friendly fuzak, with tighter songs and simpler melodies.

And the cover? Apparently a menhir or dolmen with a face, with the band name written in sci-fi font, what a crazy drawing! This time by Teddy Sorensen.

Now stay tuned to our blog because in the next few weeks in addition to what I've already mentioned we'll be killing time with more private pressed progressive new wave as well as some really tasty and salty early rock, still geologically mining the past decades for those beautiful lost gems.

Davistime:

Pa gaden:

April Orchestra presente Michel Magne Vol. 21 (1977)

2012-01-17T16:32:00.014Z

I got this record in honour of all the wonderful library sites that share April Orchestra and all the other musicians and composers who made this particular genre. Michel Magne is well known in progressive circles of course as creator of albums La Terre and L'eau. I presume it's the same person as here. Mostly he was involved in film scores, I noticed he is credited with "Barbarella" which is one movie I think everyone should see as a taste of the craziness of sixties culture and film.

This record is mostly orchestral works that sound very much like soundtrack pieces. The first side is co-composed with Pierre Delanoe while the second side is only Magne. B is a little bit more adventurous and experimental with some highly enjoyable compositions, e.g. the toccata. On the fourth and fifth tracks some great choral singing is featured. The second last track, Butterflies of crystal moons in two parts is a particular standout with its Messiaen-like composition.

If this was shared before in some other blog I apologize, especially to myself since this makes purchasing the vinyl a waste of money for me.

In any case this rip goes out to the folks who found and shared so many incredible library records on their blogs. It never ceases to amaze me how these european composers spent so much time and effort writing music for these records destined to be shelved.

A1 Chanson Pour Pleurer A Deux 4:06
A2 Les Amoureux De Californie 4:37
A3 Le Village Englouti 3:53
A4 Le Pays De L'Amour 4:00
A5 La Lettre Et La Réponse 4:30
A6 Noël Sans Cheminée 2:56
B1 Galop En Fusion 1:17
B2 Cuivres En Chasse 1:08
B3 Toccata Délices Et Orgues 2:36
B4 Délivrance 2:06
B5 Coeur Fêlé 1:05
B6 Nocturne Des Profondeurs 2:06
B7 Magnamagma 0:45
B8 Papillons Des Lunes De Cristal Part 1 2:56
B9 Papillons Des Lunes De Cristal Part 2 1:20
B10 Papillons Des Matins Endormis

Toccata:

Papillons des lunes de cristal:

Coming soon: completions of some rare private pressings from Germania and another lost album from one of the great masters of progressive and jazz from that great and amazing musical country.

Yasuo Inada & Bemi Family "Kankaku Shikou"(Japan,prog,1974)

2012-01-11T16:23:00.005Z

Yasuo Inada & Bemi Family "Kankaku Shikou"(Japan,prog,1974)

About 1973,A.R.P(5 members) played in Tokyo,Japan.They played funk music at that time .
Yasuo Inada was a member of the band.
In 1974,the band disbanded and re-unioned.It was called "ARP",not "A.R.P".
The members were
稲田保雄　Yasuo Inada....Key
福田郁次郎　Ikujirou Fukuda....B
福田幾太郎　Ikutarou Fukuda....G
藤井章司　Shouji Fujii....Ds

The band released the only single "サンシャイン"(means ..Sunshine)
but surprisingly,the name of the band was changed into "Yasuo Inada & Bemi Family" on the cover of the single.So the three members except Inada got angry very much .The three members didn't know about the changing of the band's name.
After that ,the member was changed partly.

稲田保雄....Key
藤井章司....Ds
志村昭三 Shouzou Shimura....E.G

By these three members,"感覚思考" (kankaku shikou) was recorded in 1974.
After that,this band changed into "Bemi Family" but no studio recording at all ... one live track in a compilation album(in 1977) was left.It seems that it was a just pop rock .

side A
01 original No.1 (from Claude Debussy)....19:22
side B
02 original No.2 (from Beethoven).....10:33
03 original No.3 (from Beethoven).....6:07

We can enjoy this mp3 file thanks to my friend who shared this mega rare gem..

Enjoy !!!

More information

here thanks to Tom

track 1

Natdamperen 1975 (Denmark)

2012-01-10T15:31:00.006Z

Think Kebnekajse hybridized with Swedish Ibis or German From and you've got the idea here. Half the instrumental tracks are rocked scandinavian folk songs and half are drawn-out jazzy jams, mostly in the key of A. Unfortunately the crosspollination procedure is not quite seamless since the tracks simply alternate, with the folk songs being tracks 1, 3, 6, and 8, and the jams being 2, 4, 5, and 7. Not much info that I can find about this band, who went on to produce two more albums. Let's hope the next double-lp turns up soon ;-).

All songs are written by the sax player, Ole Kuhl.

The cover is a very odd black and white drawing, by one Mogeus Gissel, consisting of flying figures with wings and flying hearts drawn as if in the shape of crumpled pieces of paper. Also there are saxophones, waves, lightbulbs, airplanes, and oil derricks-- kinda odd, huh?

Track 1 Lille:

Track 5 Pa Gaden:

Orexis Communication 1980

2012-01-06T12:37:00.025Z

Happy New Year to everyone out there in the blogosphere, and I promise we will be exploring tons of interesting stuff in the next little while, unearthing lost audiological treasures from the 60s, 70s, and 80s, mining this thick vein of apparently inexhaustible ultra-precious musical metals... with no end in sight, it looks like there is still more to discover for sure.

Our last installment in the Orexis file before we move on to completion of other bands, this one doesn't disappoint. In fact this entry is one of the best, without a doubt. Here's a band / artist who maintained incredibly high musical and imaginative standards through 5 albums -- Orexis, Inspiration, Reflection, Communication, and Georg Lawall Live, without really letting up at all the progressive spirit (similar to Alcatraz). This last album takes us out to 1980, when the world had pretty much given up on progressive music, but here nestled in Deutschland we still see the eagerness to fuse together every strand of human audiological experimentation: folk, classical, jazz, and blazing-fast virtuoso playing. The one element missing is the electric guitar. I cannot believe how sustained the compositions are and how unfair it is that Georg Lawall's work is lost to posterity and I hope the artists see it the way I do -- to share this immense priceless treasure from the past with as many people as possible.

I was excited to see the remarkable Budi Siebert playing saxes and flutes on this record along with Georg Lawall and the rhythm section of Lauer and Koinzer. What an incredible, amazing musician Siebert was / is and you can hear it in every note he plays on this set. Everything he touched turned to gold in this period of time.

We start with a quick uptempo ethno-folk jazz number called "Six o'rock." Here, use of the whole tones throughout make for a very interesting dreamy sound despite the uptempo. Thereafter a very beautiful evocative flute song called "Septemberly" really showcases our man Budi. Despite the old school jazz title this is a very progressive composed piece with odd changes.

The last piece on side 1 is another beautiful acoustic composition with an odd title (as seems the case throughout this record); it weaves together all kinds of gorgeous strands before kind of drifting out into nothingness at the end. Note the use of bowed playing of the double bass for deep sustained bass notes, later moving on to a cello-like use of plaintive high string notes with the bow. As mentioned before, these sustained notes on cello or (as here) on double bass always evoke the feeling of plaintive lamentation.

Side 2 opens with the awkwardly named Thelonious Harmonious, dedicated to Hermann Hesse (because of Siddhartha?). Part 1 (Communique) includes the Herbert Klein Tenor and altussolo and the choir of the god-vibration-monks introducing us with a classical choir composition getting us into a nice funereal mood. It passes into a pretty standard acoustic guitar E minor pattern with Budi's soprano sax singing out the song into more progressive territory (Vita Posterior). Really awkward title considering this song seems to be about reincarnation and death and has nothing to do with Thelonious Monk, musically.

Again the bassist is highlighted with a song, called "Bassicly". I admit to being a bit disappointed by this one slight dip in the musical quality since for the most part we hear an extended bass solo. The next track is one of the those typical german ethno-folk languorous slow evocative sunrise tracks with sitar playing from Lawall, e.g. Agitation free, Embryo, Dauner's Et cetera, etc. At least it builds up a bit of interest with Budi bringing in some sax winds to blow away the torpitude. Unfortunately we then get treated again to the descending minor guitar pattern (Led Zep's Babe I'm gonna leave you). This is the track that is co-written by Siebert. Probably this means it was mostly improvised.

The final track is a humourous jazz guitar thing. We've seen this on Lawall's records before. It reminds me a lot of association pc's toto blanke, which was almost 10 years before this record, showing how early and advanced association pc was in the sphere of complex euro-jazz.

Credits:
All compositions are by Lawall, except 5 which is by Lauer and 6 which is by Siebert and Koinzer. Lauer plays a bow by Dorkler Bubenreuth. Album was recorded June 1980at Tonstudio Bauer by Carlos Albrecht.

Great cover photo again-- the band in a paper cutout stand up next to a turkish pipe and other odds and ends on a table.

Septemberly:

So Jetzt:

Ptolomy Psycon - "Loose Capacitor" {UK} [1971]

2011-12-28T02:35:00.000Z

"Ptolomy Psycon - Loose Capacitor (EP). 1971 private. (catalog number HAT 1306 A).
This one has been on my curiosity list for a very long time. At least since Amber Soundroom had announced their intention to reissue it on vinyl (guessing this was around 2003/2004?). Leave it to The Alaskan Connection to have it on hand. And this one lived up to its reputation.
Ptolomy Psycon practically defines the raw UK underground of the early 1970s. I suppose the 99 count Holyground albums, or the hyper rare Dark album* can give you an indication of the recording quality. But the music is definitely influenced by the upcoming progressive rock movement, especially Hawkwind, Steel Mill, Jethro Tull and King Crimson. The AC also offers "Ptolomy Psycon has lots of that UK psychy proto-prog flavor. This was released as a 10" EP, in an edition of only 50 copies with homemade covers. The band were from the Birmingham area, and were supposedly all students in the same school (around 16-17 years old, I think). In fact, all the "orchestral" stuff you'll hear on this was apparently done by their school band, who they hired to play on the recording!"
Hopefully they recorded more than the 22 minutes found here, as this is a really good example of the early 70s UK deep underground scene." by Tom

01 Azrael...
02 Shadow Bright...
03 No One To Blame...

Thanks to Fusionaut and Tom! :o)

Link in comments...

Tempo e Modo - "Um Mundo a Construir" {Portugal} [1980]

2011-12-24T06:04:00.000Z

Um dos discos mais raros do rock progressivo português, prensagem privada de 300 cópias.

Banda oriunda de Riachos (Concelho de Torres Novas, distrito de Santarém)
- Pedro Ferreira (bateria e coros)
- Pedro Clara (guitarra eléctrica, guitarra acústica de 12 cordas e voz)
- João Lopes (guitarra baixo)
- Júlio Silva (sintetizadores, piano eléctrico, piano acústico e strings)
Convidado:
- Pedro Rocha (piano acústico, strings e sintetizadores).

Gravado nos estúdios JORSOM - RCS, Lda - Lisboa - Portugal Produção: Tempo e Modo e D. C. Rios
Capa - "OMEGA" Óleo de Antero Guerra Inácio

A1 Um Mundo a Construir
A2 Águas Sem Margens
A3 Instrumental I
A4 À Procura
B1 Castelos no Ar
B2 Putos Vadios
B3 Voando no Tempo
B4 Imaginação (Instrumental II)

more info

A1 Um Mundo a Construir...
A3 Instrumental I...
B3 Voando no Tempo...
B4 Imaginação (Instrumental II)...

link in comments...

Birdland - History of Love and Belief 1980

2011-12-19T08:09:00.001Z

This album features Yugoslav musicians who created a band in Switzerland where they recorded three albums. Their first magnificent mahavishnu-hard rip-roaring fusion is an unforgettable supersonic smash through the ears, full of majestic and satanic guitar riffs and thundering basslines all momentumed to phenomenal crashlandings, not a single boring slow throwaway in sight. Their second from a year later which is featured here is not quite as good and energetic though it without doubt stands comparison, using the same high-energy and modal style chords (cf. McCoy Tyner in late sixties, with Miles Davis). Unfortunately both master Shige and myself obtained copies by an odd cosmic coincidence or alignment of the z-list stars and as a result we are spoiled here with two versions of rippery hereby enclosed beneath the fold, again I defer to master Shige for the musical quality of his equipment and care of his time.

Back of album includes credits as follows:
Borivoje Vukadinovic - bass
Predrag Bankovic - guitar (responsible for most of the composition, not surprisingly)
Peter Humi - drums
Boris Relja - piano (no slavic band complete without a boris)
Beat Rauch - percussion

Recorded live at sinus studio berne, Helvetia, Feb 28-29 1980...

First track, Birdland 1 starts off in either A minor or B minor (I can't tell) with a very chromatic and angular riff on guitar then abruptly descends to the minor second tone below, for some arpeggiated chords. Great modulation there. Unfortunately we are then 'treated' to about 8 minutes of virtuoso soloistic noodling.
Second Track, "Pureheart" is obviously keyboardist-written starting with an obbligato piano which passes into some really nice structured jazz sampling but after three minutes we can fast forward all the way through unless interest is to be left lost and bereft at the bottom of an oceanic ridge of meaningless notes.

Side 2 starts with Firebird (dedicated to Christy Doran, probably a pretty interesting lady by the sounds of it) some very McCoy-esque modalities intro into a high-nitro dzyan-like riff. It amazes me that 5 talented and super-fast musicians can create such orchestral music with just their instruments and psycho-energy alone in probably a few takes with no overdubs.
The continuation of Birdland ensues, at this point mentally following the relentless guitar becomes a bit wearying. The minor descending chord pattern is hard to enjoy when so overused in rock music (A minor - G - F - E as in Led Zep Babe I'm gonna leave you). In this case I think in B minor though I might be mistaken.
The last song again from pianist Relja starts with Kentonesque piano dissonances and moves into some acoustic guitar soloing... A little disappointing an ending, but there is another, a third album, which they did a year later (In a temple of silence).

Mention as usual must be made of the amazing cover photograph showing a picture of a white beach with a cliff or mountain almost evoking a post-nuclear holocaust scene, complementing well the title of 'history of love and belief' i.e., post-communist nothingness - ? evolutionary depredations of a windswept radioactive desert in five fusion riffs - ? I won't get into how soviet ecocide destroyed the Aral Sea, once the fourth largest lake in the world, by diverting all rivers for irrigation projects (mostly to make cheap cotton for domestic clothes) until today it is a tiny salt-swept cesspool of pesticide contaminations-- and sure you'll be grateful for that.

Birdland 1

Firebird

Paul Nash - A Jazz Composer's Ensemble 1979

2011-12-18T17:22:00.017Z

An absolutely brilliant long-lost classic private pressing from the US, composer Paul Nash's first record, and inevitably his best work. Mostly Mingus-style cool west-coast jazz with outstanding ensemble playing and serious classical overtones and harmonies. In a few self-written paragraphs on the back cover Paul Nash dedicates the album to Charlie Mingus himself (who sadly was to die a month later of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis). He mentions he usually begins his composition with solo guitar and singing, oddly enough.

Subtitle to the album "Featuring Mark Isham, with Eddie Marshall and Art Lande. "

A1 Marigail-Marigold 11:19
A2 Passing Glance 3:25
A3 Our Time Is Numbered 7:59
B1 Tamalpais Night 8:56
B2 The Joy 6:41
B3 Full Spiral 8:43

Many of the compositions were written by Paul in the early seventies, probably as compositional exercises. He is a graduate of Berklee College of Music in Boston although he wound up in San Fransisco after his education. Prior to starting his own band in 1977, he wrote music for these two formations: Jerry Granelli's septet, Canyon, and Noel Jewkes Jazz Octet, then called Jewkes and the Dr Legato Express. Perhaps in a later post these artists will show up-- certainly they sound well worth seeking out.

First track starts with what to me is a bit hackneyed chords of Dflat on top of C bass moving up a minor third. This progresses a bit but flounders in my opinion in incessant soloing for ten plus minutes.
Passing Glance features the inevitable rhumba-style beat we find on these old jazz records.
Our time is numbered finishes out side 1 with some wonderful almost big band ensemble playing, very majestically sublime, a nice carla bley-style descending melody evokes some kind of sunset feeling.

Side 2 opens with Paul's guitar intro into Tamalpais Night which jumps into chromatic and angular structures. Abruptly the song slows down to a crawl before hopping to the prokofieff sounds again.

Track "The Joy" is very much Mingus happy-bus style slinky riffs with a modulation every 2-3 chords winding its bubbly way downstream.

Highlight for me is the last track with its remarkably angular opening as if out of a movie soundtrack from film noir of the fifties. A gorgeous G minor melody then opens the zoo gates to the usual interminable soloing...

This is my christmas present for myself (owing to high cost), please enjoy in the so-called blogosphere.

Our Time is Numbered:

Full Spiral:

2011-12-15T21:15:00.001Z

hello Google+, hello Twitter!

Harry Sabar Friends "Lentera" (1979,Indonesian sympho )

2011-12-14T03:16:00.009Z

I believe "Lentera " is one of the best prog singers' albums that ever released all over the world.

Harry Sabar is a singer in Indonesia,and released three albums.I listened to all of them.As the result,his first album "Lentera " is the best of the three.
Most of the tracks are full of mellotron and fantasy,so many of the prog fans will surely be impressed with this album.

As you know ,once, most Indonesian people listened to music with the cassette,not the record.

Most artists released their albums as cassettes.

Of course,some records existed because only some sample record copies were made for the radio station in Indonesia.But usually there were no sleeve covers....

This rip was made from a cassette .(I also have DJ copy record,however,it doesn't include all of the tracks,so to speak,is a real "sample record" for DJs in radio stations.

(musicians)

Harry Sabar...vocals,roger drum,paiste,ziljan symbals,Ludwig snarr,tamborine

Marusya Nainggolan...fluegel piano,mellotron,harpsichord

Debby Nasution....mellotron,arp,bass synthe,harpsichord,hammond organ,solina string,bass guitar,acoustic piano,Roland SH 2000,

Keenan Nasution...rogers drum,paiste ziljan symbals,Ludwig drum,Fluegel piano,electric piano,mellotron,Roland SH 2000,
Adhie...Fluegel piano,mellotron,Roland SH 2000,Korg synthe bass,electric piano,solina string,vibraphone,
Odink Nasution...Gibson guitar,black box,Gibson ripper bass,
Gauri Nasution....Gibson guitar,black box
Jerry...ovation string
Eddy Danferry...drum
Usya....harpsichord
Jati...acoustic guitar
Chandra Darusman....fluegel piano,electric piano,solina string,clavinet,Roland SH 2000
Matise...Fender jazz bass,Gibson guitar
Nana Noor,Vanthy Noor,Rini Noor.....swara latar

Sisi A
1.Lentera (5:32) Harry Sabar
2.Kala Daun Berguguran (3:56) HS
3.Kitaran Warsa (4:48) HS
4.Lazuardy (6:10) HS
5.Kemarin Dan Hari Ini (6:26) HS

Sisi B
1.Terbenci Tapi... (6:55) HS
2.Khalwat Jiwa (4:02)Keenan Nasution,HS
3.Sekiranya'... (4:36) HS
4.Disejuk Malam (5:24) HS
5.Resah (4:36) HS,Adhie,Odink Nasution

A-5 Kemarin Dan Hari Ini (remastered version,extract)

ripped from the original cassette .

Equipments I used are....
cassette player.....Nakamichi DRAGON
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

BTW,
I have uploaded music with WAVE and mp3.
You can burn WAVE file to CD-R (for data CD-R,not music CD-R) using pc software "JetAudio"(free software) easily.
First ,install JetAudio,and try to make WAVE CD-R.
It is really easy for you to use JetAudio to burn WAVE into CD-R.

Ronaldo Garcia - "Pra um Moleque" {Brasil} [1982]

2011-12-11T18:50:00.001Z

very nice and obscure psychedelic folk record featuring Ronaldo Garcia issued on a private label at 1982. Musically similar to the early works of artists like Lula Cortes, Ze Ramalho, Alceu Valenca.. while most of the songs on the album stands for its good portuguesse sung lyrics, there are some musically rich ones as Janaína, Pra um Moleque.. as far as we know Ronaldo is preparing a new album years after

some more info can be found here
"um belo trabalho de Ronaldo Garcia
O cantor, compositor e violonista Ronaldo Garcia lançou, em 82, Pra um moleque, álbum que traz canções suas, como Pra um moleque, Moinho, Na trilha do som, Menina de Minas, Janaína, Salve os quarenta, O lado bom e Largo ao sol. Há também as parcerias com Fabio Pentagna (Morte e tempo) e Juca Filho (Barranco).
Esse trabalho conta com as presenças do grupo Viva voz (coro em várias canções), de Zé Renato e Claudio Nucci (vocais em Morte e tempo) e Belinha Santiago (Largo ao sol, com vocais de Cláudio Nucci).
Os arranjos do álbum foram feitos pelo maestro Roberto Gnattali, que com Ronaldo Garcia fez todos os arranjos de base, com exceção da faixa Salve os quarenta, que contou também com a participação de Paulo Gomes e Osvaldo Garcia.
Ricardo Silveira, Jaques Morelembaum, Lúcia Morelembaum, Ricardo Medeiros, Luiz Otávio, Marcelo Salazar e Roberto Gnattali são alguns dos músicos que participaram desse disco".

a1. Pra um moleque (Ronaldo Garcia)
a2. Moinho (Ronaldo Garcia)
a3. Na trilha do som (Ronaldo Garcia)
a4. Morte e tempo (Ronaldo Garcia e Fabio Pentagna)
a5. Menina de Minas (Ronaldo Garcia)
b1. Janaína (Ronaldo Garcia)
b2. Salve os 40 (Ronaldo Garcia)
b3. Barranco (Ronaldo Garcia e Juca Filho)
b4. Lado bom (Ronaldo Garcia)
b5. Largo ao Sol (Ronaldo Garcia)

a1. Pra um moleque...
b1. Janaína...
b4. Lado bom...
b5. Largo ao Sol...

link in comments...

Orexis (Germany, 1977)

2011-11-30T17:52:00.016Z

Continuing on with the Orexis completion, we have their first album from 1977, entirely composed by the amazing Georg Lawall, who plays not just guitars but percussion and sitar. Back of the vinyl describes his musical formation, he was in Total Music Association (free jazz I believe) which produced the LP Walpurgisnacht, then formed the Georg Lawall Trio before Orexis. He was educated in the Munich conservatory and played concert guitar as soloist (not surprisingly given his virtuosity). The other members are Erik Erker, bass, and Gert Kilian on percussions. Erik plays I think cello with a bow in the track 'Tombstone' -- as usual giving it a plaintive funereal sound especially when playing in a very light way on the highest notes. Erik played music by Bartok, Webern and Stravinsky, as well as with Albert Mangelsdorff the great german jazz musician, and other jazz combos in Frankfurt. The percussionist played with the "Ensemble for new music" in Stuttgart as well as multiple jazz groups.

In general this is acoustic music with a great many jazz and classical elements in the composition. Similar to Contact Trio, for those familiar. In my opinion Lawall's writing is not quite as proficient as the two later albums, Inspiration and Reflection. Several songs meander with the acoustic guitar soloing with no real direction. A couple of tracks are marred by monotonous sitar.

Finally, I include in the comments a new good quality rip of Reflection (1979), which to me is the big masterpiece of Georg Lawall. I can't help but mention the incredible photo cover, in which the mirror shows a lovely blonde topless german girl (Lawall is holding a small mirror inside the wall-mounted mirror). Again Lawall is responsible for all compositions except Bassart, by Wolfgang Lauer the bassist on this record. Trilok Gurtu plays tablas and percussions, along with Gert Kilian. Dieter Bihlmeier plays flutes and Bruckdorfer oboe on the second side, called the Catalan Suite. Side one is the Reflection Suite.

Track 1 Unter-rock

Track 4 Tombstone

Gideon "eight reasons why" (1981,Canada,progressive hard rock)

2011-11-30T07:03:00.005Z

Gideon is an obscure Canadian progressive hard rock duo.
As you know,Gideon is introduced here.

I was interested in this album,and the blogger sent me the mp3 file,and much pleased with the music.

Then,I found the album in the used record shop by chance and bought it.
It took much long time to make remixed version.Spread sound space,Volume control was done little by little at each part of each track.Again and again,finished files were thrown away to the dust box because I didn't like it totally. So the remixed version is better than the original version for just this once .

(members)
David Smalczewski.......Electric and acoustic guitars,Bass guitars,Bass pedals

Mark Smalczewski........Keyboards,Vocals,Bass pedals

(guest player)
Terry Hicks......drums

(tracks)

Side A

1.The Mechanic (6:52) Lyrics...Mark/ Music....Dave and Mark

2.Winners and Sinners (3:02) lyrics and Music....Mark

3.Auf Weidersehn (3:55) Lyrics and Music....Mark

4.A Preaching (4:51) Lyrics...Mark Music....Mark and David

SideB

1.Spend Some Time (3:50) lyrics and Music... David

2.I Will Never Forget You (5:33) lyrics and Music....Mark

3.Payoff (4:23) Lyrics...Mark Music....Dave and Mark

4.Awaken To You (5:49) Lyric...Dave ,Music.....Dave and Mark

trackA4 ..A Pleaching (remixed version)

ripped from original LP.

HAZARD - Le Chemin de L'oubli (7 inch)

2011-11-28T14:16:00.004Z

From the LA DISCOGRAPHIE DU ROCK FRANÇAIS book :

''One of the mythical groups from the early '70's. Throughout their career they played numerous concerts and festivals throughout France including one festival which featured the whole ARCANE label (headed by ANGE). Greatly influenced by ANGE they left a legacy of one single before disappearing in 1978 as a result of the media's incomprehension.''

This is a gorgeous cover as well, very typically french from theseventies, the compositions are remarkably crafty and energetic, sound could be better. A dreamy and at times harsh atmosphere pervades. The title means the road of forgetfulness.

All thanks to the incredible apps for this amazing upload, best wishes to him for the perma-crisis in his home country of Greece...

村岡実　『恐山』　Minoru Muraoka "Osorezan"(1970,Japanese jazz rock)

2011-11-24T12:07:00.004Z

original edition

Minoru Muraoka was born in 1923,and began to studying shakuhachi (=Japanese bammboo flute) officially in 1939.Later in 1959,he started to mix shakuhachi music with popular music.By playing with Herbie Mann,a famous jazz flute plaer,in 1967,Minoru playing shakuhachi was known to a lot of jazz fans.

This album "Osorezan" is a live recording.

The concert was held on April 7th ,1970 .
It had two parts.
First part was named "Soul shakuhachi" and tracks they played were American blues songs, Bossa Nova,Japanese traditional songs ,rock music....and so on.

Second part was named "New Dimension " and the tracks they played were "Take Five""Come Together""Oiwake""Kawanakajima""Ma""Kobushi" and so on.

And the last track they played was an epic "Osorezan".

In this album,"Osorezan"was the first track,but actually,was the last track at the concert.

second edition

In mid 70s,this album was released as the second edition with the different cover .but one track called "Take Five"was deleted from the album.I don't know the reason.

For more information ,there are scans in the file.

I hope it will be released as the perfect live CD some day.

Some of Minoru Muraoka's albums are very interesting to prog fans ,however , most of them are too difficult to get for us......

You know them at these sites.
http://hccweb6.bai.ne.jp/~hfc81001/html/muraoka/muraoka.html
http://blog.livedoor.jp/imq/tag/Shakuhachi

Side A
1.恐山　Osorezan (15:58)....Takashi Ikeda
2.Take Five (5:50).... The Dave Brubeck Quartet
3.追分 Oiwake (6:54)....Japanese trad.

Side B
1.褐色のブルース　Blues de Memphis (7:00).....theme music from the French cinema
2.Bamboo Rock (10:05)...Japanese trad
3.間　Ma (6:47)...Japanese trad

Osorezan (Tr-1)

ripped from original LP (usung both 1st edition and 2nd edition).

Francois Wertheimer

2011-11-12T23:56:00.022Z

With Jean-Michel Jarre , comrade of the Lycée Michelet in Vanves , Francois Wertheimer begins music professionally. At the age of 19, he wrote and staged the musical . He released his first album in 1970 before going on tour opening for Johnny Hallyday . Alongside his music career (two more albums followed, the 45 towers, and numerous musical performances: Troupe John Lackland , Popéracosmic (1967) , Gomina , Magic Story , "The Flying Opera "...), he multiplies activities: mime , comedy , circus , music for ballet , directed short films for the ORTF , the development of numbers magic with Dominique Webb , creating a line of ready-to-wear , towards a recording studio , record production, or writing a novel , or City Barjo * Chronicles of a new barbarism . In 1973 , he wrote also to Barbara , where he was the lover, all the texts of his album The Wolf , whose song Marienbad .

In 1982 , he created with his partner, a production company and event-driven , Zygote , for which he blends his many talents. Therefore, it leaves its dormant career singer to concentrate on his business , now specializing in the production of stereoscopic films . In addition to the development of a new technique of virtual reality, the "Ectoplasmovision," he continues his production work, writing, composition , and of arrangements of music, including the films of Agnes Varda . For the record, François Wertheimer also holds roles in two films of the latter: One sings, the other not , and The Gleaners and Glaneuse (films which he also participated in the music ). He is currently working on a new form of entertainment all virtual. His long experience relief images make it one of the most popular stereographers the moment.

Well I gotta say, with the google translator, this guy sounds even more groovy than in the original bio. I love the html on the word "music" I think all social scientists and neurologists are completely flummoxed by the purpose of music in the human brain and in evolutionary theory -- is it just me or is that translation service absolutely the most fun you can have on the internet these days?

I've included two albums, the self-titled one with the really wacky lsd-inspired cover with 3 eiffel towers which makes it a masterpiece, and 'fermez les yeux' more composed in the chansonier style, actually in my opinion a little more subdued and bland

Si un jour

chanson des...

Beausoleil Broussard - Mutinerie 1977

2011-11-12T21:21:00.009Z

I won't talk more about the band or style but refer you to the real highlight on this album, 'L'annee noire' (the black year). This song is quite beautifully written (lyrics by Jacques Savoie with music from the singer, Isabelle Roy) and stands with the best songs from Connivence and french-speaking Canadian folk-rock.

"I read in an old book
the name of a child born much too young.
It happened in 1794...
She was born in the black winter
that was so hard,
no one thought they would survive...

She never knew that life
could have some good times,
The best that she ever knew...
was to go to sleep one time for good
to a lullaby that her mother
still had the heart to sing to her."

Wow, what fabulous lyrics, and I said earlier, completely lacking in irony as typical of this era. Note the beautiful sustained violin background notes adding that note of pathos to the piano. On these vinyl rips the sound of the grand piano is so full, warm and gorgeous, I defy anyone to bring me a CD that sounds the same.

I should also point out the first track of side 2, Mutinerie (referring again to the annoying story behind namesake Beausoleil Broussard) which is a three-part suite, starting with another beautiful lullaby-like piece by Isabelle Roy, moving into folk jig territory, before evoking the wave-like feeling of 3/4 on piano arpeggios in the end and some gorgeous three-part harmony vocals on Isabelle's part. The little instrumental song "Pif et caribou" again is highly reminiscent of Connivence or L'engoulevent, wordless singing on some very nice minor chord changes, musique by Claude Fournier.

Mention must be made unfortunately of the cover wherein we can again laugh at the hairstyles of the seventies-- sadly, the haircut beautiful Isabelle Roy got was all too fashionable at the time.

L'annee noire

mutinerie

沖浩一（Koichi Oki) 『四季』"Shiki"(1974,Japan, prog jazz rock)

2011-11-11T22:04:00.007Z

original edition (1974)

沖浩一　（Koichi Oki) 『四季』"Shiki"(1974,Japan, prog jazz rock)

second edition (release year ?)

沖浩一(Koichi Oki) is a very famous electone player in Japan since 1970s.And he also was an electone proffesor in a musical college during recent years .
He released various type of records and CDs ever.
One of the albums that prog fans are interested in is this album "四季"(Shiki=the four seasons,1974).
As you know ,Le quattro stagioni(1725)（The Four Seasons)is a very famous classical music by Antonio Lucio Vivaldi.
Oki arranged it and played as trio style(with giutar and drums).
As the result,it became a very thrilling ,exciting prog jazz rock.
Especially,if you are the fan of Keith Emerson, you will surely like this album. Enjoy !!!

(players)

沖　浩一　Koichi Oki ....Electone,Arp synthesizer
石川　晶　Akira Ishikawa.....Drums
矢島　賢　Ken Yajima.....Guitar

(Tracks)

SideA

1.Spring pt1,pt2,pt3
2.Summer pt1,pt2,pt3

SideB
1.Autumn pt1,pt2,pt3
2.Winter pt1,pt2,pt3

ripped from original LP.

Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

You can see his discography on this site.
Many of his albums might be moody instrumental electone music,....not prog.
http://electonemaniax.web.fc2.com/contents/catalog/130/list.html

Summer pt1 (remixed version)

Toru Hatano "Yoko" (1977,Japan,prog,electronics,psych)

2011-11-09T05:11:00.003Z

"Yoko"（杳子）is a name of the Japanese cinema in 1977.(I have never watched it.)It was made by young stuff and private production.It seems an experimental cinema when I read the plot.They decided to use synthesizer music in the cinema from the start ,just like "MORE"(Pink Floyd) and German electronics..

Then Toru Hatano (畑野亨）was asked to make the music.At that time ,he was 23 years old ,and he made the OST without watching the cinema for one year (from 1976 to 1977).

Hatano was a drummer of legendary group ESCAPE (Masayoshi Takanaka went to FLIED EGG), the ESCAPE appears on the album titled "BRUSH!?"(1971) .

http://www.vasiliska.com/music/rock_m/35012-brush-brush-1971.html

Toru Hatano

Brush:
Toru Hatano (vocals, guitar, keyboards, drum)
Masayoshi Takanaka (spoken vocals)
Hitoki Goto (guitar, piano, bass guitar)
Takefumi Yoshida (sitar)
Michio Ara, Tushio Tsukagishi.

After the release of several albums and singles,he stopped using the name of Toru Hatano in 1983 and changed his name into Toya Hatano .
And he has been the boss of a sound equipment company now.

He played all of the instruments and vocals in this album.It contains brilliant tracks all over the album.

To the fans of Mike Oldfield,German electronics,Pink Floyd.

Thanks to Kohsaku for the information about Brush.

Side 1.
1.LOVE FOR YOU(6:42)
2.歓喜　Kanki (5:19) ....means rejoice
3.紫雲　Shiun (1:50) .....means purple clouds
4.水晶　Suisho (13:33)....means crystal

Side 2.
1.回想　Kaiso (5:22)......means recollection

2.サムサーラ　Sumsara (6:48)
3.ただ青空になりたい Tada aozorani naritai (15:39)......means I just wanna be a blue sky

ripped from original LP.

Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

Sumsara

Beausoleil Broussard ST (1976)

2011-11-08T17:25:00.004Z

As promised here is the first Beausoleil Broussard album from Nova Scotia 1976. This album is more folkloric and simple, almost the whole of side 1 to me is fast-forward material, pockmarked by a load of choreiform folk jigs and assorted folks songs which some might appreciate but I am not too partial to (apologies to those who differ). At the end of the side however a nice folk-rock track called "Restons la terre est belle" (Let's stay the earth is beautiful) sung by the wonderful Isabelle Roy talks about the history of the namesake. In fact inside the gatefold a little blurb elucidates the meaning of the title: "Joseph Broussard, named Beausoleil, was one of the chiefs of a movement that conducted by sea first through the Antilles, then from there to the country of the Bayous, hundreds of prisoners either from the ancient fort of Beausejour or from the camps of Halifax. The boat that served for these adventures was torn from the hands of the English during a mutiny organised by him, at the moment of the deportation."
Right, and I think that clears it all up.
At any rate, it seems from the lyrics the album is a kind of document song cycle about the adventures of Beausoleil.

The second side is more varied and interesting. Track 2 starts promisingly with a gorgeous 1700 minuet on harpsichord and flute, unfortunately it segues into the shrieky babbling fiddle music again. The next song "La femme de l'ivrogne" (The wife of the drunk) is a conversation song between these two typecast protagonists, and in my opinion well worth listening to, beginning to end. There is nothing unconventional about the lyrics, with the usual platitudes about the wife's role and the man's role presumably from the point of view of the 18th century. A complete lack of irony makes this very typical of 70s music. Ignore the lyrics though, the melody and acoustic guitars are sublime. Here the balance between traditional song and pop is absolutely spot-on perfect.
Next track starts with organ (the acoustic or church kind) "Les vepres et le reel..." before tragically moving into the fiddles again. This album as well closes out with two amazing compositions, Mouvange, an instrumental with wordless singing, and La revanche des berceaux (Revenge of the cribs -- great title).

Again the masterpiece sits at the very end of the album, with some ingenious chord changes and such intense emotional singing on the part of Isabelle as to give me chills up my spine. As well note how artistically the two acoustic guitars play off each other, strumming different arpeggios and melodies behind her voice with the occasional cymbal crash providing really intense drama.

The wife of the drunk--

Revenge of the cribs--

Peter Schickele and Joan Baez - Silent Running OST 1971

2011-11-08T17:22:00.004Z

I wanted to share this record because the movie is one of my favourites from the seventies with its completely implausible attempt by caretaker Bruce Dern to save earth's biosphere on a large spaceship heading out to nowhere... the combination of beautiful 2001-like special effects and achingly idealistic earth-day ecology is unmistakably seventies. Two really remarkable songs were included in this soundtrack, which was composed by Peter Schickele, sung by Joan Baez, "Rejoice in the Sun" and the title track, "Silent Running" -- the latter in particular really deserves to be played on satellite radio, it's a lost masterpiece without doubt. It features a really odd chord progression (F - A minor - E min - G - C - B min - D - F sharp min - A7 - D) and a very melancholy A minor slow refrain about weeping over the death of the earth.
"Earth between my toes, and a flower in my hair,
that's what I was wearing when we lay
among the ferns...
Earth between my toes, and a flower I will wear
when he returns..."

Ouch! those painfully innocent 70s!!!
(Btw when is the last time you saw ferns except in a botanical garden? And yet I recall my mom picking fiddleheads in our childhood backyard when we were very small, for us to eat.)

Most of the remainder of the album is typical orchestral soundtrack music, quite well composed... what a shame he spent so much time on a score that is completely lost to all human CN-VIII auditory nerves, with a couple of noticeable tracks: "Drifting" with its few progressive rock moves.

Let's not even consider the probability that a large spaceship could transport an intact biosphere (remember the biosphere 2 experiment?) through outer space with its deadly cosmic rays and the anachronistic consequent naivete in exploring the topic, and just enjoy the beauty of these compositions...

Rejoice in the sun

Silent Running

Trance●Form "Stranger In The Same Land" (USA,1982,Symphonic prog)

2011-11-08T15:48:00.005Z

Trance●Form "Stranger In The Same Land" (USA,1982,Symphonic prog)

This is an obscure USA sympho prog gem.
To the lovers of YES,GENESIS,GG,Hackett,Camel.

SideA
1.Wonderous Woman(3:38)
2.Within You(4:52)
3.Please Wave To Me(7:13)
4.Disconnected(5:12)

SideB
1.Shining On(3:26)
2.The Way She Dances(3:58)
3.Petrushka(3:22)
4.Stranger In The Same Land(10:34)

(members)
Bob McPeek.....Acoustic Guitars, 12-string Guitars, Electric Guitars, Bass, Synthesizers, Vocals, Miscellaneous Noises ,Concoctions

George Tortorelli......Bass, Vocals, Recorders, Bamboo Flutes, Shruti Box,Tablas, Drone Awareness,Guitars, Mandolin,

Ralph Gray.....Drums, Percussion, Tablas,Patience

Ric Kaestner........Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitars, Bowed Psaltry,More Vocals,Tape Effects,Autoharp, Synthesizers,Giggles

Dave Smadbeck......Piano, Synthesizers,Sparks

Paul Pavelka.....Chief Engineer,Production Guidance,Erased Mouth Harp

Recorded at: Mirror Image Recording, Gainesville, Fla.
Mastered at: Criteria Studios,Miami

ripped from original LP.

Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

Within You

OLIVE (1976.heavy sympho prog,Japan)

2011-11-08T05:17:00.004Z

OLIVE (1976.heavy sympho prog,Japan)

About one month ago,my dear friend ,Isabel uploaded legendary Japanese prog "OLIVE".

After that,I borrowed the original LP from my friend.

The most surprising fact is tracks' name and order of the album is partly different from Isabel's file.

Maybe ,Isabel got it from someone,so she didn't notice that it is the wrong order.

I ripped from the original LP ,so enjoy it again ,prog friends all over the world !!!!!!
Without Isabel's devotion to prog and effort,I couldn't reach here.Thanks a million....(^^

(members)
大塚敬子　vo
中野渡正光　read guitar & vo

(guest players)
石嶋利和　g & vo
川村一森　ds
萩野溙　b
宮沢謙　key

Side one
1.ピエロ (5:29)　lyric・大塚敬子　music・中野渡正光
2.伝説 (7:55)　lyric・石嶋利和　music・中野渡＆石嶋
3.黒の魅惑 (4:11)　lyric・渡辺哲夫　music・石嶋
4.時は風のように (7:30)　lyric・大塚　music・石嶋＆大塚

Side two
1.魔奏曲 (10:00)　lyric・大塚　music・中野渡
2.オリーブ (4:55)　lyric・olive
3.遺書 (8:53)　lyric・石嶋＆大塚　music・中野渡
4.蜃気楼 (7:13)　music・中野渡

ripped from original LP.

Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

Elastic Rock Band - Faruk's Traum 1980 (Germany)

2011-11-06T15:11:00.018Z

Here is another long-lost jazz-rock from Germany; despite the band name, this is definitely typical 70s fusion jazz-rock. First check out the outrageously humorous cover art of a dog wearing snoopy-style aviator sunglasses, as if he was undergoing a bizarre misfit experiment in abnormal animal psychology involving elucidating the dreams of canines under the influence of-- progressive jazz?
I don't understand why this style is so reviled today and so utterly abandoned, those of us who love music will understand how our art is like plato's world of ideals offering a release from the incessant wheel of suffering into a universe of perfection that is attainable and usual with the help of headphones and a record such as this.

Though it's described as average by many in the community even an average from this period is pretty good music. And this is almost to the level of the incomparable Missus Beastly (in my opinion!). To me standouts are Glolock's Dance with its definite National Health chord changes and Hopperesque bass soloing, the ensuing title track with its very Chick Corea keyboard patterns moving to acoustic piano then again electrified, and the first 2 tracks on the second side. Notice in particular how well composed these progressions and patterns are as compared to the average fusion record.

On "Point of View" we have that heavenly breeze of space-synth sound performing arabesques above a guitar melody. Suddenly a minor chord appears, out of the blue as if a shadow. "Fur Carlos" uses the same keyboard as Carol Ann from Soft machine 7 (or is it 6), the almost pure tonal bliss of outgoing spacecrafts to Plato's world of perfection and ideal forms, for me. An interesting part of this track is the riveting chords being rapidly and gently strummed on electric guitar behind the melody. (That fast beat under slow melody combo has been overused to death in tv soundtracks to convey an aura of mysterious suspense.) Later the track moves into traditional and overdone jazz rock territory. At least the first minute of this one is worth listening to!

Hope you can enjoy this lost lost classic of the genre. Credit for this particular rip to master Shige.

TRACKS:
1 Sommertag
2 Für J.H.
3 Gloloks Dance
4 Faruks Traum
5 Point of View
6 Für Carlos
7 Unsere Altbauwohnung

MUSICIANS:
Fahr, Wolfgang (1) (electric guitar, ovation guitar)
Grünwald, Alex (2) (keyboards) Munju
Krüger, Mathias (2) (electric bass, percussion) Schittenhelm, Julius
Zelinka, Jan (3) (drums, gong, timbales) Missus Beastly; Schittenhelm, Julius

Guests:
Zadlo, Leczek (4) (soprano & tenor saxophone (1, 6, 7)) Anima; Music Community; Sunbirds

Gloclock's Dance:

Point of View:

Freeport - Alternating Current and Duanelessness (Germany)

2011-11-06T14:52:00.005Z

An absolutely stunning discovery by the mighty and incomparable osurec, apologies for the side-long rip (perhaps we can ask our master shige to divide and conquer this one except I hesitate knowing he is overloaded with his work).

Barebones description on rateyourmusic:
Formed 1977, Germany Members Michael Berger (keyboards), Michael Sievert (tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone), Manni Naumann (drums), Jens Ahlers (drums)

I find the first album, with the odd title of Duanelessness (1980), to be superior in composition, and more accessible. The pianist reminds a lot of the incomparable W. Dauner (he is comparable this one time). The second album, AC (1983), is more free, more improvised, and more atonal in melody, similar to the inconstant sol albums for those who are familiar with the blog. We are in the tradition of European acoustic jazz with a high energy dynamic almost to the point of fusion.

Beausoleil Broussard - Le mitan du siecle qui s'en vient... 1979

2011-11-02T17:35:00.009Z

Long long ago this very website introduced us to a remarkably unknown french-canadian folk band called Beausoleil Broussard, hailing from the east coast of Canada in the form of a compilation album. Now we are going to cover the original discography of this long-lost band, that stands comparison favourably to quebecois artists Connivence, L'engoulevent, or ontarians CANO. I'm sure I'm not the only one who prefers the warm full and harmonious sound of vinyl records over the remastered cd, especially in a case like this where some lost tracks, often very well composed, inevitably were left off the compilation. The band's name can be discovered from wikipedia.

"Joseph Gaurhept Broussard (1702–1765), also known as Beausoleil, was a leader of the Acadian people in Acadia; later Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Broussard organized a resistance movement against the forced Expulsion of the Acadians. In 1765, After the loss of Acadia to the British, he eventually led the first group of Acadians to southern Louisiana in present-day United States."

Of course this tells us this foursome hails from Acadia. The title of the disc means (in slang) "the middle of the century that's coming". I return to the same themes in each post, this music does not deserve to be forgotten, it could be played on 70s rock stations with the best of them, and always make sure to check out the album covers, in this case a gorgeous photograph of a girl looking through binoculars to the side, with a beach in the background. This is their last album and probably the most successfully and professionally composed. The first two will be coming shortly. Note the back of the album with its hilarious facial hair, and the female singer (Isabelle Roy, who has an amazing sparklingly clear and vibrato-strong voice) with the pippy longstocking hair. I can't help but laugh when I look at these old portraits.

Like the 2 aforementioned (Connivence and L'engoulevent) and Les Seguins, this album mixes jigs and trad. folk music with a lot of more progressive, sometimes classical elements, the last track in particular features a symphony orchestra backing. A very characteristic mix for the seventies as we all know.

A stand-out track on the first side is "Squall" (as in wind) which discusses loneliness in relationships.
"One is never as alone as when one is sleeping with one's lover.
One is never so vague as in the middle of the night."
The soprano sax at the intro and throughout clearly states its melancholy case with its swooping figures moving through E minor. The last track on side A, title track, is a masterpiece of progressive folk, an equal to the L'engoulevent album without a doubt with its chamber elements, its chanted folk refrain. I am not sure what the song is about, it discusses traveling to the ocean, to the rivers, nostalgia or foreboding, it's not clear.
Ignore the bizarre annoying dialectical (materialist?) talk on the fourth track's first minute to note the instrumental gigue which follows : it passes bizarrely from G major to B flat minor then E flat, an astonishing modulation for a folk record!

On side two we have three standout compositions, "Enfantaisie" which is a very gentle instrumental acoustic guitar lullaby-like piece again with some very interesting chord progressions, and the last two tracks. "La fuite en avant", meaning, fleeing towards, is a basically an evocative poem, mysteriously suggestive, sounds to me again like a relationship gone bad song.
"On the third day of the full moon
The night on purpose went full straight
Woke up late, woke up in remorse,
Stayed close to the walls to not be seen..."
How nice to see bona-fide poetry behind this music!
It's astonishing how singer Isabelle Roy hits those high E notes with a superlative vibrato, almost operatically pure and powerful.

The last track is the composed orchestral piece, "Tourterelles tristes" (sad turtledoves). Highly reminiscent of the instrumental Connivence pieces from their magnificent three albums, this song suggests again what potential the combination of classical music, rock, and folk can achieve in a synthesis that takes music farther than it ever went before or since, a perfect synergy where the whole is so much more than the parts. Sadly this track was left off the compilation cds.

Anyone with much info on the band will be welcome to add something in the comments, it's difficult to find online due to the (relative) commonness of the band's namesake. And stay tuned for more from the same act.

8. Enfantaisie...
9. La fuite en avant...

Georg Lawall Orexis Live 1981

2011-11-01T21:22:00.008Z

Long time ago this very website introduced me to the incredible Orexis via the albums Inspiration and Reflection. To me here is a genre that is truly lost: progressive ethnic folk, not just simply composed, but filled with the complex european synthesis of classical composition on a background of folk instruments. This group is the brainchild of german guitarist George Lawall, who is responsible for most of the composition and (obviously) plays all guitars, as well as the sitar on some tracks. He is accompanied by flautist Knut Rossler and 2 percussionists. Amazingly Orexis produced something like 6 albums, including the self-titled debut, Inspiration and reflection, a spanish suite, communication, and this live album which has an absolutely fantastic sound quality for a live. As far as I know all these albums are lost to history except for a few vinyls here and there and the resurrection via internet and mp3 of the recordings we have tried to preserve on this website.

Please check out the other 2 posted albums if you don't know them already.

From discographies:
Profile: German world music crossover band, founded in 1975 by Georg Lawall and Gert Kilian, joined by various musicians for 8 albums until 1986. They received the German 'Artist of the Year' award for their first album in 1978 in the category 'newcomer band'.
Members (at different times): Büdi Siebert, Erik Erker, Georg Lawall, Gert Kilian, Joe Koinzer, Knut Rössler, Trilok Gurtu, Willi Kappich, Wolfgang Lauer

Link for wav and mp3 up later tonite

Credits:
Artwork By [Cover] – Georg Lawall
Artwork By [Layout] – Jeanette Fink
Engineer – Alex Mitchell (3)
Engineer [Assistant] – Achim Bosch
Flute, Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone – Knut Rössler
Photography – Roland Michalsky
Producer – Günter Marek
Producer, Composed By, Guitar, Sitar, Idiophone [Balafon], Percussion, Voice – Georg Lawall
Tabla, Bongos, Gong, Percussion, Flute – Dieter "Dizzy" Pandtle*
Xylophone, Idiophone [Balafon], Percussion, Voice – Gert "Medronho" Kilian*

Roses for Moses...
Fingerstyle...

Tales of the Electric Pong Orchestra 1977

2011-10-18T17:06:00.003Z

A very interesting description, full of info, was found on amazon.com of all places. I've included it below. This album is from the incomparable and unforgettable osurec via master shige. I pray like the cargo cults of new guinea we will see osurec's return. For those who don't know, the cargo cults occurred when hunter-gatherers on first contact with europeans flying in on airplanes to remote jungle regions brought with them such sensational technology as rifles, radios, telephones, etc. The stone age people thought these were literally sons of gods who flew with wings and worshipped them, even turning the landing strips of their planes into temple and holy areas. Every day they prayed the white gods would return with their magical 'cargo'....

This album I personally found quite interesting due to its compositional quality. The first side is the standout, opening with the ten-minute tales of the electric pong. It starts with typical 70s funky fusion stuff but a well-composed trumpet passage then brings in a fugue-like passage, before the energy heats up again, for a third part that reminds of soft machine's rubber riff period. The last part is an almost atonal schoenberg or stravinsky composition similar to the most adventurous egg compositions with clarinet, english horn, flute. On second listen, I find the second side definitely somewhat dull in its average funk-jazz level. Here is the review:

By Scott Blackerby (Reston, Virginia) (REAL NAME)
Pelican Records was an offshoot of the California-based Baby Grand label. Apparently one of those mid-1970s tax scam enterprises, the Baby Grand/Pelican catalog's quite large, though there are big gaps in the documented catalog.

Written and produced by Dennis Dreith (Ronald Fair serving as executive producer), this is nothing but speculation on my part, but my guess is that 1977's "Tales of the Electric Pong" reflected material Dreith had previously written and recorded for various television and movie projects. Pelican somehow got access to the results, repackaging it as a quickie tax dodge release. Given Dreith's musical background, that might not be a major stretch. He started his professional musical career in the mid-1960s working as an arranger and ghost writer for Hanna Barbera cartoons. That led to composing and orchestrating scores for television films and motion pictures such as Howard the Duck, The Shadow, Purple People Eater, The Punisher, etc. Whatever the story, musically the album featured a collection of throwaway atmospheric instrumentals - I've heard stuff like this referred to as incidental music, that bounced all over the genre map including experimental, funk. jazz-rock fusion, and easy listening moves. Nothing here was going to change you world, but then that was the intent.

- Most of the first side was taken up by the instrumental 'Tales of the Electric Pong'. A three part instrumental suite, 'Tales', 'Interlude' and 'Three' sounded like a cross between Booker T. & the MGs and something that might have been penned for the soundtrack for a cheapy television detective series. Course that only made sense given Dreith's extensive background in television and films. Needless to say, the Booker T. segments sounded a lot better than the television soundtrack segments. rating: ** stars
- Well, say what you will about this album, but the instrumental 'Trio for Alto Flute, English Horn, & Bass Clarinet' was an apt description of the tune ... Very experimental and somewhat atonal, it's almost guaranteed to send rock fans running for the door in a hurry. rating: * star
- Giving credit where due, side two's 'Karuna' exhibited a nice jazz-rock guitar solo and a touch of funk in the mix, but still retained that distinctive television soundtrack feel - easy to imagine the main character detective strolling along a beach thinking about his case ... rating: *** stars
- Another truth-in-advertising cut kicked along by a slinky melody and some of the cheesiest synthesizers you'll ever hear 'Southern Slink' was probably the standout performance. rating: *** stars
- Another synthesizer-propelled number, 'Nrujo' was the kind of jazz-rock fusion background piece you would have heard in a happening 1970s restaurant. rating: ** stars

"Tales of the Electric Pong" track listing:
(side 1)
1.) Tales of the Electric Pong (instrumental) (Dennis Dreith)
i.) Tales (instrumental) - 6:04
ii.) Interlude (instrumental) - 1:14
iii.) Three (instrumental) - 4:27
2.) Trio for Alto Flute, English Horn, & Bass Clarinet (instrumental) (Dennis Dreith) - 1:21

(side 2)
1.) Karuna (instrumental) - 5:53 (Dennis Dreith) - 5:53
2.) Southern Slink (instrumental) - 3:01 (Dennis Dreith) - 3:01
3.) Nrujo (instrumental) - 3:11 (Dennis Dreith) - 3:11

A1...
A2...

Hill Andon "PAGE☆ONE" (1974,Japan,Folk ,Psych)

2011-10-17T08:50:00.003Z

This is an obscure legendary Japanese folk album in 1974.

I can UL and enjoy with all of you thanks to one of my mates,Fusionaut.

He leaves the following comment.

"....This is a folk-rock/folk-psych album and has some nice fuzz guitar soloing weaving in and out on some tracks, and the atmosphere's not bad, so it's certainly worth a listen or two, and likely of greater interest to those predisposed to this sort of thing."

The file includes scans of cover ,obi,and insert sheet.

Side A

1.伽藍堂　garandou :lead vocal by Ieda.

means emptiness

2.寒い夏　samui natsu :lv by Miyama.
means cold summer
3.吸血鬼の歌　kyuuketuki no uta :lv by Ieda
means vampire's song
4.五月　gogatsu :lv by Ieda & Shimamura
means May
5.影　kage :lv by Miyama
means shadow

Side B
1.風まかせ　kaze makase :lv by Ieda

means As the wind likes

2.二月にて　nigatsu nite :lv by Ieda

means in February

3.何かが　nanikaga :lv by Yabe

means something

4.ささやき　sasayaki :lv by Ieda

means whisper

(members)

家田和則　Kazunori Ieda.....vo ,eg,ag,eb

島村英彦　Hidehiko Shimamura.....vo,eg,ag,p

深山光一　Kouichi Miyama......vo.ag

矢部武司　Takeshi Yabe.....vo,ag,eb

岩井正明 Masaaki Iwai....vo,ds

nanikaga

Band Aide "宇宙循環”(Japan,1978,ex-Flower Travellin' Band)

2011-10-12T15:34:00.001Z

Band Aide "宇宙循環”(Japan,1978,ex-Flower Travellin' Band)

宇宙循環 Uchuu Junkan.............means "Cyclic Universe"

Flower Travellin' Band disbanded on July in 1973.

Later, Hideki Ishima (G) made this project "Band Aide" with Nobuhiko Shinohara (key) and released this sole album "宇宙循環" in 1978 .

Nobuhiko Shinohara officially joined Flower Travellin' Band in 2008. (The band was regrouped to tour.)
This album is the concept album.The theme is "Outer Space".I believe prog fans can enjoy it a lot.

篠原信彦
Nobuhiko Shinohara
Keyboard,Chorus,Gloken,Recorder

石間秀機
Hideki Ishima
EG,Sitar,Keyboard,Chorus

相良宗男
Muneo Sagara
Drums

秋元良一
Ryoichi Arimoto
EB

Shibaoka
Perc.

T.Muraoka
T Sax,Shinobue

Takesan
Strings

Side 1
1.宇宙循環　OUT-PUT ....Cycric Universe out-put
Hideki Ishima,Nobuhiko Shinohara
2.GⅠ型恒星、ＧⅡ型恒星 ....ＧⅠtyped fixed star,ＧⅡtyped fixed star
Ryoichi Akimoto,Muneo Sagara
3.スター・ウォーズ ....Star Wars
John Williams
4.3PO.R-2,D2
HI,NS
5.SYURARI-MOPP
HI,NS
6.ABISURI-TAVERN
HI,NS
7.6TH. AUGUST.B.C.5001
HI,NS
8.OVER-LAP
HI,NS

Side 2
1.FLYING OBJECT
HI,NS
2.発見 ...discovery
HI,NS
3.未知との遭遇 ....Close Encounters of the Third Kind (the movie in 1977)
John williams
4.ANGEL-DUSTS
HI,NS
5.xxxx(MESSAGE)
HI,NS
6.26% MORE
HI,NS
7.接触 ....contact
HI,NS
8.宇宙循環 IN-PUT ....Cycric Universe
HI,NS

ripped from original LP.

Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

6th ,August,B.C. 5001(remixed mp3 version)

　

Fumanzoku (1974,Japan,folk,HR,psych)

2011-10-12T03:37:00.005Z

Fumanzoku (1974,Japan,folk,HR,psych)

不満族　『不満足』（1974) Fumanzoku "fumanzoku"

Legendary Japanese folk,HR,psych album.

Band's name.......不満族　.....Discontent People
Album title .......『不満足』 .....Unsatisfaction

Side Folk
１．鳥のロマンティック・バラード　4:03
tori　no romantic ballade .... Birds' Romantic Ballade
２．夜が明ける 4:04
yo ga akeru .....the new day breaks
３．風にふるえて 3:45
kaze ni furuete .....shivering against the wind
４．何処までも　何処までも 2:50
doko mademo doko mademo ....endless ,endless
５．悲しみの果てに 7:38
kanasimi no hate ni ...at the end of the sorrow

Side Rock
１．私生児 Rock 3:45
shiseiji Rock ....Rock of child born outside of marriage
２．風化一族 4:17
fuuka ichizoku ... weathered people
３．六月のユートピア 5:59
rokugatu no utopia....Utopia in June
４．消えゆくままに　流るるままに 8:39
kieyuku mama ni nagaruru mama ni.....dissappearing,floating
５．俺の涙は 1:40
ore no namida ha .....My tears are

(members)
大前幸夫 Yukio Ohmae eb,vo
新田弘三 Kohzoh Nitta　eg
丸山ルミ Rumi Maruyama (female)　ep
内海謙次 Kenji Utsumi　fg,eg,chorus
新谷弘充 hiromitsu Shintani　ds
沼津宏哉 Hiroya Numazu　eg,
chorus
大島時宗、平野貴子、三島章、松口春子、安田美代子、内田薫

ripped from original LP.

Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)
sound engine .....PC software to change the sound quality of WAVE files.

kanashimi no hate ni (mixed mp3 version)

Olive - "Olive" {Japan} [1976]

2011-10-04T17:41:00.010Z

members

. 大塚敬子 Keiko Ohtsuka (vocals)
. 中野渡　正光 Masamitsu Nakanowatari (guitar)
. 石嶋利和 Toshikazu Ishijima (guitar)
. 萩野　潔 kiyoshi Hagono (bass)
. 川村一森 Kazumori Kawamura (drums)
. 宮澤　謙 Ken Miyazawa (keyboards)

side Ａ
１．ピエロ pierrot
２．伝説 densetsu....means legend
３．黒の魅惑 kuro no miwaku...means enchanted black
４．時は風のように toki ha kaze no youni ....means time passes like the wind
side Ｂ
１．魔奏曲 masoukyoku....meaans music played by the devil
２．オリーブ olive
３．遺書 isho... means testament
４．蜃気楼 shinkirou...means mirage

A1...
A2...
A3...
B4...

link in comments...

Moravagine (Fra 1975)

2011-09-18T19:38:00.004Z

Typical french jazz-rock progressive in the mid-70s style, by this I mean featuring highly professional playing, progressive elements a la transit express, potemkine, speed limit, Noetra, Neo, etc., almost in the light magma-derivative style (but not zeuhl) perhaps like Joel Dugrenot or L. Thibeault. Every song features instrumental flute melodic jazz, sometimes more overtly american styled as in the Dave Brubeck-like song Culbuto, sometimes with the inevitable (for this time) hispanic influence as in usted de poisson, and as usual we hear quite a great deal of classical music education, I think particularly of the second track's piano opener, with its splashy piano solo full of scriabinesque atonality and waterfall notes.
On closer exam I'd go so far as to say this album is average compositionally, with the exception of the long first-side track where we take a musical trip to galaxy Andromeda (or constellation andromeda?). Starting with the aforementioned piano intro we hear a wonderfully unusual flute melody in E minor which transcends oddly into different keys, throwing in an unexpected F natural, evoking obviously the spacey aspects. We progress to a very interesting acoustic bass solo (they don't usually get very interesting) before moving into more composed chord changes, modulations, reminding me of the long track on Abraxis (Valse de la mort) before a flute and oboe serial melody closes out the space trip.
I hope you enjoy this completely lost slice of french music. I take it the name, in case you're wondering, comes from an early 20th century novel by Blaise Cendrars. Anyone who read the book who reads this, please comment. Here is the amazon review:

"At once truly appalling and appallingly funny, Blaise Cendrars's Moravagine bears comparison with Naked Lunch—except that it's a lot more entertaining to read. Heir to an immense aristocratic fortune, mental and physical mutant Moravagine is a monster, a man in pursuit of a theorem that will justify his every desire. Released from a hospital for the criminally insane by his starstruck psychiatrist (the narrator of the book), who foresees a companionship in crime that will also be an unprecedented scientific collaboration, Moravagine travels from Moscow to San Antonio to deepest Amazonia, engaged in schemes and scams as, among other things, terrorist, speculator, gold prospector, and pilot. He also enjoys a busy sideline in rape and murder. At last, the two friends return to Europe—just in time for World War I, when "the whole world was doing a Moravagine.'"

Andromeda...
Culbuto...

Red - "Red" {UK} [1983]

2011-09-17T05:25:00.003Z

Recorded in approx 1982 - 82 and finally released in 1983. The album took a long time to get released on Jigsaw records, by which time the band had effectively split and we were all doing other things.
We were all influened by the jazz rock movement at the time, hence the crazy tempos and the sound of musicians finding their feet and developing a style.
The line up on the album (on vinyl) was: Dennis Fitzgibbons - guitar and songs, Jerry Soffe - bass, Mark Ambler - keyboards, David Holmes - percussion and Frank Hockney on drums. We reformed in 83ish with Phil Bastow on keyboards but the band didn't do much more after a second album was delayed and delayed. The track on the juke box is called Tonights the Note. http://frankhockney.co.uk/page4.htm

This was released amongst all the other New Wave of British Progressive Rock albums (now known as Neo Prog). But Red were nothing like IQ, Twelfth Night, Marillion, Haze, etc... nor were they like mid period King Crimson ala their name. Nope, this is a very strong instrumental fusion oriented album, with some early 80s keyboard sounds. What separates this album from the pack is the ferocious guitar playing, and the outstanding melodies. I bought this on LP in London when it came out, and it's still one of my favorites. http://cdreissuewishlist.blogspot.com/search/label/Red

- Dennis Fitzgibbons - guitar and songs
- Jerry Soffe - bass
- Mark Ambler - keyboards
- David Holmes - percussion
- Frank Hockney - drums
- Phil Bastow - keyboards

A1 Stiff Collar
A2 Self-Indulgent Noise
A3 Cool And Unapproachable
A4 Daft Tench Swims Backwards
B1 Turbo-Tortoise
B2 Kraval
B3 Lost For Words
B4 Tonight's The Note

Thanks to Fusionaut :o)

link in comments...

Window - "The Empyreal Ballet" {USA} [1978]

2011-09-12T17:48:00.005Z

So here's one I've been wanting to post about forever. I had a cassette of it from long ago, but without info. Usually a simple Google search will find me an album cover and other data. Except in this case, it was as if the album didn't exist. I couldn't find anything about it anywhere. I asked Midwest Mike, The Alaskan Connection and others, but no one seemed to know anything about it. When that happens, I begin to question the tape markings. Was it mislabeled? Was it ever actually released? Did I get a demo album way back when?

Then, about 2 weeks ago, I received a note out of the blue asking if I was interested in knowing more about the album (it's in the main list and I was asking for info). Of course I said yes! But that trail seemed to go cold as I never heard back - until today, but he had already sold it! On a whim, I decided to Google it again - and lo and behold - there it was, sold on ebay just 3 days ago! So I have to figure it was the same gentleman. That's pure speculation, but whatever, the ebay auction had photos and some info! So thank you to the ebay seller (blind-boy-records) - and if it's the same person who contacted me - thanks again!

So it appears Window are a San Francisco / Bay Area based group, and they released this one very good progressive rock album. Honestly, I was certain I was going to find out the band were from Illinois or Missouri, because it does indeed have that Midwest progressive rock sound, especially apparent in the vocal sections. The mix of complex progressive rock, piano jazz-rock and AOR FM radio ambition only cements the comparison. Excellent electric / acoustic guitar work, flute, tuned percussion, with a horn section and complex rhythms is what you'll find on "Empyreal Ballet". Curiously for a band of its type, there are no keyboards (beyond the piano of course). http://cdreissuewishlist.blogspot.com/2011/09/window-usa.html

A1 The News
A2 Danche Through the Storm
A3 Phantom
A4 The Empyreal Ballet
B1 Nightwatch
B2 Peter Gunn on Mars
B3 Blue Space
B4 Like It or Not

Thanks to Osurec (album) and Tom (review) :o)

Nightwatch...

link in comments...

Serpentine - "In the Grass" {Netherlands} (1970)

2011-08-18T16:19:00.002Z

Rock group from 't Gooi, launched in 1967. The first line-up lasted until 1969 and consisted of: Peter van der Sande (v, g, ex-Sexton Five, Highschool Five, Smokey and Kingbees), Rob Morel (b, ex-Dean Allen Set), Ralf Dragstra (o, p, trb, ex-Dean Allen Set), Bob de Laat (s, ex-Dean Allen Set), Patrick Verboom (tr), Frank van Tijn (v, dr, to OPMC) and Dick Pels (g, ex-Guardians, to Dean Allen Set). In 1969, Peter left the group temporarily. Serpentine started accompanying Amos Tamela (ex-Mustang Soul) and Sandra Reemer.

Peter then recorded a single for Polydor with his new group Blech, featuring: Fije Jasky (dr), Ton Jasky (b), Theo Andriessen (p), Ad le Conte (o). Nevertheless, the single was released under the name Serpentine, because Peter had soon returned to his old band. The line-up was then narrowed down to: Peter van der Sande (v, b), Onno Lopulalan (g), Frank van Tijn (v, dr) and Ralf Dragstra (o, p). Band members also did a lot of session work - for California License, Big Boy & Bouncers and OPMC, amongst others. On account of legal reasons, later records were released under the moniker Apartment One. Serpentine fell apart in 1970; Peter joined Focus. http://www.alexgitlin.com/roekwilliams.htm

A1. Tell me Some More
A2. The Doctor Said
A3. Gymnastics in the Morning
A4. Belinda Tomorrow
A5. Wake Up (It's a New Day)
A6. I've Only Got Myself
B1. Powerful Jim
B2. Love is Turning Me On
B3. Instant Alison
B4. Hey Dreamer
B5. One Legged William
B6. Big Man

- Bob de Laat (saxophone, 1967-69)
- Dick Pels (guitar, 1967-69)
- Frank van Tijn (drums, vocals)
- Patrick Verboom (trumpet, 1967-69)
- Peter van der Sande (vocals, guitar, cello, organ, bass, 1967-69, 1969-72)
- Ralf Dragstra (keyboards, trombone)
- Rob Morel (bass, 1967-69)
- Onny Lopulalan (guitar, 1969-72)

Tell me Some More...
Instant Alison...

link in comments...

Vårsøg - "Vårsøg" {Norway} [1977]

2011-08-17T16:30:00.001Z

Norwegian folk rock / pop group.
Sommerro started a pop group called the Tramps in 1963 or 1964, they changed name to Mad Movies and later to Vårsøg in 1976 and disbanded in 1980.
The Melody Vårsøg from their first album is often used in funerals in Norway.
http://www.discogs.com/artist/V%C3%A5rs%C3%B8g

- Henning Sommerro (vocals, keyboards)
- Knut Blekken (bass)
- Johnny Gausemel (drums)

A1 Vårsøg 3:14
A2 Bruramarsj 1:48
A3 Storstangvikgjellingen 1:40
A4 Brudlaupsvise 2:20
A5 Klavakonas marsj 1:15
A6 Ein under altet 2:04
A7 Ka ska æ gjerra 2:22
A8 Tjeka tjeka på kalveknok 0:50
B1 No vil vi søng 0:34
B2 Nedpå Moå 3:04
B3 Nordmørsminne 2:17
B4 Fram kom ein skreddar 1:30
B5 Gravøl e Merradala 3:12
B6 Julverset 1:34
B7 Dans dans dans dele 0:39
B8 De er trygge til jul i Sauda 2:46

Vårsøg...
Fram kom ein skreddar...

Thanks to Hallo! :o)

This Oneness "Surprize" (USA,1975,)

2011-07-26T15:54:00.003Z

This Oneness, aka "Goldstreet" The Minnesota based Jazz-Fusion-Rock "This Oneness" musicians consisted of Greg Inhofer, Dale Strength, (both from the band Pepper Fog), Robyn Lee, Doug Nelson, and Bernie Pershey, formerly of White Lightning. John Ebert was Sound Engineer with his owner-operator miniature "Wall of Sound" equipment. In the 1960s and 1970s, "pepper fog" was an aerial spray dispersed from helicopters over anti-war demonstrations that would make you eyes water, and I presume that is the inspiration for that bands name. This Oneness musical styles covered Mahavishnu Orchestra Birds of Fire and Chick Corea's "Return To Forever" Hymn of the Seventh Galaxy album (and was the opening act for Chick on the east coast once). This Oneness group also backed Olivia-Newton-John on her road tours in America from May 1974 through 1975, also appearing on the NBC Mar. 7th 1975 "Midnite Special" broadcast. The May 1974 midwestern colleges tour managed by Variety Theater International were Olivia's first American stage appearances. These very enthusiastic audience turnouts convinced everyone to go forward with her future musical endeavors in America. These early tours included one show at the 1975 Minnesota State Fair Grandstand racetrack stage to a record audience. The group played Harrah's South Shore Room at Lake Tahoe Nov. 6, 1975. While in town, William B. Harrah had the group out for a day trip on the lake in his 33 foot Chris Craft run-about outfitted with two 12 cylinder aircraft engines capable of a peak speed of 55 mph. In 1976 This Oneness desired to return their focus to writing and producing their "Surprize" album and work on promotion of the group once again. Leaving Olivia was not an easy emotional decision for the band to make. The band wrote "Song For Olivia" in parting. (This commentary was written by my dear friend,isabel)

more... http://minnewiki.publicradio.org/index.php/This_Oneness

Side 1
1.You Can't Do That !(1:45)
2.Surprize(3:52)
   a.Lunar sunrise
   b.Overture
3.Please Let The Sunshine(5:36)
4.Song for Olivia(3:09)
5.In Out In Out(4:06)

Side 2
1.Radio Free Amerika(7:13)
2.Merging Diversions(8:44)
3.Surprize (Reprise)("NO" note)
4.Go In Peace(3:45)

Bernie Pershey: drums,percussion,vocals,and lyrics
Douglas Nelson:   electric basses,vocals,and percussion

Dale Strength: vocals,acoustic and electric guitars and percussion

Greg Inhofer: vocals,electronic and acoustic pianos,six and twelve string guitars,and percussion

Robyn Lee: flute,saxophone,organ,synthesizer,and vocals

Merging Diversions

ripped from original LP.
Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075
sazanami......scratch noise remover(PC software)

2011-07-17T00:33:00.001Z

hi folks! as some of you know, we have got a service called Pnf Blogwatch, at 2007 we opened it to public, and it was one of the first web application that is written for music blogs. with visual presentation and selective categories it was ahead of its time.

congratulations to all of us, we at last boomed the server with high traffic and computational load. :)

Stay tuned for the next version with many new features!!

Canzoniere Del Lazio - "Spirito Bono" {Italy} [1975]

2011-07-04T14:41:00.003Z

Canzoniere del Lazio were formed in Rome in 1972 and they are considered as one of the most important progressive folk bands in Italy during the seventies.

Their beginnings were strongly inspired by reworkings of central Italy traditional tunes based on a quartet of totally acoustic instrumentists. So their first album in 1973 ("Quando Nascesti Tune") which didn't have a particular success. Singer Sara Modigliani left after the album. more

a1. Ballo in Re (Festa)
a2. Ballu
b1. Morte di Pulcinella
b2. Coccodè

- Carlo Siliotto / violin, mandolin, tenor fluggelhorn and vocals
- Piero Avallone / drums, putipù and vocals
- Piero Brega / vocals, electric bass, acoustic guitar
- Luigi Cinque / soprano and tenor saxes, clarinet and piccolo
- Francesco Giannattasio/ percussions, organ, accordion, tenor sax and vocals
- Pasquale Minieri / electric and acoustic guitars, electric bass, contrabass and mandolin

Coccodè...

link in comments...

Stig & Steen - "Forchromede Dage" {Denmark} (1973)

2011-06-29T17:59:00.006Z

This duo played poetic and relaxed progressive rock with elements of folk-rock. Stig and Steen later joined a revamped version of Ache in 1975 and recorded Pictures From Cyclus 7. Kreutzfeldt soon left Ache again and enjoyed considerable commercial success in the late seventies, playing pop-rock with his new partner Jens Rugsted (ex-Savage Rose). http://sgm.paullee.ru/sgm-dk.htm

A1. Nedenomsvej
A2. Forårsvise
A3. Mælkebøtterne
A4. Bag et ukendt landskab
B1. Forchromede Dage
B2. Natten over stranden
B3. Tabte slag
B4. Bring høsten ind

- Stig Kreutzfeldt - lead vocals, electric & acoustic guitar, tablas, percussion, congas, tubular bells, timpani
- Sten Toft Andersen - vocals, electric bass, acoustic guitar, harmonica, harmonium, mellotron, percussion, electric piano, xylophon.
- Nis Jørgensen - vocals, piano, organ, harmonium, transverse- & block flute, percussion, mellotron.
- Ken Gudman - drums

Forårsvise...
Mælkebøtterne...
Bag et ukendt landskab...

link in comments...

Vãn Züllatt - "Betelgeuse" {Brasil} [2011] Exclusive for PNF!!

2011-06-28T14:52:00.003Z

Depois de mais de dois anos sem gravar, o grupo Vãn Züllatt finalmente lança neste ano um novo álbum, Betelgeuse, gravado entre agosto de 2010 e março de 2011 no estúdio Z em Pelotas.
O novo trabalho apresenta um grupo um pouco diferente com as participações especiais dos amigos Douglas Osinaga na guitarra da faixa de abertura Contatos e Eugênio Bassi na voz, violão, bandolim, berimbau, contrabaixo e percussão na suíte Seis Níveis De Criogenia. As participações especiais deram cores inéditas ao trabalho do Vãn Züllatt pois Douglas Osinaga e Eugênio Bassi são coautores das faixas em que participam e isso é um diferencial no álbum em relação ao trabalho anterior, O Casulo de 2008.

Betelgeuse tem uma temática que prima pela ficção científica e narra, instrumentalmente, uma jornada pelo universo a bordo da nave Vãn Züllatt desde os Contatos estabelecidos com vida inteligente fora da Terra, passando pelo penoso processo de criogenia humana até uma viajem de ida e volta à constelação de Órion.

Assim como o primeiro álbum do grupo, Betelgeuse é livre para ser compartilhado pela internet e está disponível em CD exclusivamente na loja Woodstock Discos em Pelotas.

Betelgeuse

Contatos...
Seis Nveis de Criogenia...
Dica...
Betelgeuse...

Jimmy,Yoko & Shin "SEI SHONAGON"(1978,Japanese Jazz rock)

2011-05-21T00:55:00.007Z

Jimmy,Yoko & Shin "SEI SHONAGON"(1978)

This is a mega rare Japanese jazz rock.,never released as CD.
It was released as self- indipendent prodiction.
And only this album was released as this trio.
Yoko is a female jazz keyboard player .
And her playing reminds me of Dave Sinclair(ex-Caravan)　strongly.
I think this is an excellent Japanese Canterbery-vein album.Moreover,their sound adds Japanese traditional chaos,so their originality got higher and higher.
Sometimes they sing ...the lyrics is from Japanese classical literature.

One is about 1000 years ago(Track 1),and the other is 800years ago (Track 2) and traditional dance music sung at the Japanese festivals was arranged on Track 3.

They won the first prize at the first Jazz Grand Prix in Japan.(joined the 66 groups at that time )

Side A
1.清少納言　SEI SHONAGON (Yoko Sumiya)....18:42

Side B.
1祇園精舎　.GION SHOJA (Yoko Sumiya)....13:25
2.ソウル　そうらん　SOUL SORAN (Arr. by Yoko Sumiya)....3:04

隅谷　洋子　Yoko Sumiya plays....

STEINWAY piano
YAMAHA electric piano CP-30
YAMAHA combo organ YC-30
YAMAHA combo synthesizer CS-60
MINI-MOOG
& vocal

代永　光男　Jimmy Shironaga plays.....

acoustic guitar
electric bass
& vocal

岡部　真一郎　Shin Okabe plays.......

drums
congas
bongos
wood blocks
percussioncontroller(MOOG-drum)
other percussion instruments
& vocal

Recorded on June 22 & 23,1978

ripped from original LP.
Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075

seishonagon...

Akira Itoh "Buddha"(1983,Japanese prog)

2011-05-19T15:24:00.008Z

Akira Itoh "Buddha"(1983)

Osamu Tezuka is one of the most famous Japanese manga(comic) artists in the world.
"Buddha" is one of the epics among his mangas.He described Budda's life in his manga.
As you know,Buddha is the guru of Buddhism.
Akira Itoh is a keyboard player ,and he is famous as the member of Far Out & Far East Family Band.
He made this album inspired by the manga "Buddha".
First,when I found this album,in fact,I thought that it was boring.
Because Akira Itoh made a lot of New Age albums and they were boring for me.
However,
I was surprised when I heard it for the first time.
Because it is the brilliant prog rock!!!!
This album is a concept album,and between tracks and tracks are not separated.
FLAC files are not separated(I don't know how to cut the files of FLAC)
But mp3 files are separated.(I know how to cut mp3)
Enjoy as you like !!!

Since May 28th,they can watch the anime movie "Buddha"(original manga by Osamu Tezuka)at the movie theaters in Japan,but no relation with this album by Akira Itoh.

伊藤詳 Akira Itoh .....Synthesizer
豊田貴志 Takashi Toyoda.....Violin(ex-Space Circus)
石川恵樹 Keiju Ishikawa....E.Guitar(ex-Far Out,Chronicle)
チュピート aka 竹内正彦 Masahiko Takeuchi....E.Bass(ex-Creation)
高橋静夫....Ds(ex-KANZEON)

Side 1
1.婆羅門　baramon (6:25)
2.達多　tatta(3:55)
3.聖母受胎　seibo jutai(3:27)
4.悠久　yuukyuu(1:15)
5.生誕　seitan(5:10)

Side 2
1.摩耶の死　maaya no shi(4:34)
2.四門出遊　shimon shutsuyuu(4:20)
3.生老病死　shouroubyoushi(2:50)
4.障碍(ラーフラ）shougai(raafura)(4:15)
5.出家 shukke (3:13)

ripped from original LP.
Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075

shukke....

2011-05-17T14:21:00.000Z

friends, fyi our new facebook adress is http://facebook.com/prognotfrog
come on, in! :)

Profil "For You"(1982,German inst.prog)

2011-05-07T15:05:00.007Z

Profil "For You"(1982)

This album is a mega rare German prog.All instrumental .
I never would have guessed that the day would come to listen to this album during I live on the earth....I could get near mint condition vinyl.Enjoy !!!!!
I heard the meaning of "Ta-tü-ta-ta 2(B-3) as the sound of alarm of ambulance,police car... from a German man.

Hans Schneider:Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Alfred "Phonts"Biebl:Bass,Perc and Effect
Hans-Rainer Kolb:Keyboards,Perc and Guitar
Bernd Mayer:Drums and Perc.

A
1.Kick (5:08)
2.Monday Evening (4:21)
3.Magdalena (4:19)
4.Difficult (4:19)
B
1.Gangster Parade (5:06)
2.Touch me there (6:30)
3.Ta-tü-ta-ta (5:55)

Recorded from February 22 to 27.

ripped from original LP.
Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075

Ta-tü-ta-ta

GORO OHMI "Niji Sinden"(synths,recoded in November and December,1983)

2011-04-29T16:18:00.009Z

淡海悟郎 "虹神殿" (1983)

GORO OHMI "Niji Sinden"(recoded in November and December,1983)

This album was inspired from a Japanese comic "Niji Shinden"(means "Rainbow Shrine").Goro Ohmi made this album with help of nine gamelan players (including an Indonesian player named Saptana).And other instruments were played by Goro Ohmi.He was interested in prog rock during a college student and made a prog trio "Minotaurus"(from endinig of 1970s to beginning of 1980s),and later became famous for some OST,CM,and so on...
This album has never been released as CD before,but I'm sure that it will be one of the twinkling gems for fans of Kitaro,Tomita,TD,Klaus Schulze,Vangelis.....
A
1.椰子の岸辺 yashi no kisibe
2.剣の心 ken no kokoro
3.スコールの慰め sukohru no nagusame
B
1.虹の神殿niji no shinden
2.花の舞hana no mai
3.神々の視座kamigami no shiza

ripped from original LP.
Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155
stereo graphic qualizer....Technics SH-8075

kamigami no shiza....

Francois Faton Cahen Tendre Piano Solo 1978

2011-04-06T00:51:00.003Z

Zao pianist's astonishing solo piano work with cover versions of classic zao... At least as good as his Zao work compositionally!

Musharabieh...

Zebulon 1980

2011-03-24T00:01:00.018Z

Another masterpiece from master shige, from beneath the waterlogged ruins of the tragic islands of Nihon...
Classical progressive in the germanic late-seventies style with synth soloing, lush keyboards, digital strings, electric and acoustic guitar arpeggios lulling you into the dreamlands of the isles of Arnold Böcklin with the long drawn-out spectres and sea-images of distant travels and travails... Novalis: "we are nearly awake when we dream about dreaming." This gives me hope there is still uncovered treasure in the lost archipelagos and ruined architectures of the seventies, the lost atlantises of progressive rock buried under the tempested waves battering our frail and fraying memories. We are scraping the bottom of the barrel yes, but here and there we will find a huge monster, an elephant oil field deep from the cretaceous that will reawaken our hopes for a brilliant future of beauty and cocaigne-like plenitude. But then in the morning we look again and find the dream is over, like Prufrock, "voices wake us and we drown," except the remnants of the memory of certitude that could have come about cling to us in a shudder.

From cd reissue again:
" What we have here is the type of album we wish all private symphonic rock albums to be. Not long ago, we featured a band called Profil and their album "For You". Zebulon reminded me of that album, though this is much more keyboard driven [sic] than the purely guitar oriented [sic] Profil. Zebulon has a positive energy, with many hooks and changes, and plenty of fiery solos. At any one time while listening to this, I was reminded of other German bands such as Tonic, Trilogy, Rousseau, Prosper and maybe even the first Amenophis album. Probably the only weakness is the choice of keyboards / synthesizers that are employed - generally of the cheap and tinny variety. It's a small complaint with music this good. The AC comments "This one is straight-up excellent instrumental prog, with a few fusion touches thrown in for good measure. I really enjoy this album, and it seems almost totally unknown." Overall, a superb instrumental progressive rock album."

I don't know if it stands comparison to Tonic or Trilogy, the compositions here are not quite as ingenious and inventive as some other german bands along the same lines, certainly they are more gifted in complexity than Novalis for example, so to me it's more enjoyable; as well the energy level never lets up (there is no slow wimpy song) but after a few listens it all starts to blend together, kind of like italian restaurants wherein varieties of pasta supposedly make for varieties of bona fide foodstuffs. Check out for example track 2 which travels for several minutes in G major, very briefly modulating to E flat but no sooner said than done we go back to the same G riff as if the musicians were frightened of the risks they were taking by changing keys. At least they don't stay in the same chord for an entire long song like so many other teutonic culprits. Notably absent is the sine qua non of prog, the tritone, until in the last track, "zombie d'amour" we get a great minor second dissonance (cluster-like).

We cannot thank the ripper enough for this egregious act of resuscitation in bringing to a wider audience such a phenomenal piece of progressive rock, lost to time, lost to space, lost to the collective jungian consciousness of humanity. (Except in the deepest dreams of beauty.) Along with everyone else we feel so horribly for the people of their country and the impossible injustice of the chance mayhem the world visited upon them. We know that we are in an endless cycle of suffering in this existence, spring must follow winter, snow must follow the cold. Our deaths are necessary for births to come, we must leave for our children to take our places, we have been told to die so nature can change our molds. We are all the same carbon and H2O cycling endlessly through the billions of years the earth has circled around. For human beings, awareness of this paradox is the ultimate suffering, to be cognizant of one's own temporality is the punishment for our eternal minds. We are allowed to think of everything but only at the cost of all thought to be extinguished one day, one unpredictable day.
Therefore, as Gautama Siddhartha taught, it is our duty to reflect upon the only subject there is, the subject of the question of our existence...

Zebulon is

Ollie Ernst......keyboards
Michael Krenke......bass, Siefkophone
Thomas Krenz ......guitar, percussion
Micky Schmidt......drums, percussion

A1 Opium Haut Opi Um 5:32
A2 Crazy Marck 4:16
A3 Pudding Exploison 9:11

B1 Walpurgisnacht 6:06
B2 Galappagos 4:30
B3 Schwanenflug 4:35
B4 Zombie D`Amour 5:18

Walpurgisnacht...

Sangi - Steps (Italy, 1978)

2011-03-20T23:57:00.007Z

A work by Maurizio Sangineto [birth name], aka Sangy.
Review from rateyourmusic is pretty much spot-on (for once):

"The Sangi album is a very pleasant fusion album, with a noticeable late 70s cruise ship / tropical feel. Sax, guitar and Rhodes lead the solos. Exquisitely played and produced. A very obscure album." [from ashratom]

more from cdreissue:
'The Sangi album is a very pleasant fusion album, with a noticeable late 70s cruise ship / tropical feel. Exquisitely played and produced. As the AC says "I think part of the appeal of this one is the excellent sound quality, especially for such an obscure small label release. I doubt anyone could make an album that has quite this kind of production nowadays." And it's true. For such a small label private production, the rich full sound here is amazing...
Finally, the AC notes "The other interesting thing is that there's a cameo appearance by Lucio Fabbri of PFM." '

http://cdreissuewishlist.blogspot.com/2011/03/sangi-italy.html

Phase Shifter...

New Cross 1986 (US)

2011-03-20T20:04:00.006Z

Another remarkable 'lost' masterpiece from the US -- it seems that despite what was going on in popular music at the time, there was still a huge amount of inventiveness in songwriting in the mid-eighties. As I've said so many times before, I wish I had known about progressive rock and jazz at the time I would have jumped on it like Berlusconi on a ... better not say.
This album has features of Ixt Aduxt, Babylon, King Crimson, Moira, with a lot of highly interesting guitar arpeggios and rips, strange chord changes, and the typical american gruff singing style -- not overstylized as in neoprog, just a little bit 'progressive', maybe think mirthrandir style. I can't understand what these guys were thinking at the time -- 1986 -- but like true artists, they cared only about their craft and skills and not about popularity, clearly.

I love the meandering arpeggios in the first song "Currents" where the singing kind of comes in and out without real straightforward chorus or even focus. The second song "Fall of reason" builds up a beautiful tension, then the singer starts almost talking over some metal-style chromatic riff. I'm not sure if these guys were influenced more by punk-style rio or the older progressive tradition or what, but it's a bizarre but beautiful concoction. Suddenly some chiming that sounds like keyboard vibes appears, in the middle the song has a gorgeous energy, it reminds me a lot of alternative metal. I'm sure the lyrics are worth listening closely to and understanding but I've never had the patience to do it, maybe someday we should transcribe them (as we did in high school) and see if it makes up a poem.

"...they are conscious of nothing at all..." (tracks 3 and 4) has that typical thin slicing guitar sound of the eighties but the chords are just out of this world, surely no one else in the whole of the eighties came up with a chord succession like this one, unless maybe in progressive quarters of Germany or France. It bridges passages together in gorgeous electric harmonics-- unbelievable thought put into this song.

Track 5, "Wreckage of Consensus" starts as a song sung with electric guitar accompaniment, this reminds me a lot of dzyan 1 or moira perhaps. Suddenly drums appear and the song closes out in some amazing, absolutely brilliant progressive harmonies with organ and dramatic tension building and building like a movie, including some chromatic metal riffs and chord dissonances (like clusters)...

How come these guys didn't make more music? Truly a tragedy of massive proportions, from the hindsight of fans looking back on it all today. Had they been in the mid-70s for example, wouldn't they have made more of an impact and output?

Tracklist:
Currents
Fall of reason
"...they are conscious of nothing at all..."
Wreckage of a consensus
Middle dream

Mike Ezzo - Percu
Steven Cade - Guitar, Keys, Vocals
Rick Ezzo - Bass

Eagle Rock, CA, USA, 1986

Wreckage of a Consensus...

Indonesian masters of prog...

2011-03-17T19:32:00.027Z

Many like me who grew up in the seventies assumed there was a "Mystery of Easter Island"-- how these primitive people managed to create and lift up these huge monsters of stone on a barren 10 mile wide island. Heyerdahl was most responsible for creating such a mystery and he claimed incas or indians from south america went westwards, rather than the obvious migration of polynesians from the east. I think it was mentioned in the notorious 'chariots of the gods' as well.

Many years later when I read about the story of Easter Island -- the scientific story -- it turned out the reality was far more interesting than the crazy theories of aliens from outer space (well, not quite as interesting as that). The polynesians, who were without doubt the greatest sailors in the history of man, sailed out initially from southeast asia (they were originially thought to be from Taiwan!) to the phillippines, to indonesia, thence to the marquesas, to australia, new zealand, finally to easter island, an area almost a third of the surface of the world. This is very simiar to the migrations of the indo-europeans from the steppes of central asia to all europe and india. On Easter Island, their tragedy was that they used up the forests that covered the Island to transport the statues (on logs and wooden beams) thus depriving themselves of the ability to even leave their island.

When the last tree was cut down, they were stuck there forever. There could no longer be a seafaring vessel with which to escape on the ocean. Suddenly they were in a prison which they had entirely created themselves, out of political or interpersonal discord or lack of foresight. As Jared Diamond said, "what did the person say who cut down the last tree?" Most likely they were starving, needed fire, and had no choice. And predictably, the further history of the people was one of constant fighting, hardship, even cannibalism. How can anyone not feel that the destruction of our whole earth is leading us down the same path, hurtling with reckless or careless abandon? I would love to hear an optimist's opinion, because to me, the experience of the easter islanders is very much like the politics of selfishness and acquisition that occurred in copenhagen with regards to kyoto, destroying a climate change agreement that everyone knew was an utter and emergency necessity. And in scientific circles, the feeling is that we also will destroy almost forests on earth in the next 100 years. For those who do agree with me, check out the amazing novel "The Road" (not the movie) for a view of our future.

In addition to their sailing talents, the polynesians (Austronesians) were surely amazingly musical people, anyone who has visited any country in Oceania knows these people feel music more profoundly than most humans, they live and die music every day. So it's not that surprising that we have so many musical gems coming out of Indonesia, including progressive masterpieces such as Giant Step.

Overall sound is slightly syrupy with popish singing, some hooks attempting to be radio-friendly esp. when the string section pulls out its schmaltzy background, but every track features some interesting feature or other. Occasionally the singers are slightly off-key and the timing is not professionally millisecond-precise but it's full of musical ideas and bursting with creative inventions. Track 7 starting with some wonderful piano solo in F features an almost composed rock song with fugue-like melodies moving in and out from electric guitar, flute, synths. Dramatic accents play out between choruses. A lot of synth soloing on keys gives it the classic prog seventies sound. Virtuoso Lisztean grand piano playing, delicate flute solos, abrupt chord changes one after another in the elp tradition all make appearances. Track 8 is a little annoying with a have-to-hear-it-to-believe melody that jumps an octave and back down again after a pause. I imagine this is derivative of folk music of the area because I have no other explanation for it.

Thanks to master shige again for these albums. To quote:

Contrapunk "Putri Mohon Diri" (1976,classical prog)

Album title... Putri Mohon Diri
Band's name..... Contrapunk
produced by..... Adji Bandi
year... 1976

Side A
1. PERJUMPAAN PERTAMA KALI
Grace Simon
2. PUTRI MOHON DIRI
Titiek Puspa
3. PERCAYALAH
Grace Simon
4. MESRA DI SAAT JUMPA
Adji Bandi
5. KERINDUAN HARI INI
Adji Bandi
6. IRAMA WAKTU
Adji Bandi

Side B
7. PENGAKUAN
Adji Bandi
8. HARI BAHAGIA
Adji Bandi
9. GADIS PETANI
Adji Bandi
10. HAMPA
Grace Simon
11. HARU DI TAHUN BARU
Grace Simon

The following text was tranlated into English from this link
ttp://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:qKhkbndpRywJ:indolawas.blogspot.com/2010/01/adji-bandi-contrapunk-putri-mohon-diri.html+putri+mohon+diri&cd=1&hl=ja&ct=clnk&gl=jp&source=www.google.co.jp

CONTRAPUNK is a group formed by ADJI BANDI, TONO SUPARTO, PUNGKY MOEKTIO, ARIS and JESSY. They tried to combine classical music with rock music.In other words..."Bach-Rock".
This group started to record their first album,but during the recording,PUNGKY MOEKTIO (key)resigned and instead of him, YOCKIE SURYOPRAYOGO joined as a guest player. and moreover,added NANO(flute).And the album released by them was "PUTRI MOHON DIRI"(1976)(means...princess,please yourself) supported by TITIEK PUSPA and GRACE SIMON as guest vocalists.. 'PUTRI MOHON DIRI'(track2)is a song that finished the second place in Festival Lagu Populer Indonesia(Indonesian Popular Song Festival) in 1976. It was the song that sounded magnificent and fitted the opera style performed by Titiek Puspa .But unfortunately,though promising,this group disappeard with only this sole album......

Contrapunk is....
Adji Bandi....viola,piano,lyre,vocal
Tono Suparto....Bass
Jessy.....Drums
Aris...lead guitar
Nano....flute
Yockie Suryoprayogo( of "God Bless")....keyboards(supported member)

(guest vocalists)
TITIEK PUSPA
GRACE SIMON

As bonus I include a true underrated gem, which I've listened to repeatedly and am always shocked by. Check out the side-long track which is chock-full of musical ideas and melodies, never repeating, one after another, no long boring guitar solo. I speak of Yockie Suryoprayogo "Musik Saya Adalah Saya ". Here we have basically maybe a pop rock album wherein the composer has thrown all kinds of madness into the mix, odd chord changes, very unusual melodies, and to top it off there is this side-long track which remains me of Dezo Ursiny's Ostrov because it is sung throughout, not simply an instrumental symphonic style composition. (In all honesty, not quite the masterpiece as Dezo's.) I have to wonder about this guy-- what was he thinking? Was there really a market for this in Indonesia at the time? Or more likely, it was his labour of love, his attempt at demonstrating how far he could go in music?

As a double bonus I include another album from Yockie, "Bahtera Asmara", with beautiful female vocals, check it out.

All thanks to the master shige for his insuperable generosity. For those who pray, send all your prayers to the unfortunate people of Japan and a soon recovery from this unimaginable catastrophe...

Pengakuan...

Kolibri - "Winterserenade" {Germany} [1985]

2011-03-17T13:30:00.004Z

Psychedelic Folkrock album with English lyrics and a dreamily playful atmosphere. Very rare original on the Hamburger Eulenspiegel label (1032)

A1 Tanz der Kolibris 3:30
A2 Winterserenade 6:48
A3 La nuage 9:54
B1 Aprilwetter 7:27
B2 Take Five 8:07
B3 Yedigün 6:54

- Ingo Höricht - g
- Hans Kumfert - b, g, fl
- Georg Lejeune-Jung - g
- Alfons Meisenfeider - bouz., g, b
- Torsten Ribbe - fl
- Olof Roter - perc.

Winterserenade...
Aprilwetter...

Thanks to ZenBa :o)

Link in comments...

My loveletter to prog...

2011-03-17T01:41:00.012Z

From aforewritten comments it's easy to see that we have received complaints from a quarter. It really surprises me that some could see reason to be unhappy when those who buy these rarities at high cost and higher rarity share freely. Is this really the natural way of humanity, to take everything for granted if it is free and easy? For a small number to have the ability to ruin things for the greater good? In my work I know that a small, vocal, aggressive minority, can easily ruin things for the majority simply by creating onerous restrictions on the rest-- this is a kind of tragedy of the commons too... We see this everywhere in the bureaucracy of democratic countries where increasing regulations (which protect the tiniest minorities to the detriment generally of the rest) create hardships (e.g. financial) for the honest ordinary person-- who wants nothing to do with these issues. Well, my wife has the simplest answer to this: "we're doomed, and we deserve it. People are all selfish." (To which I usually say, what about me, am I selfish?)

In these posts I have attempted to communicate my deep and undying love for progressive music: as I sometimes say as a joke to my wife, I am so lucky every day to have so many beautiful albums to listen to, and also, to have a wonderful wife and beautiful children.
I feel I have searched all my life for this music. As we all know it's addictive. For sure it's a drug, one I couldn't bear to leave behind on my holiday... Once you 'get it' you can't go back, in my opinion, it becomes a passion. I cannot bear to listen to someone playing the muzak or soft-rock radio stations at work. I start to rant, and they of course all laugh. We want to hear something new and different every day, a new chord change or interval we never heard before, something completely unexpected again. Of course it will never be the same as the first time we heard Soft Machine (only about 11 years ago, in my case) or name any other of your favourite: for me, Carpe Diem, Pulsar, Transit Express, Jox, these are some of the albums that transport me directly on an interstellar drive to heaven at 99 percent of light speeds. Sometimes we find something that comes close to that beautiful feeling we first had when, jaw dropping and in ecstatic shock, we hear some kind of music that we never could have thought possible.

All my life I've listened to music, to pop and rock, to modern classical, getting bored of those, to jazz, getting tired of that, back to rock and then to metal and alternative until they lost interest... then when I discovered progressive rock I realized, here is the type that included within it all types, all styles, all genres, and not just in a kind of awkward mishmash (as is done nowadays by the novices) but actually in the most beautiful and harmonious way imaginable-- think of how Conventum melds together folk music and classical music, how Maxophone blends classical with rock, how the recent Genre band combined rock with jazz, creating a completely coherent whole. And the best of them all created music that was not only original, but beautiful and harmonious.

Why is it so beautiful? We don't know exactly why music is harmonious to the human brain. But I believe that it has to do with the concepts of chaos and complexity, which are general features of many things in life and physics. Basically, we can say that life as a chemical phenomenon is on the border between random chaos and complex order, it has a very distinct uniqueness which appears to be chaotic but which is rather at the maximum possible complexity. It is difficult to differentiate between the two but I think the human brain has the ability to tell-- for sure to a chimpanzee the music we listen to is random noise, but to us who can interpret the acoustic signals in the maximum possible information-processing manner, it is not, on the contrary, it operates at the maximum possible complexity which is comprehensible to the brain. This, to me, is what progressive music is: the maximum information we can process as beautiful all in one package, on the border of chaos, almost at the point of collapse, always at the edge of the abyss of the fall... This is why these sudden chord changes and dissonances appeal so much-- they can't be random, they have to be based on the collective musical consciousness of humanity, the unconscious heritage locked into the acoustic cortical connexions and synapses that have been passed on to us through generations. Surely this is the summit of music, of musical ability. All the collective aspirations and achievements -- and rock with its energy and strength, jazz with its emotions, and classical music with its scientific accuracy, are all important bases, together they create a three-dimensional vector space that we become lost in as a world that is more spacious and potential that any world we can come across in reality... a kind of infinite-dimensional Hilbert space in which the vector state of absolute beauty resides in permanent platonic perfection...

For sure we know that Joachim Kuhn needs no introduction, anyone who doesn't know who he is should not be reading this, so as a treat I would like to present this lost album from another master shige rip, called "Information", from 1981, with included cover. It has moments of the wonderful Kuhn that we love so profoundly-- the master who created Cinemascope, Hip Elegy, Sunshower, Springfever, etc., all of which when I first heard about 6 years ago I thought I was going to die of joy, thanks to the wonderful one who first shared them to me, the great "master of prog" mentioned before, to whom I beg forgiveness every day... I think it's an important (lost) document for all those who love Kuhn. Track 2 (Miles) has a bit of that Manhattan Transfer unison jazz sound but moves into some advanced-level songwriting, track 3 (Dreamworld) has a cool atmosphere of mysterious progressive, and 7 (Line of fire) features the typical waterfall-like solo piano style and constant key-changes of the inimitable master.

In closing, I want to mention that despite the deep love of progressive we have, we have to keep this in perspective, there are very very few people in the world who share this 'bizarre hobby' as my wife calls it, maybe one in a million. We really should be working together and not trying to hoard rarities from each other like little trolls. We shouldn't be hiding stuff in basements everywhere but instead like a kind of monastic collective effort, everyone should be trying to preserve as much as possible by ripping everything they can for the coming dark ages and making as much available as freely as possible. We shouldn't be bitching to another about quality of this or that rip or so on, but appreciate we are brothers and we are in this together, working together for the preservation of a cultural treasure greater even than the gold and cemetaries of the Nile. I believe this a hundred percent & this is why I do this. Those who complain should understand we all work full-time and have very little free time-- this is all done as a labour of love in our spare time and it's not like I have a chance in hell of ever getting any financial reward or any other success with this. What a joke!! I could (and probably should) be blogging about my crazy children and the cute things they do and the many toys we buy for them every day, and thereby I could get a million-dollar book deal and endorsement from Toys-r-us, but I don't, because this music is my true passion.

Please-- keep your complaints to yourself... We are not a medical licencing authority here. Again, when I tell my wife about these matters, she laughs, she says, some of these people never leave their parents' basements, do you not realize this?... but her main point is this, ít's so unimportant in the long run, do you not realize...

Apprentice - Rough Draft 1982 (flac and mp3)

2011-03-16T14:39:00.006Z

On fire with a US fusion tear here, from the fantastic shige we have this amazing high-quality rip... This time from the early eighties, you can't mistake those digital keys and splashy drumming style. Musically this album is phenomenal, high energy and great composition. I step back for magister dixit:

"Rough Draft "Apprentice"(1982)...superb USA obscure jazz rock & fusion. Ripped from LP.
Track 7 is the masterpiece !!!!!
Equipments I used are....
turntable....DENON DP-47F
CD recorder....Pioneer PDR-D5
phono equalizer...ONKYO PE-155

James Pastman....Acoustic and Electric Piano,Mini,Micro Moog,Obertheim Polyphonic,Clavinet and Percussion
Mitch Hayes....Acoustic and Electric Guitars
Kenny Nugent....Bass
Jerry Leake....Vibes,Marimba,Hand Drums and Percussion
Frank Stauffer....Drums

Side One
1.Rough Draft (6:02)...James Pastman
2.Barnstorming (6:46)....JP
3.Prank (5:06)...JP
4.Charlie Brown (2:32)...Vince Guaraldi

Side Two
1.P.M.(Privately Maintained) (4:58)....JP
2.Freeze Frame (4:35)....Mitch Hayes
3.Time Change (6:54)....JP
4.It's in the Cards (3:24)....MH

Recorded at Sunset Sound Studios,LA,California,in 1981(?) or 1982(?)"

Very professionally played fusion by this experienced (albeit unknown) team, one throwaway song in the form of the christmas charlie brown song, I think the compositions are really outstanding, you can listen many times to this and always find new ideas to enjoy yourself with...
Track 5 ("privately maintained") reminds me a lot of Finnforest with the circular electric piano pattern and strong electric guitar statements starting with a windy-atmospheric beginning. Definitely my favourite for the aforementioned european sound. Digital strings make an appearance but thankfully are kept subdued in the background. A more unfortunate 80s-sound casio keyboard starts off the next track though-- is it possible we really loved that casio sound back then, 25 years ago? Hard to know. Track 7 is a more progressive shadowfax-like composition with a lot of energy and velocity to drive us through to the end.

Hopefully there can be no complaints about the high-quality, highly-competent rip here, tracklists are included for once in my posts. For those who hated my last two submissions and the fact they were put out publically rather than fantasized about in the privacy of a basement alone, I would appreciate more positive comments if there are any people who are thankful, which, of course, there may not be. Thanks to the two people who posted kind remarks to the last two albums. No thanks to those who complained about the Coalition post, I suggest maybe just deleting the file from your computer if you don't like it, you can right-click on the file if you want and press the 'delete' button.

It seems the old adage "say nothing if you have nothing good to say" has transmuted in blogs to: "only speak if you have a complaint." I don't want to sound too old, but honestly, I couldn't be the only one who finds it depressing that we encounter rudeness everywhere we go in this world today, and I know from travels, that this is a phenomenon that is pretty much worldwide except possibly certain small pockets of Hawai'i.

Finally, we all hope and wish for the best for the people of Japan in this unbelievable tragedy, whose repercussions will continue for a long long time.... A quote again from master Shige:

"Sometimes a little good.
Almost all bad.
They are our lives."

P.M.(Privately Maintained)...
Time Change...

Coalition - Mindsweepers 1975

2011-03-12T01:31:00.012Z

Continuing shortly on from the last fusion post of Genre here's another ultra-gem dug up out of the heaps of oblivion by osurec. This is from mid-seventies and without doubt has a bit more of the earlier Soft-Machine style of prog-fusion. Here are some of the peculiarities of this particular record that make it highly worth your while:
Starting with a strong opener in C minor with an unusual chord change to F sharp (?) we move into a sax solo interlude followed by a C major composed baroque-style canon. This to me harks back to Charlie Mingus' song of the same name (I think, because that track was also in C but I might be mistaken since I haven't heard it in years).

Side two starts with a march (believe it or not) in 7/4 alternating with 9/4 which gives it that jerky sound, starting with drums and flute, and then using some really tasty strange piano chords full of jazz-dissonances to accentuate the simple melody. We then get a G7 song that recalls spring especially with the constant flute solos hovering abovehead like a pesky songbird looking for peanut butter. This then crashes abruptly into a modal E song, that is, scale of diatonic C is used for solos, no sharps. Some incredibly tough gruff electric key chords, typical modal sounds stage rhodes soloing, before returning to the G7 theme.
Quite a good record and outstanding to hear something so unknown, turn out so good. They did a second album subsequently called "Birth"...

I can only repeat how rich the mine of fusion is from this period with seemingly no bedrock in sight still. This is especially true of german late-seventies fusion, to which I would like to turn attention to shortly. In this regard there is a huge amount of impossible to hear material out there, which some feel should be hidden from the masses of humanity. It confuses me why one would want to hide from fans music that they would love, when in the first place, there are so few fans of this style still around and about, and why someone feels they need to hide it from those very few fans who are probably diminishing year by year in number. Maybe someone can explain to me the rationale in the comments section without getting too rude in the process. What is without a doubt true is that the germans adopted the progressive fusion style (just as they mastered electronics and krautrock and developed them into artforms) and really ran with it, creating some of the most amazing high-energy jazz-rock in human history since the middle ages. This should be part of the german heritage but puzzlingly it is not. Of all countries it seems as if germans are the least cognizant of their progressive past.

Mindsweepers..

Genre - Commercial Success (US) 1978

2011-03-11T22:10:00.007Z

From the mighty osurec, "Unknown and Underrated US Jazz prog rock, they came from Albuquerque, private press issued in 1978"...
Of course, the title of the album alone makes one want to feature this. Is there a chance of commercial success for these highly professional and inventive artists in the year 2011, 33 years later? Well, when I hear what music other people are listening to, I am slightly doubtful but I am by nature a pessimist. I would love to hear an optimist's opinion.

For we who love progressive music we often find, especially now so late in the game, we have to mine fusion to find some of the crazy songwriting and willingness to experiment that are its hallmark. And of course it's amazing how much creativity went on in jazz in the period from early 60s to late seventies, even early eighties, when fusion became a reviled term (which I take it, it stills is today, in the 'music biz' and the general public). Personally, I prefer the real classical progressive music such as Genesis, but I feel we've run out of this classical style almost.
Let's start with the opening of this record where a drum crash leads to some insane triplets played unison style with electric guitar and keys, hyperfast, smashing into a sequence of chords that sound lifted from the best RtF chord changes. Subsequently a similar triplet series leads up to higher chords, then abruptly, before the minute mark, we switch tempos to a slow sequence with digital strings and some sustained chords. After some soloing this passes into some slower triplets that sound quite classically composed and then reiterates the triplets with synthesizer only to move on to a standard funk tune. All this in the same track. Virtually the whole thing could be studied as an exemplar of fusion in the late seventies, all styles are featured. The first side continues on into some light fusion sounds, which I understand, may not appeal to all. (I take it this 'soft fusion' is the reason fusion became anathema later on.) Pay attention to the end though, oddly enough an acoustic guitar solo closes it out. I wouldn't say it's the best composition but definitely it makes for a very varied record.

Side two features some more really eye-opening music. Electric guitar is front and centre throughout the record but in the first track we get some crazy Jimi Hendrix solo riffage after a bunch of minor second chord changes recalling alternative or early metal, like black sabbath. Subsequently a chromatic scale descends into the standard funky fusion style again that even we fans are getting a little tired of at this point. At least the energy never falters on side two, and the musicianship is superb. More ingenious riffs pop up out of nowhere, collapsing into almost metal-hard guitar patterns or thick chunky chords. Obviously this guitarist was not just a prodigy but had some brilliant ideas in his acoustic cortex. Side 2 closes out with an aggressive F sharp note on the guitar into an outro with a descending pattern of chords (what could be more fitting), like a fusionist's fadeout-- was it a fadeout to the whole concept of progressive and creative rock music for all mankind?

This is an outstanding example of how much thought can be put into one instrumental record. How unfortunate that this record and the players are unknown and relegated to that great big deleted bin in the sky.

Tracks:

SIDE A

1 Knock Out
2 Love Light
3 Auntie em
4 Just Messin' Around

SIDE B

1 All Mixed Up
2 On the Spot
3 Commercial Success
4 Love Light Reprise

Side A...

Jukka Linkola - Banana (1976)

2011-03-10T14:35:00.009Z

From wiki:
Jukka Tapio Linkola (born July 21, 1955 Espoo, Finland ) is a Helsinki-based jazz pianist , bandleader and composer. He studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki 1972-1980, and in addition has made a study trip to the United States. He served on the Helsinki City Theatre's conductor from 1979 to 1992.
[Note that this record thus comes from a 21 year old man!]

Infos from http://renewmusic.org/composers/linkola-jukka:
Composer, conductor and pianist Jukka Linkola began his career in jazz, but since the 1980s he has become better known as a composer of serious music. His repertoire as a composer is exceptionally large. It contains not only orchestral works, concertos and chamber music but also operas, songs, musicals and jazz. In all, 40 recordings of Linkola’s works have so far been released. Linkola has composed a wealth of music for the stage. In 1976 he composed the music for a production by the Dance Theatre Raatikko called “Banana”.

He composed the musicals “Peter Pan”, “Kallion kimallus”, “Peer Gynt” and “Boris Godunov” and the ballet “Näkki” for the Helsinki City Theatre, the musical “Max and Moritz” for the Theatre 2000 in Tampere, “Antti Puuhaara” for the Tampere Theatre and the musical “King Lear” for the TTT-Theatre of Tampere. In 1989 the Finnish National Opera commissioned a ballet for the story by Astrid Lindgren “Ronia the Robber’s Daughter... [long biography follows]

So we see again how brilliant music can be when a classical education is combined with willingness to delve in the realms of jazz and rock. I'm not surprised to read that this is music for dance since it has that extreme variety and change that is typical of ballet. We start with a very atmospheric opening, a sustained piano note (Linkola plays all keys) leading into a very pohjola or wigwam-like sequence of piano chords. Side one progresses into some fairly soft conventional light fusion sounds. By track 5 it seems the experimentation session has gotten started with those typical smooth sounding dark grooves that we often hear in northern european jazz combining electric piano and a lot of minor seconds.
Side two then proceeds into the stratosphere of musical ingenuity. I believe the sixth song is a copy or direct quote of Debussy's Cathedrale Engloutie with the right and left hands playing same chords but I may be wrong. The sense of drama starts to really build up. Track 7 returns us to euphony with a sax and acoustic guitar melody accentuated with electric piano arpeggios sounding like ibises flying off. A long track ensues with all kinds of styles cycling throughout, a more classical composed opening moves into finnforest style electric jazz ending in a gorgeous electric guitar solo and drum break. The prologue is quoted from again with the sustained piano notes, with a really out of this world spacey piano composition in the middle that to me all on its own makes the whole work priceless. The album curiously closes out with some very conventional chord changes on a light fusion sound-- I would almost call it a throwaway song.

What a work! As usual I can only pray someday this kind of music can be regarded rightfully as on a par with the more famous composers in the canon of western music.
Again mention should be made of the brilliant album cover showing barbed wire in closeup. How this refers to banana [republic?] I don't know.
Thanks to the crazy Maitre D for this album.

Bass - Ilkka Hanski
Guitar - Juhani Rantanen
Percussion - Jukka Linkola , Upi Sorvali
Piano, Synthesizer, Composed By, Arranged By - Jukka Linkola
Producer - Tommi Liuhala
Recorded By - Dan Tigerstedt
Saxophone, Flute - Pentti Lahti

[coming next up, back to smashing fusion with Genre - Commercial Success]

Valkoinen on kaunista...
Keskustelu...
Lakko...

Didier Bonin - L'air Lumiere 1982 (Private Pressing) {Bonus, Arbre-Verre 1979}

2011-03-08T22:24:00.009Z

From French rock discography:
"This is the versatile musician, guitarist and keyboardist Didier BONIN's first [act. second] production on which he offers a refined, suggestive, very beautiful and melodious music inviting the listener to dream and travel. The delicate chords of the acoustic guitar combine and mix with the gentle, flowing, spatial sounds of the keyboards to create a poetic, romantic and impressionist universe. "

I find very little information about this artist online, which is odd because the sheer professionalism of the playing and songwriting is astounding. Bonin's work sounds very much like french masterpiece Michel Moulinie's Chrysalide (for those familiar with it) or less so perhaps Claude Perraudin's Mutation 24. We have the very atmospheric 12-string acoustics with sustained and reverbed electric guitar melodies, all instrumentals, occasional use of synthesizers but mostly with delicate arpeggiated guitarwork front and centre. Because of the guitars I wouldn't describe this as electronic, though it has the 'mood' of electronic music i.e. introspective and thoughtful. There is that typically french melancholia and exquisite delicatesse in the music, such as you hear in for ex. Yves and Alain Lorentz Espaces and a lot of French library music e.g. Serge Bulot. Some of the songs feature dropped-D tuning to give that particularly droning sound to the chords. A lot of tritones as usual in progressive. Check out the insane chord progression in the song "Ecumes" (sea-foam) where D minor passes to G minor, but then suddenly ends in G7 (major) in the second part of the intro melody. Wow! That's what makes this kind of music so incredibly interesting to listen to. Bizarrely I'm reminded of the Smashing Pumpkin's Pisces Iscariot which had a couple of songs that had the same acoustic strumming with soft echoed electric guitar melody on top.

An amazing song called "Silences" features speaking at the start-- I could swear David Lynch copied this "Silenzio" for his brilliant movie Mulholland Drive where two-thirds through we have the abrupt switch from dreamland to horrible world of reality. However, the chance of him having heard Didier Bonin is surely zero. The sound of the synths in this track and the last one has that typical seventies intergalactic sound.

He made two albums, one in 1979 (Arbre-verre, glass tree) and one in the early eighties (Air-lumiere, or light-air), confusingly, two tracks from the latter appear on side one of the former, the aforementioned Ecume and Air-lumiere. Is it a case of self-plagiarism or self-homage? I don't know, I don't have the original vinyls to check, hopefully someone can enlighten us here without getting angry and confrontational in the process. The second side is distinctly inferior to the first, although it ends surprisingly in a classically dramatic D major suggesting to me the artist was classically trained in composition. I do feel this music is far too beautiful to be abandoned by the wayside in the cultural heritage of humanity. I hope I'm not the only one to believe this.

Ecumes...
Silences...

Crossfire Colourful Music

2011-03-07T17:18:00.008Z

One of the rarest of the rarest private pressed german albums from out of those magic seventies, we can thank the very generous contributor filfer for this share, an album which is quite impossible to find online if you for some crazy reason wished to buy it. Is it worth the rarity and price? Well I would leave that to the listener to decide since tastes are so varied especially in this progressive racket. Oddly for such a late seventies output the vibe is of fifties-sixties surf music with rickenbacker picking and quick and bouncy rhythyms. The singer seems to think he's doing late-fifties hollywood. Except for two instrumentals it is debatable whether this should be called progressive rock since most of the album consists of simple guitar songs. A couple riffs remind me of the early seventies aussie band Pirana, but the songwriting is nowhere nearly as good. If you didn't know it you would expect the date on this to be 1972 or thereabouts.
The first track starts strongly with some nice C sharp minor (?) riffage even leading into a nice rapid modulation. It builds up nicely to some guitar soloing which is quite good. Then we have this odd sounding organ chorus of take a trip to music, sounding like a cheap supermarket organ from the sixties -- anyone alive in that time might recall and shudder at the sound of the cheap electric organs of the day.
The second instrumental, a play on how high the moon, "How high Von Mohn" (reference--?) has another insteresting descending minor chord riff in C minor this time, and a break in the middle between passages features a very cool minor seconds scale on the choppy guitar. The following descending minor 7th set of chords is quite trite though.
I really wonder about the musicians' thoughts about this oddly anachronistic style. On "1000 stars" we hear an almost don ho-hawaiian guitar picked melody.
Mention must be made about the hilarious and playful cover of an ?elephant being chased, presumably a drawing made by one of the artists.
Artists:
Egbert Theissen (guitar, vocals, bass), Rainer Mussmann (guitar), Burghard Netthöfel (bass, vocals, guitar), Klaus-Dieter Junke (organ, piano, string ensemble), Udo Winkler (drums, percussion), Helmut Philipps (congas, timbales, percussion, drums), Jochen Vetter (drums, 1981)

Colourful Music...
Take A Trip To Music...

Avgrunden - "Nu Narmar Vi Oss..." {Sweden} [1975]

2011-02-14T01:32:00.002Z

Annorlunda skånsk rockplatta med en del progressiva drag. http://www.progg.se/band.asp?ID=54
Some info about band/album welcome...

A1. Signaturen (0:58)
A2. En annorlunda sommarvisa (3:37)
A3. Datamaskin (3:16)
A4. Skräckäventyr (6:04)
A5. Skånehöst (4:22)
A6. Gamsången (4:52)

B1. Mexico (6:24)
B2. Aldrig i livet (3:23)
B3. Avgrundlagen (2:51)
B4. Självkritik (3:37)
B5. Svenska gårdar (6:36)
B6. Signaturen (en gång till) (1:01)

- Janos Szakacs - Elgitarr
- Lars-Olof Nyström - Elbas, basfiol
- Raimo Juntunen - Fiol, maraccas, mandolin, munspel, sång
- Sven Olof Lorentzen - Klarinett
- Thomas Åkermark - Trummor
- Torbjörn Engström - Elpiano, sång, flygel

En annorlunda sommarvisa...
Skräckäventyr...
Gamsången...

Link in comments...

Resa - Lycklig Mardröm 1980

2011-01-24T18:42:00.004Z

I apologize for posting so much here but I wanted to unload a few albums that I've really loved a lot over time. Soon I will be going on winter holiday and then working more so will not be able to do much in the coming time. I apologize if I offend anyone by posting (or reposting) albums here but music is bigger than any of us, as I've said before. Music has been the centre of my life for all my many years, though it's not my career, it's everything else in my life excluding family. If these rare albums were available to buy on cd at local record stores, trust me I would be bringing boxes home every day. But they aren't, for whatever ridiculous reason. Though my basement is already full of CDs, cassettes, and records, there's still (always) room for more.

This record is a typical euro-jazz from the seventies, very smooth and accessible. Not so much fusion as acoustic-based stuff, like canadians contrevent; sax and guitars play most of the melodies sans paroles. Check out the cover painting, it really melts my heart-- probably because it reminds me of the art that was current in the seventies so it takes me back to childhood again.

Compositions are relatively straightforward, not like the smooth (jazz) stuff that was all over radio in the early 80s, a little bit more clever and composed. This is the difference with European jazz and fusion, I which I'd known about it back when I loved jazz, it's more composed and more ingenious and dare I say it, less boring without the long and tedious sax and bass solos typical of the American style. To me the highlight is track 5, which uses some really nice Wayne Shorter type phrases on top of quite ingenious chords and repeated modulations. By the last track you may find yourself lullabyed to sleep, but the finish is quite gentle and relaxing with acoustic guitar on piano arpeggios, so try to wake up for it if you can.
These guys did another album in 1974 called Crazy Squares that in my opinion is not as good, I think it's easy to find.

5 - Restrött...
8 - Födselande...

Dune - Le chien des dunes (1973)

2011-01-23T21:41:00.006Z

Dune is said to be the best selling science fiction novel of all time. It was written by Frank Herbert and published in 1965. Those of my age group will remember from childhood many kids carrying the heavy book under their arms in grade school or high school and referencing Paul Atreides or Duncan Idaho knowingly to the annoyance of the rest of us. It had an enormous influence on progressive music in particular, the most obvious being french zeuhl band Dun. A younger cohort will recall the disastrous David Lynch movie version with Kyle MacLachlan released in 1984, often seen in lists of worst movies ever. I never saw it so I can't speak for it. The book (I didn't bother to read that either) is about human struggles set far in the future of the order year 20,000 or thereabouts over control of a desert planet and a spice melange which extends life.

I can't resist saying it again, how high our hopes were back then in the sixties and seventies. It seemed so natural to go from landing on the moon to exploring our milky way galaxy. In fact landing on the moon was made possible by the fact that peak oil was only a couple of years away for the United States, it had to do with the cheapness of energy. No human being will ever land on the moon again. We are stuck on this planet now which we are steadily destroying. Many studies have suggested that extended periods of weightlessness adversely affect bones (5% loss of bone per year) and the circulatory system, leading to constant fainting on returning to gravitational conditions. Now an elegant recent study showed that zebrafish embryos raised in microgravity developed cranial defects-- obviously normal embryonic development requires the presence of gravity. Earlier studies had indicated in other species the possibility space travel affects reproduction. How likely is it the same would happen to pregnant women on an interstellar space flight lasting decades? Very likely unfortunately, any cursory study of embryology shows that the complicated timing of development relies on many external signals of which gravity has to be an important though little-understood factor. So appropriately enough, if we sent out a colonizing group of people out for a long space trip to a habitable planet (and how would those be chosen in the first place? through Oprah?) it is likely only deformed mutants would arrive safely at the end of their voyage. And I'm sure that has been written about in a science fiction short story somewhere before.

The group's name is probably from the famous book given its popularity back then (not sure), however the songs have nothing to do with it, they are ordinary-lyricked acoustic pop songs in the very smooth french style, like Chemin Blanc. The quality of the songwriting is very high. The second song, "La fille…" (girl I never held hands with) e.g. starts with a gorgeous 12-string B minor arpeggio progression then moves to a G major stanza, then G minor sust., F major, and quite beautifully the singer sings us down back to B minor, this modulation is worth paying attention to since it's an unusual sequence, F to B minor. The lyrics are about a childhood crush, very poppy puppy-love ultra-saccharine melancholy typical seventies but it really takes me back to my own innocent childhood and the deep deep yearnings of the time -- example lyrics : "she was hiding her face I wonder if she was hiding a smile or tears". Note also the beautiful mellotron strings that accompany the B minor descending progression.

The other standout songs are track 4, "Le fugitif" -- beautiful acoustic guitar intro leads to a chorus smothered in gorgeous mellotron sounds, for 'la chevauchee' (action of a horse running) -- here the effect of the sustained mellotron chords as well as high-pitched electric piano chords is to enhance the feeling of a horse racing, quite amazingly well done. I once again repeat myself about how these songs deserve to be played on the radio for people driving to work instead of the usual Simon and Garfunkel you hear every morning. And track 9, "Le Tableau" which actually has quite poetic lyrics as well, simply the singer with a guitar and a handful of brilliant chord changes. This is as great as songwriting gets, in my opinion. Is it coincidence that it occurred in the early 70s? No way.

In style I would say this album is in the french tradition with acoustic instruments mostly-- like Tangerine, but with highly competent compositions, quite a bit of mellotron and unusual modulations everywhere to keep our interest. Lyrics of course are typical pop stuff. A good example of the surprising modulations is seen in the bridge of the song "Chien des dunes" where it sounds as if they go through twelve different keys. This kind of thing is not often heard on current radio where the average song for sure has of the order 3.6 chords in the whole thing all in same key. I don't know who ripped this originally but I thank them and would like more than anything that as many people as possible now hear this little, impossibly rare french gem that up until now has been lost to time and space, undeservedly.

La Fille dont je n'ai jamais pris la main...
Le fugitif...

Kazimierz Lux C.S. 1972 (Net)

2011-01-23T02:30:00.010Z

One of my greatest favourite seventies rock-prog albums, by famous brainbox singer Kaz Lux, who also did the amazing Eli album with Akkerman (their second collaboration Transparental was more disappointing)
Since my posts are quite repetitive in content and I assume almost no one reads them through I will simply summarize as 'bullet' point form in powerpoint style the usual commentary and then segue into the usual doom and gloom discourse unrelated to musical content in the classic teutonic style of writing (e.g. Nietzsche, Kant, Schopenhauer, etc.)
-this kind of 70s songwriting is a 'lost art' (cf. Memo Kurt album from earlier)
-skill comes from extensive musical education which is rare today (i.e. classical music education)
-this record is better than 90 % of what you can hear on so-called 'top 40' radio today
-I cannot fathom why albums like this are so unknown, so rare, they certainly don't deserve to be, therefore,
-the 'artistic test of time' whereby great works endure and lesser ones die, is complete and utter rubbish when it comes to music today
-the combination of rock, classical, jazz created a style in the seventies that has never been emulated, in terms of quality, imagination, inventiveness (not applicable to this album)
-covers of prog albums in this period were incredibly beautiful works: paintings, photos, drawings as in this case, deserving almost of being shown in museums of art, definitely this album applies, check out that outrageous Max Ernst-like Boschian graphite (?) surreal image, artist -- ?
-all my apologies for poor bitrate on this album, not my fault, I've stolen all these rips and have gotten plenty of flak for this, not that I lose sleep over it
-if this has been posted before, shoot me-- or to quote from the great Robert Plant, 'suck my lemon till the juice runs down my leg' [The Lemon Song]
-this blogging about prog is a thankless and time-consuming job so please no negative comments, this is truly a labour of love and I would just as soon not do it, instead go cook some spicy spaghetti sauce
-my children are crazy, and my wife and I are exhausted and close to death, and finally,
-humanity is probably doomed, due to peak oil, and accelerating climate change.

-when I first read about Brendan Carter's doomsday argument [1986] many years ago I felt like I was hit on the head by a hammer, I couldn't sleep for several nights. How was this possible? Coming from a science-math background it seemed to be relatively unassailable. I had been brought up in the 70s when it was pretty much taken for granted that humanity would travel to the most distant galaxies, we were invincible now... But it wasn't until years later when I learned more about these issues such as resource depletion and climate change that I realized it was telling us something profound, that there was a good chance we were fated for extinction too, like so many other animals we have doomed by our hands, appropriately enough.
In short the argument boils down to this-- why were we born in this time? Why now, why not in the 1800s say, or more cogently, why not in the 3000s or 4000s when humanity supposedly will colonize the stars and galaxies, and develop into a species of many trillions or more individuals? Wouldn't it be more likely to be born then?? Why are we here now in the pathetic 20th-21st centuries?
Could it be we are born in this time-- because it's the likeliest time for a given human to be born? In other words, we are in the middle of the bell curve-- the population will crash quite soon--? (bear in mind that since we evolved 70-100,000 years ago 'soon' means in the next few thousand years! not tomorrow) Well, calculations show that 6-10 percent or so of all homo sapiens who EVER LIVED are alive now. Well when you look at the problems we face this doesn't seem to be too unlikely after all. This is Brendan Carter's doomsday argument, which can be made statistically rigorous with Bayes' Theorem, which used to be controversial in statistics but is no longer so. Of course the theorem depends on the idea of expert interpretation and prior probability. Is the prob. of humanity going extinct very small or very high?? Anyone can give reasons for either one this is a matter of judgement. All the argument can do is amplify the risk-- if you think it's likely then you should be very worried, because it sure looks like we are in the middle of a bell curve of population. Statistically the argument is quite unassailable, be aware that a lot of physicists and mathematicians have taken a close look at it and there is no really good refutation other than to say, it is impossible for humanity to go extinct. But then, this is a bio-sociological opinion, no longer mathematical. And in biology, unfortunately, all species go extinct sooner or later!!
Why couldn't a group of lemmings, say, at the start of their population explosion, say the same thing, not knowing the explosion will last a long long time? Well this is where it matters that we can say to ourselves self-reflectively, why are we here now. Because the lemmings cannot do this. Nor could our 5000 year old ancestors, they didn't have the insight into math and population dynamics to ask themselves this question. They didn't know their population was rising, very slowly. They would never even have thought this, they assumed they lived in a steady-state equilibrium. Everything is different for us, now. This is the curse of self-awareness again.
They aren't here now -- but we are, and we are asking ourselves this, why are we born today in this time? The reason is : Because it's the likeliest time for a self-reflecting, intelligent (math-educated) human to be born. Not in the year 1000, nor in the year 4000, but now.

[From rateyourmusic vinyl review, thank you to the user who wrote this great note:]
What I have here is: the CD version of CS (with the whole 'Distance' as bonus or vice -versa.)
I play Kazimierz already over 35 years...I still love it.
Don't expect an amatourish [sic] album...oh no...this is a warm quiet melancholic album, with excellent jammin' rock, some 'country and folk rock' and brought with Kaz unique high soulish voice.
.....momento.. go upstairs to find the original vinyl cover ...coz' no info here.....and I need something to have in my hands...
...I'm back...didn't knew I have all his vinyl albums twice..
Just what I thought: Kaz is only singing on this and the cast is the old 'Brainbox' without Jan Akkerman.
Favourite tracks:
'Graveyard'..this one reminds me very much to the better Janis Joplin tracks (also the vocal part)...Summertime....
'Delayed Panic' a simple warm 'country rock' track.
'Brown Chrystal': A good progressive track...but as 'single' an unevitable flop....this is not commercial.
'The Change'the track I like the most...it's simple and gives Kaz voice the chance to develop in it's own way:this has to be the single !
But also the tracks I didn't mention are above average.

This one is for real album lovers from 'Blind Faith' over 'Janis Joplin' to 'Neil Young, Byrds, Gram Parsons'
Spooner Oldham-Dann Penn compositions would sound great with this voice.
[end quote]

Personally this reminds me of the otger dice I posted a long time ago here, classic rock with melancholy tinges, basic rock with a lot of soul singing in the old seventies style, as you all know Kaz Lux had a fantastic voice, really beautiful deep stoned stones-ish baritone, with a lot of feeling. I really love also his singing on Eli, with Akkerman. I'm just repeating myself here, why in hell are this album's songs not on the radio, on satellite radio every morning I drive to work??????? Will I ever live to hear this happen? I doubt it.

Graveyard...
Delayed Panic...

Moonlight - "The Edge" {Finland} [1978]

2011-01-19T22:21:00.003Z

I couldn't found any info on net, line-up is from back cover, more info are welcome

A1 Nomore
A2 Free
A3 Almost
B1 I'm Not in the Mood
B2 Little Miss Pretty
B3 Dream About You
B4 O.M.C.
B5 Nomore Reprise

- Paul Kanerva (bass)
- Kim Trapp (keyboards)
- Bob Wasenius (drums, vocals)
- Andy Winter (guitar,vocals)

Almost...
Dream About You...

Link in comments....

Toshiaki Yokota & Primitive Community - "Primitive Community" {Japan} [1971]

2010-12-24T17:00:00.004Z

Merhaba dostlar! What we got here is probably Japan's best kept secret. For somedays i was amazing myself listening this album over and over again. Toshiaki Yokota's "Flute Adventure" album is one of my favorite, and i was wondering "Primitive Community" like many others. Since album is private press, 300 copies were made, and since it costs some thousands; we wanted everybody to taste this delicious album. My regards and thanks goes to Toshiaki Yokota himself, to give me a chance to introduce this album to you. A real treasure for the lovers of 70s prog/fusion..

"Born in 1944 in Tokyo. Started his musical carrier at 17 years old. Led his own group 'The Beat Generation' and 'Primitive Community' for 10 years, as well as playing lead flute in Takeshi Inomata's Sound Limited. A pioneer of jazz flute in Japan. Now, He lives in Izu-Inatori and maintains his own studio with beautiful and magnificient sea view. There Yokota creates his original instruments taking nature for a friend. The instruments created by Yokota are mainly fue(Japanese flute or pipe),that is shakuhachi, ceramic flute,YAYOI-BUE and other original instruments of his own ideas. He has been doing several live performances using those instruments."

"Toshiaki Yokota and Genshi Kyodotai is at the meeting place of jazz and rock. That exciting time at the turn of the 1970 decade, long before what is commonly referred to as fusion, when the ambition of free jazz met with rock's exciting psychedelic nature. It wasn't important to display Berklee-trained chops, but rather it was about texture, atmosphere and creativity at its most radical. But fortunately it stops short of free jazz's reckless abandon - that point where it's just noise for the sake of noise. There is meaning to every note, instrument and pattern. As well, we get a peek-through-the-bushes look at a Japanese sacrificial ritual as described by the tribal drumming, Hammond organ shards, wordless monk chanting, Yokota's flute and Mizutani's acid fuzz guitar blazing a wah wah trail all to be one with Kami. And that's before we get to the Hare Krishna chorus. An album like this becomes mythical because it is mystical. It's in the same league of sixth dimensioners like Älgarnas Trädgård's "Framtiden Är Ett Svävande Skepp, Förankrat I Forntiden", Lula Côrtes e Zé Ramalho's "Paêbirú" or Pierrot Lunaire's "Gudrun". If Rolf-Ulrich Kaiser had heard this band, they would have been signed to the Ohr label on the spot...read more here"

Toshiaki Yokota and Primitive Community
Toshiaki Yokota (Flute / Indian / Alto&Bass Flute), Shunzou Ohno (Trumpet), Kimio Mizutani (Elec. Guitar), Kimio Koizumi (Elec. Bass / Acorstic Base), Yuhsuke Hoguchi (Hamond Organ), Larry Sunaga (Percussion), Pedro Umemura (Percussion), Tadaomi Anai (Percussion), Yoshinori Nohmi (Percussion), Fujio Saitoh (Percussion), Minoru Ishiyama (Percussion), Chito Kawachi (Drums)

related links;
http://tutibuefuki.inatori.info/e/index.html
http://www.youtube.com/user/fuefukijp
http://unencumberedmusicreviews.blogspot.com/2010/12/toshiaki-yokota-beat-generation-flute.html
http://cdreissuewishlist.blogspot.com/2010/12/toshiaki-yokota-and-genshi-kyodotai.html
http://www.amazon.com/Flute-Adventure-Toshiaki-Yokota/dp/B000M5BADO/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1214246350&sr=8-10

hAre kRishNA...

our thanks goes to Shige :)

Dew - "Live" Nunoya Fumio 布谷文夫 {Japan} [1971]

2010-12-18T14:53:00.008Z

Dew was formed in January 1970. Dominated by vocalist Fumio Nunoya, ex-singer with New Rock act Blues Creation and Group Sounds act The Bickies, both of which he had formed with Kazuo Takeda, in 1969. Nunoya was also with band Taboo whom he formed with future Happy End star Eiichi Otaki. Evidence of only two Dew songs survive, both recorded at the Genya Protest Festival, and both featuring on the soundtrack LP on Elec Records. However, the band split up soon afterwards. http://www.japrocksampler.com/artists/japrock/dew/

1 Empty Bed Blues
2 Hurt
3 The Summer Is Over
4 Hoochie Coochie Man
5 Pair-Blues
6 My Angel
7 Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

- Fumio Nunoya (vocals)
- Hisao Ono (guitar)
- Tsuneo Matsumoto (bass)
- Masami Naito (drums)

1 Empty Bed Blues...
3 The Summer Is Over...
6 My Angel...

Link in comments...

Everfriend - "Sphere of Influence" {USA} [1981]

2010-12-08T18:03:00.001Z

Here's an interesting discovery, if I do say so myself! Totally unknown private press LP by this band, who seems to have been mainly the project of keyboardist Bill Rhodes. It's hard to tell where he was actually from, because the album was recorded with a few different lineups at a number of separate times (1978-1981) and places (New Jersey, Florida, Georgia) and there's no label address on the sleeve. Anyway, it displays an interesting mixture of styles, from spacey and classically influenced keyboard pieces featuring tons of vintage gear (including Mellotron!) to full-blown complex symphonic prog and even some weird synth-fronted jazz-rock. This one could only have come from the US prog underground. It just totally has that "feel", if you know what I mean. I do know that he/they released an equally obscure album in 1980 called "Tropicsphere", and there might be one more from later on as well (I seem to remember seeing it once, but can't remember clearly). I'll definitely be trying to track those down now, as I find this album strangely endearing and have listened to it many times since I picked it up.

Given the Time...

thanks to fusionaut :)

J.F. Murphy & Salt - "Last Illusion" {USA} [1973]

2010-11-26T15:42:00.003Z

J.F. Murphy & Salt made a huge impact in late 60s and early 70s rock, forming a New York band that achieved cult-like status. Part of the hippie/psychedelic movement, J.F. Murphy & Salt played at the legendary debacle, Powder Ridge Rock Festival.
Aside from the rampant use of recreational drugs, this period in rock developed a political dimension that couldn't be ignored. J.F. Murphy & Salt remains a legend in this era, giving listeners of that era fond rock memories. http://www.fabu.com/brand/jfmurphysalt

01 Sweet Byrd
02 Which One
03 Teenage Fantasy
04 Touched by Love
05 Bell Toll
06 New York City-Home
07 Man Who is Alone
08 Last Illusion

- J.F. Murphy (lead vocals, piano, guitar)
- Ron Allard (background vocals, bagpipes, soprano saxophone, alto saxophone, tenor saxophone, flute, tambourine)
- George Christ (background vocals, harmonica, vibraphone, congas, maracas, chimes)
- Bob Paiva (drums)
- Joe Parrino (background vocals, lead guitar, trombone, flute)
- Russell Warmolts (background vocals, bass)

Last Illusion...

Link in comments...

A.Vuolo & E.Grande - "Desert" {Italy} [1979]

2010-11-15T19:58:00.003Z

Very rare italian library record from 1979 containing the great electronic tune "Transvesuvian" a cosmic sound track a la Tangerine Dream and other great funk, fusion, progressive and ambient tracks.
But there's also a bit more warmth too, a sensitivity that makes the longer tunes really shimmer and sparkle nicely, and although a sound library set, the tracks have a much deeper sense of composition.
Some tracks sounds like they were taken from a horror film(Goblin), and especially "Leaving", "Blow bubbles" and "Creation". http://www.italianprogrock.com/album.php?id=687

Side 1
1 Take Flight 5:00
2 Drops In The Wind 4:22
3 Leaving 4:23
4 Soft Melody 2:09

Side 2
1 Desert 4:50
2 Blow Bubbles 3:31
3 Transvesuvian 3:42
4 Creation 2:26
5 The End 1:28

- Antonio Vuolo: Keys
- Rino Diaferio: Guitar, Bass
- Elio Grande: Bass

Thanks to Elitario :)

Leaving...
Transvesuvian...
Creation...

Link in comments...

Thomas & Henry Kiefer "Improvisationen Über Edoardo-Antonius Eumel" {Switzerland} [1980]

2010-11-05T13:40:00.002Z

Instrumental progressive duo, the Kiefer brothers on guitars. ...more info about this band/album is welcome

Thanks to KC :)

link in comments...

Profondità - "Profondità" {Italy} [197X] Prog/Psych

2010-11-04T15:47:00.004Z

oi meu amigos! hope you are all well and enjoying whatever you are doing. for me this album is italians' best kept secret for 70s psychedelic rock. i was searching this album for such a long time, and i feel glad to find it. unfortunately i couldnt find enough information for this album, the only review i found is, at ItalianProg site, says;
"Doppio album del astierista / compositore Paolo Ferrara uscito per una piccola etichetta, Profondità è quasi completamente strumentale e contiene musica originale in stile colonna sonora, con qualche somiglianza con i Pink Floyd. I 19 brani dell'album sono quasi totalmente basati sulle tastiere con l'ausilio sporadico di altri strumenti e parti cantate corali. Paolo Ferrara compare come autore ed esecutore di diversi altri dischi." while copy/paste was my friend, google translate might be yours. A hidden treasure for the lovers of early pink floyd..

AlChiMiA...
EmbRioNe...

thanks to tristan stefan :)

Enjoy!

April Orchestra Volume 28

2010-10-30T02:37:00.008Z

[from wikipedia] Jirí Stivín (born 23 November 1942 in Prague) is a Czech flute player and composer. He graduated from the Film Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (FAMU). He also studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music as well as at the Prague Academy of Music (AMU). Some of his compositions are featured in this album by April Orchestra. This seems to have been an easy-listening type orch. that published all kinds of dross over the years. Surprisingly there is no wikipedia entry for it, and only a brief one for Mr. Stivin. Note that the April O. Volume featured on Stivin's website, oddly enough, is not the same as this one. However, as pure music, this record has provided me personally with no end of enjoyment, listening to it again today I can go without hitting the fast forward button excessively, which is saying a lot after spending the last 10 years (with 4 year break) listening to an average of 5 albums per day, cumulatively, about 10,000. (Could it really be that few??) The fact that this otherwise ordinary orchestra could produce something so advanced in 1978 is a testament again to the progressive nature of the times.

We start with the Stivin Sanguine humour composition (which is taken from his zodiac album, a progressive masterpiece). It has a string quartet opening that shows his academic training, leading to an odd piano-comped flute ditty. The second track starts with a blues intro but swiftly leads into some insane horn chords and then an ingenious chromatic riff, basically big band meets king crimson perhaps. Next track uses wah wah trumpet on top of C minor, relatively throwaway, as is the next song. Many would love these 'funk breaks' I think but for non-prog reasons. On track 5 we get some twilight zone dissonances and then some early seventies style riffs. Track 7, Festival, has some Charlie Mingus touches. The next one "More Klidu" again feels like it belongs to an earlier epoch, with the breathless Nouvelle Vague female vocals singing on top of a very soft electric piano obbligato, the melody seconded by a bassoon (?) of all things. Very interesting arrangement. What a shame this track was not developed further into a pop song. Cholerici is again a Stivin composition from Zodiac, some really interesting violin sweeps in the string quartet appear with some clarinet (?) melodies and dissonant chords off the harpsichord. This is the kind of track that kills me because it's not performed in lieu of Brahms (or more appropriately Bartok) at the local symphony or chamber orchestra. Mr. Stivin obviously spent quite some time writing this piece and what credit does he get for it in the annals of music? Just some silly paragraphs on a blog in the virtual blogosphere.
More funky tracks ensue, another wordless female track in "sen o zemi" this time with some really interesting orchestral strings accompaniment-- reminds me a lot of Joachim Kuhn in the cinemascope period, or Abraxis (Belgian) with the really colourful mixture of orchestra, piano, and vocals in an accessible (easy-listening-style) format. The last track sounds like a jazz q song, probably someone annoying can correct me here. They again use the minor second for that devilish sound that prog (and fusion, Urbaniak and Mahavishnu) loves so much, how many songs do you hear start with an electric guitar doing the minor second arpeggio on a minor chord? Always we sit back and pray that it doesn't turn into a song with E minor then F major over and over again, that gets so boring when there's only 2 chords in the entire song. At least 2 chords is better than german trance stuff where typically we never get past the E. At least try a different key, guys, maybe B minor, for a change.

I wish there was more information to be found on this whole album other than my own solipsistic interpretation of it through little earbuds but of course to me that doesn't matter at all, the only thing that matters to me is that this music be heard by more people, the maximum in fact.

I hope earlier comments about my children were not misunderstood, I truly love them of course and was only joking about them being terrifyingly abnormal. Since then I must say I have had quite a reaction on my 'mommy blog' (which is my dayjob now, I quit my other dayjob setting licencing standards for dogs, I get a lot of money now from the mommy blog, not as much as Julie and Julia mind you, but that's because my name isn't as catchy, and maybe because I'm not actually a mother) from my prime advertisers (pampers, wetwipes and First Response pregtest kit) threatening to hold off all ads until I recant and swear in a lie detector coupled with a chocolate MRI that I truly do love them. Looks like my long-sought after hollywood movie deal which was supposed to star Julia Roberts as the mom, Jamie Lee Curtis as the dad, and the Jon and Kate sextuplets as my 2 kids (they were to alternate in different scenes) is going to fall through as a result, leading to millions of dollars in losses for myself and my wonderful money manager, Bernie Madoff. Nora Ephron was supposed to pen the screenplay, on a paper napkin. And for director we had of course Ron Howard from Happy Days, along with Emmanuel Lewis as the older boy with a cameo from Pierce Brosnan as the king of England. I want to add that I am getting tired of all these other mommy blogs, do people really have nothing better to do than talk about their crazy kids all day long while seeing them all day, do they have to bore other people about them too? I swear when my wife returns to earth I will withdraw from all my advertising contracts, even the one I just inked with wonderbra. I just wish she would get back from her spacewalk so I could phone her on her cellphone I'm sick and tired of the older guy knocking over the baby. Finally, I would like to sincerely apologize to Pampers and Wetwipes for any malicious emails they received from angry readers, to Firstresponse for any women unwilling to get pregnant as a result of my comments leading to loss of sales, and to my kids' mother (for my help in producing these guys).

Domáci votna mezi telem a dusi...
Den Svatebni...

Skyeros - "Skyeros" {USA} [1975] Prog/Psych

2010-10-29T14:13:00.004Z

Here's an album that's somewhat coveted by collector's of the underground American scene. These guys were from Missouri and released this one rare private press LP before disappearing into total obscurity. It's become quite expensive over the years, probably due to being mentioned in collector books like Acid Archives, the Pokora guides, etc (also, it has a great trippy cover). I'm not so sure the hype is really warranted, but it's definitely not a bad listen. Quite melodic, guitar-fronted prog/psych with a very "rural rock" feel, which was very common for underground US groups at the time. by Fusionaut

01 Daily Dreams
02 Don't Give Me No Alibis
03 Searchin'
04 With Or Without You
05 Homecoming
06 August - Suite In Time

- Steve Wright - bass, vocals
- Bill Sikes - lead guitar
- John Danieley - twin lead
- Rodney McCarron - keyboard, vocals
- Karl Lawson - percussion, vocals

Thanks to Fusionaut :)

Searchin'...
August - Suite In Time...

link in comments...

Orpheus - "Orpheus" {Japan} [1983]

2010-10-22T01:37:00.006Z

Mega rare Japanese Sympho item. Only LP released. Novela vein
more info welcome

A1. 剣の舞 tsurugi no mai 4:07
A2. マーメイド mermaid　9:49
A3. 組曲「レ・シルフィード」Les Sylphides Suite 13:49
B1. 愛の妖精　ai no yousei 5:09
B2. 組曲「死と少女」shi to shoujo Suite 14:26 (is Scheherazade's original tune)

Mermaid...
Les Sylphides Suite...

link in comments...

Varis - "Varis" {Germany} [1979] (jazz rock)

2010-10-21T19:58:00.005Z

Here's one of the most obscure of the "kraut fusion" LPs from the late 70s, the sole private press album from Varis.
I couldn't found any info on net, line-up is from back cover, more info are welcome

01 - Flink
02 - Ophelia
03 - Ostinato
04 - Moonlight Voice
05 - Superpono
06 - Anno 77
07 - Locus Solus
08 - Ralfi Rock Einmal

- Ralf Pallmann, b, e-b
- Bjorn Gogolf dr
- Karl-Heinz Engelhardt, ta as, fl voc
- Andrey Hiebarolf, g
- Marlin Shaclow e-p

Thanks to Fusionaut :)

Flink...
Ostinato...

link in comments...

August - "August" {Japan} [1989] (cassette only release)

2010-10-21T19:17:00.008Z

This is thier first recording.

Mega rare item!
To the fans of Renaissance, Illusion, Vermilion Sands

A1 -「秋」aki (means...autumn) 5:56
A2 -「蛍」hotaru(means ....firefly) 2:27
B1 -「マグリット風の空」Magritte fuu no sora (means...the sky like Magritte painted) 5:06
B2 -「ある手品師の話」aru tejinashi no hanashi (means...the story a magician told) 7:28

工藤美鈴（Vo） Misuzu Kudoh
河合良典（G） Yoshinori Kawai
高田礼人（Kb）Ayato Takada
菅野荘（B）Sou Kanno
小野寺寿勝（Dr） Kotokatsu Onodera ( during 88-89)

A1
B2

link in comments...

Maffy Falay Sevda "Jazz I Sverige" {Sweden} [1972] (turkish folk fusion)

2010-10-18T03:29:00.003Z

It was in 1972 that the first album awarded with the title "Jazz in Sweden" came out on Caprice Records. This was the result of a poll running in the two music magazines OJ (Orkesterjournalen) and Tonfallet in late 1971. The readers where asked to vote for a group or an artist that they would most like to be recorded and released on an album. The first album was the group of trumpeter Maffy Falay - SEVDA. Over the years the award has helped to bring forward many of Sweden's active jazz musicians. The award, which nowadays also includes a national and international tour, can be seen as a stepping stone for upcoming jazz musicians. The goal is to help them build a solid foundation for their future careers as active artists. http://www.myspace.com/jazzinsweden

Maffy Falay / Sevda - “Jazz I Sverige ‘72” (Caprice)
Sevda is a unique fusion of Turkish music and Swedish jazz, which grooves naturally in exotic time signatures (like 7/8 and 9/4), blending textures, rhythms and swinging improvisations into an exciting whole. It was recorded live at a TV studio, and at the time nobody had any idea it would be issued as a record. On drums is the great Okay Temiz, who also played with Don Cherry for some time. http://www.dustedmagazine.com/features/754

Double Bass - Ove Gustavsson
Drums - Okay Temiz
Goblet Drum - Akay Temiz , Okay Temiz
Saxophone [Baritone], Flute [Chinese] - Gunnar Bergsten
Saxophone [Tenor], Flute [Silver] - Bernt Rosengren
Trumpet, Flugelhorn, Piano, Flute [Indian], Arranged By - Maffy Falay*
Violin - Salih Baysal

Tamzara...
BatuM...

thanks

2010-10-18T02:32:00.001Z

Friends, as you know prognotfrog was invite-only during 2 days.. During that days, we got massive response from many folks.. unfortunately there is no option to make aware others for what was going on.. and as you also see, things on the site is not finished yet, but anyway, we decided to open it. it was just about that the frog was preparing itself for the next 1000 years :)

Most of the sections are not working currently, but there is plenty of fun to enjoy the new site, so you may comeback to look again to those sections with in a few weeks..

Stay Progressive :)

Confluence 4 Voyages1976

2010-09-23T13:37:00.007Z

Here we have the final unavailable French Confluence album (chronologically the first). The second and third albums, Arkham and Chroniques Terrestres, were made available at mutant sounds some time ago. As far as I know this one was not before online, but it's nice to complete the work of this undeservedly unknown band.

"Quietly gorgeous French jazzy prog of a very airy, languid and spacious sort, often focused around the wistful cello work of Jean-Francois Capon, whose devastating outfit Baroque Jazz Trio recently had their one eponymous album reissued. One of France's great undiscovered treasures" is the surprisingly subdued description from mutant sounds of Arkham. I would say that it is actually chamber jazz, with a very well worked melding of chamber orchestra (a lot of violin, flute, cello, double bass) and jazz. Less rock is in this recipe. Unfortunately one of the jazz elements employed is the long tedious and boring jazz solo. I defy anyone to listen thru the last track without fastforward. This long "4 voyages" (through the sahara desert no doubt?) drags on quite too long before finishing in a gorgeous flute and violin passage using second notes on top of minor chords for that oh so plaintive effect. It is debatable whether the trip to that last 2 minutes was worth the wait.
I'll never understand why jazz musicians felt it was ok to throw in ten minutes of pointless, aimless soloing instead of taking the time to compose some actual music with structure and purpose. I mean live, it's OK since you're sitting there essentially with no choice to leave, but on an album it's unforgivably boring.

Anyways, having said that, it seems to be a live album on the basis of applause at the end of tracks. I think the composer is a genius, and obviously studied composition somewhere because his ideas are so interesting, the standout in 'songwriting' being the third track "convergences". So he could have, as in the chronique terrestres album, written more actual music versus improv.

These progressive musicians wrote a kind of music that has no rules, they use rock, jazz, and european classical in equal measure to create a whole that is perfectly harmonious and has no borders or styles. In my life I listened to modern classical, even Berg and Schoenberg, to jazz, to rock, and I feel like with this music I have come home, it has everything I have looked for in a lifetime of listening to music, all in one package. I hope you who enjoy this agree.
But when I come to work and on the radio I hear for the ten thousandth time "Signs signs everywhere there's signs" playing it fills me with despair at the human condition.
To return to Confluence, I think the next two albums are better than this one, esp. the final album appears to be the most accessible. A lot of the music in this one even I find a little hard going (almost atonal). At least it's not weirdly strange like the unobstructed universe I posted earlier.

On a personal note, I wish I could post more albums but time constraints are again a problem with wife returning to work as a spaceperson (astronaut) and two small children which I have a lot of trouble to get rid of. Surely when they finally go to school (1-2 years from now) I will devote more time to this "weird, weird strange hobby" (my wife's words) of sharing progressive albums from the seventies ("Long before I was born???" as my receptionist always says). A lot of people suggest to get a nanny but I wouldn't inflict these terrible, abnormal children, on any human being no matter how patient.

4 Voyages...

3L (Love, Live, Life) - "10 Chapters Of Murder - from Colin Wilson's 'Encyclopaedia of Murder'" {Japan} [1971]

2010-09-23T00:51:00.004Z

750. LOVE LIVE LIFE + ONE: “Satsujin Juushou – 10 Chapters of Murder” (CBS Sony – SOLL-74002) (Record: Near Mint/ Gatefold Jacket: Near Mint/ Insert: Near Mint). Their follow-up to the highly acclaimed “Love Will Make A Better You”. Unlike its predecessor, “10 Chapters of Murder” is more progressive heavy rock tinted. Released in 1972,“Satsujin Juushou” is a fucking killer LP, taking off where “Love Will Make a Better You” left off and taking towards the next level of delirious madness, mixing outward bound jazzy moves with heavy progressive rock freak-outs and psychedelic incantations and private ecstatcies. Kimio Mizutani’s wrist-slashing fuzzy guitar licks wah’s through it all like a surgeon operating on some defractored brain, Hammond organ lines slice through it all and heavy horn sections give it a LSD soaked mid seventies Miles Davis kind of vibe you wont be able to recover from without leaving behind a piece of your sanity. Demented howling female laughing vocals pop on through at unexpected times, rendering the whole into an even more disjointed teeth-grinding frenzy, all fused in a cloud of smoke, making it a stranger fusion of fucked up eclectic jazz moves, with unhinged psychedelic rock jamming and transporting it into driven jams of explosive jazzed out cosmic rock. The whole disc is booming over with the proper ingredients for a musical outrage, fucking up with and fusing musical traditions and stranding in a hazy but potent universal horizon obscured by mind bending lysergic mutations and sweating out heavy psychedelics. In short this is a fucking MONSTER. One of the best and still undetected Japanese heavy psychedelic & transcendental jaw-dropping jazzy explorations, all embalmed into one cinematic epiphany meshed together into intoxicating boosted crescendos of crystalline hallucinogenic quivering sonic attacks. Head-spinning, mind-altering freeform psyched out jazz rock, a vicious musical beast from the east, still undetected, bloody rare and unreissued. Highest possible recommendation. Price: 875 Euro

http://www.tiliqua-records.com/rare/reco_L-P.htm

*japanese title [meaning]
A-1 イントロダクション [Introduction]
A-2 ママを殺してなぜ悪い [Why bad do i kill a mom]
A-3 聖バレンタイン・デイの虐殺 [St. Valentine's Day Massacre]
A-4 霧の夜の戦慄 [chill at foggy night]
A-5 少女を煮て食う変態男 [hentai man eats girl boiled]
B-1 満月の夜はアベックを殺れ [kill the avec in the full moon night]
B-2 美しき毒殺魔 [Beautiful Demon poisoning]
B-3 西部大強盗団の女領主 [lord woman of Great gang in Western]
B-4 アウシュビッツの大殺戮 [slaughter at Auschwitz]
B-5 エピローグ（レクイエム） [Epilog (requiem)]

*pronounce title
01 introduction
02 mama wo koroshite naze warui
03 St. Valentine's Day no gyakusatu
04 kiri no yoru no senritsu
05 shojo wo nite kuu hentai otoko
06 mangetsu no yoru wa avec wo yare
07 utsukushiki dokusatsuma
08 seibu daigoutoudan no onna ryoushu
09 Auschwitz no daigyakusatsu
10 epilog (requiem)

市原宏祐 : Kohsuke Ichihara (sax fl, arr)
横田年昭 : Toshiaki Yokota (sax, fl)
柳田ヒロ : Hiro Yanagida (key)
水谷公生 : Kinio Mizutani (g)
直居隆雄 : Takao Naoi (g)
寺川正興 : Masayoshi Terakawa (b)
チト河内 : Chito Kawachi(ds)
神谷重徳 : Shigenori Kamiya (arr)

Introduction...
Hentai man eats girl boiled...
Beautiful demon poisoning...

Our thanks goes to Kohsaku ;)

Link in comments...

Jukka Gustavson - Valon Vuoski 1979

2010-08-31T21:01:00.006Z

I am back from extended holidays to the chagrin of all I'm sure. I couldn't keep quiet on hearing this album, Gustavson's second. The first is the most wigwam-like, by the third one (1980) one senses he has lost something or maybe the invincible steamroller of pop rock had crushed his progressive spirit. In the second however he truly went all-out, crafting a kind of progressive rock symphony with elements of jazz, modern classical, and electronics. I repeat the same themes that have come up over and again in my posts, how these brilliant musicians from the seventies assembled a style of music that transcends all styles. It's as if one had the 3 primary colours: jazz rock and classical, and all other artists worked in shades of one colour, but here we finally have a full palette with glorious mixed shades of every imaginable tint. We have three worlds of music that seem to never miscegenate but in progressive we at last get a kind of superior breed that is willing to heterotically mix genes. What makes music truly great? One has to accept that creative originality is a big component because this is an art form whereby one is often seeking new chord changes, melodies, structures-- this is the case even in baroque music or standard AM radio. But the powerful bond with emotion is another factor, like no other in my opinion, music does a kind of open-heart massage that is instantaneous and profoundly mysterious.

When I hear this piece of music, an evocation of the four seasons, I am amazed at every second. What are these chord changes doing clashing into each other so surprisingly? What are the sounds that change so constantly, new harmonies, played by new keyboards, constantly and swiftly moving like ships on enormous waves. How did these musicians so totally reinvent the language we use to communicate harmonious sounds? Certainly no one has played some of these chords in this sequence in the history of humankind before.
The album starts with a gorgeously full sounding shopping centre type electric organ sound that progresses into a very spacey whole tone scale, are we lifting off into the sky with ufos? (If so I hope I packed the prep H.) Suddenly patrick moraz makes an entrance with a sustained chord synth solo which repeats the whole tone pattern in chords this time, E flat F B A major chords all, very effectively giving that aurora borealis-space station feel.
Now we are into spring so the requisite flute and oboes play atop Jukka's keyboards. Some beethoven-like patterns are evocative of birdsongs, but I would give all of Ludwig's musical output for this one little slice of gustavson and as I said so many times before I will never understand why people sit in philharmonic halls for Eroica and not for this masterpiece performed live. Some quite remarkable dissonances appear after the flute heyday reminding me of Olivier Messiaen style compositions. I have to wonder again how deep the musical education of the composer was, or if we are dealing here with pure unadulterated genetic genius. Then the music gets even more symphonic with french horns and other chamber instruments rounding out the one-chord sostenutos. We are taken into Terry Riley territory with electronic pianos swirling all round playing diatonic scales, some repeated pentatonics like tangerine dreaming. Then, abruptly we get wigmamlike piano chords breaking into the electronic efflorescence and the summerish oboe (de rigeur in any estival evocation) plays some really beautiful short melodies atop changing piano chords. Some horn patterns suggest liveliness and the intense activity of the heat.

Side 2 presents the jazzier side of summer with vibes, significant percussion. After a minute we get a sudden break and that gorgeous, inimitable fender rhodes comes out, oh man, if I could marry a sound, I would marry the fender rhodes sound. Why are there so few of us left who adore it? What happened to loving the sound of instruments? It's as rare today in the general population as a night without wide-screen TV. So Jukka plays a very lazy, laid-back type of jazzrock song here, I guess we are in the dogdays of summer, long before there was any thought of global warming and the consequences of human depredations on the earth. Innocent were those days, few ever thought about limits, despite the club of rome, but as the years go by we are getting closer and closer to the bars of our cage, and the imminence of our potential for self-destruction.
A beautiful viola solo ensues on top of grand piano, again we get a sense from this of how great a composer Gustavson was. This track alone would make for an incredible song on its own, but he has hidden it away almost unseen within this symphony on which he must have spent hours and hours of hardworking time. For what sake? For the sake of his work being lost and forgotten on the internet amongst a few hundred fans in a world of 7 billion? Human existence looked at in this way is incredibly cruel. Listen in particular to the chords that Jukka plays, remarkably complex chords that would have impressed Scriabin or been stolen by Stravinsky in a bad mood. Now of course as we get further into autumn we get a cello playing, how predictable but necessary the instrumentation must be in these seasonal works. Why is this gorgeous chamber music not played in the local concert hall? The work closes with a more symphonic and bright passage, fittingly enough evoking the idea of light.

Wow-- this is the kind of work that Mike Oldfield attempted to do but couldn't. It truly is a cohesive, unique, well-crafted whole, flowing together beautifully, packed full of interesting ideas. It is neither rock nor classical nor jazz-rock, but a perfect and perfectly assembled combination of all sounds and styles and streams of music humanity has conceived of. What a masterpiece.

Valon vuoksi (1979): (For the sake of light)

1. Taivaan täyteyttä (Fullness of Sky)
2. Pieni talvinen ylistysruno (A Small Wintry Ode)
3. Kevättalven "kuume" (The Fever of Early Spring)
4. Kevät "raskaus" (Spring Pregnancy)
5. Kevät kesä "syntyneenä talven kohdusta" (Spring Summer Born From the Womb of Winter)
6. Kesä (Summer)
7. Kesän kunniaksi... (For Summer...)
8. Syys kesä (Autumn Summer)
9. Syksy (Autumn)
10. Syys talvi (Autumn Winter)
11. Ikuisuus jatkuvuus (Eternity Continuity)
12. Valon vuoksi (For the Sake of Light)

Jukka Gustavson, keyboards, percussions
Tim Ferchen, marimba, xylophone, clockwork, vibraphone, tubular bells, kettledrums
Pekka Suvanto, drums, gongs, cymbals, bells
Gunnar Lausund, alto flute
Panu Antere, oboe
Pentti Mikkonen, viola
Seppo Ristolainen, viola
Risto Fredriksson, cello

A million thanks to Isabel for this...

Side B...

Suspekt Aspekt - "Den Årlinga Vårlinga Konserten På Rösshka Muséet" {Sweden} [1979] (not officially released)

2010-08-12T02:21:00.004Z

"Di tanto in tanto il mondo del prog ci regala qualche nuova esperienza, che in qualche modo ci sorprende. Se poi la sorpresa è pure positiva è il massimo.
I Suspekt Aspekt sono cinque signori svedesi ultracinquantenni, assieme fin dalla metà degli anni ’70, che qualche anno fa hanno deciso di rimettere su il vecchio gruppo e – finalmente – incidere qualcosa. Il disco in questione si chiama "Minnet Sviker" (Errori di Memoria). E pur essendo un lavoro che unisce un prog di ascolto tranquillo a certo pop nordico non è niente male. L’ascolto di quel disco mi incuriosì e mi misi a cercare notizie del gruppo, finendo sul loro sito ufficiale bilingue (svedese/inglese). Appresi parecchie cose interessanti, ma soprattutto mi colpì la frase che nel 1979 il gruppo registrò un concerto in un locale svedese, contenente i brani composti negli anni ’70, ma mai pubblicati.
Presi la mail e chiesi direttamente alla band, che con gentilezza ed estrema nobiltà d’animo, mi mandò un doppio CD, copia numerata di quel concerto, digitalizzata dal chitarrista e tastierista del gruppo Hans Antonsson, lo stesso che rispose alla mia mail spiegandomi per benino cosa rappresentasse questo lavoro e che quella era la copia n° 23 in giro per il mondo.
Il disco, il cui titolo completo è “Den Årlinga Vårlinga Konserten På Rösshka Muséet”, vive in bilico tra sinfonico scandinavo, psichedelia e Canterbury. Pensate di prendere il primo disco dei Caravan, il primo dei Camel, il primo dei Kaipa, qualcosa degli Schicke Führs & Fröhling e dei Flasket Brinner, senza tralasciare qualche delicato colpo di pennello alla Genesis di Trespass o magari di Wind and Wuthering”, la miscela che ne viene fuori è questo live dei Suspekt Aspekt. L’ascolto dei brani, che hanno anche trenta e passa anni, ci fa capire quanti gruppi blasonati abbiano da riverirli, ma preferisco non fare nomi.
Nella dimensione live il gruppo è perfetto e, soprattutto, consideriamo che a suonare non sono i cinquantenni di oggi ma i ventenni di allora. E’ tutto molto umano e spontaneo e consente di mettere in luce le buone capacità nell’utilizzare il proprio strumento e, al contempo, di evidenziare in maniera più che cruda, quei piccoli errori (pochi, pochi intendiamoci) generati da immaturità musicale, adolescenziale.
Sedici brani dai due agli undici minuti più altre sette bonus per due CD zeppi di buona musica strumentale molto ricca, dove le trame tastieristiche e chitarristiche si intersecano in maniera molto fluida e le ritmiche belle, ma mai concettualmente complesse, accompagnano e scandiscono, ora delicatamente, ora prepotentemente lo scorrere musicale, mentre organi, synth e mellotron di Stig Ankardal si avvicendano tra tappeti per la chitarra a dominatori melodici e orchestrali.
Per un motivo o per un altro i brani sarebbero tutti da citare, ma la trattazione verrebbe lunga. Voglio però ricordare, riprendendo anche un po’ le note del dettagliatissimo libretto, l’heavy tune “Hämnden är Ljuv” un brano che qualche anno dopo avrebbe potuto stare senza problemi in un disco degli Änglagård. I dolci arpeggi e la ricca melodia della lunga “Sans Och Balans” brano in cui convivono i Camel più romantici con alcune atmosfere hackettiane, senz’altro una delle perle del disco. “Chuck’a’Luck” ispirata da una scena cinematografica di Fritz Lang è uno splendido gioco ritmico che mette in bella evidenza le capacità del batterista Hans Johansson e i cui alti e bassi ne fanno un’altra perla molto prog e decisamente azzeccata. Il brano chiudeva, con una finale incredibilmente dinamico e pieno, la prima parte dei loro concerti, che riprendevano con “Känsloyttrigar” il pezzo, non solo più lungo del repertorio, ma anche quello maggiormente pretenzioso sotto l’aspetto compositivo, con una grande varietà di atmosfere e decisamente notevole. Nonostante loro, nel booklet, la indichino come: “Un brano come tanti altri”, “Citat” è forse la cosa migliore di tutto il lavoro e racchiude in soli sei minuti un mondo musicale perfetto, un brano prog da manuale, così ricco di idee che molte altre band le avrebbero sfruttate per un intero disco. Altro grande brano è “Fritt Fall”, prettamente giocato su unisono e sincopi di non mostruosa difficoltà, ma di bellissima riuscita. Altro brano cameliano/caravaniano fino al midollo “Hör och Häpna”, un gran finale, epico con chitarra solista e tastierone di fondo. I brani inseriti come bonus sono suddivisi in quattro tracce recuperate da altre incisioni live dell’epoca e tre che risalgono ad un tentativo di incisione in studio che non ebbe sbocchi discografici. Tra questi sette brani spicca sicuramente “Femkat” un brano un 5/4 risalente ad alcuni anni prima rispetto al concerto e la lunga “Kärnkraftsläten” ispirata da un incidente in una centrale nucleare di Harrisburg di quegli anni e segnata sul libretto come ultima composizione completa degli anni ’70 del gruppo. La sua composizione ruota attorno ad un cowboy-theme stravolto e reso prog da sbalzi continui, tempi dispari e sbotti tastieristici di notevole intuizione.
Restano da citare 3 scherzetti musicali inseriti nella scaletta che mettono in luce il tono anche scherzoso del gruppo rispetto alla notevole serietà della restante parte della loro musica. Così abbiamo un “Tango Jalousi” stravolto e ridicolizzato, “Sverige i Storpolitiken” un medley di inni nazionali nordici e dell’est, e un tema western “Postdiligensen” di assalto alla diligenza, memoria di quando giocavano da ragazzini.
Questo è tutto e, ciò che appare, ad onor del vero, è una gran gioia musicale, sempre che quel senso nostalgico che inevitabilmente assale l’ascoltatore, possa essere letto come espressione di una magia fanciulla, dolce, dal profumo del bosco d’autunno e dal sapore di fieno del primo bacio." by Roberto Vanali http://www.arlequins.it/

- Hans Johansson (drums, 1975-76)
- Hans Antonsson (bass, guitar, keyboards)
- Hans Andreasson (guitar, 1975-76)
- Stig Ankardal (keyboards)
- Thomas Scott (guitar, 1976-present)
- Janne Johansson (drums, 1976-present)
- Ingemar Andersson (keyboard, bass, 1978-present)

Hämnden är Ljuv...
Slappscott...

Link in comments...

Petrus Castrus - "Marasmo" {Portugal} [1971] (ep)

2010-08-04T20:38:00.003Z

"Ok!I know you all know the Petrus Castrus one of the first portuguese progressive rock bands and his great symphonic work "Ascençao e Queda" ("Rise and Fall"), published in 1976 which includes "Indecisão e Demência" ("Indecision and Dementia").

It gets very influenced by Procol Harum, but suddenly turns into a beautiful melody more symphonic GG style, where as usual the voice work is excellent, two male voices of the Castro brothers in collision with the softest and the stunning Lena d'Agua (here knowledge of the Portuguese language matters).

Probably what you do not know (because it is so rare) is his first EP released earlier in 1971

What is most impressive is the number of radical changes that this band can offer in each track.
In "Marasmo" ("Marasmus") enjoy the melodic fluidity of synthesizers, harpsichord, piano and acoustic guitar. The structural complexity of certain passages gives it a dense sound that ultimately ends up in achieving peace and calmitude, and "Batucada Vulgaris" theme included in the LP Psychedelic Portugal drums and percussion are also used either to enrich the timbre work either to score a little more pace, at one time or other.
Excellent EP that deserves much more popularity, good for any listener who does not care about lyrics in a foreign language." by Dom - ProgNotFrog

1. Marasmo (5:39)
2. Ovo de Chumbo (2:44)
3. Batucada Vulgaris (2:59)

- Pedro Castro / Bass
- José Castro / Keyboards, Vocals
- Rui Reis / Piano, Organ
- Júlio Pereira / Guitars
- João Seixas / Drums
- José Mário / Xylophone

Marasmo...
Ovo de Chumbo...
Batucada Vulgaris........

Thank you Dom ;)

Link in comments...

Finn Sjöberg - "Finn" {Sweden} [1978] (Jazz-Rock/Fusion)

2010-08-01T19:33:00.005Z

Member of band "Kvartetten Som Sprängde"

I could't found english review...
Finn Sjöberg är en begåvad studiomusiker som spelat med mängder av musikers plattor samt i bandet Kvartetten som Sprängde. Hans soloplatta är precis som alla toppmusikers soloplattor en jazz-rock histora. (är man begåvad musiker vill man naturligtvis ha lite utmaning och inte köra typ Evert Taube låtar och då blir det oftast jazz-rock eftersom så det är en av de mest avancerade, krävande och svårspelade formerna av musik.) Sista spåret "I Fatimas Hand" på plattan är en höjdare med smått psykedeliska drag men i övrigt behöver man vara en stor beundrare av jazz-rock för att njuta av plattan. http://www.progg.se/band.asp?ID=642&bild=642

Sida A:
1. Första Valsen (1:02)
2. Draklåten (5:08)
3. Mr. Martell (3:41)
4. Lelleby Boogie (5:07)
5. Sista valsen (0:59)

Sida B:
1. Gånglåt från Barrstigen (5:42)
2. Höst (5:12)
3. I Fatimas Hand (5:37)

- Finn Sjöberg - Gitarr
- Hasse Breitholtz - Orgel
- Jan Kling - Flöjt, sax
- Malando Gassama - Percussion
- Mike Watson - Bas
- Ola Brunkert - Trummor
- Rolf Alex - Trummor
- Stefan Nilsson - Elpiano, moog

Första Valsen...
Gånglåt från Barrstigen...
I Fatimas Hand...

Link in comments...

Namu - "Opening" + "Sora Datte Toberusa (Fly Even the Sky)" {Japan} [1974]

2010-07-18T23:26:00.007Z

NAMU was mid 70's organ hard rock band, played mainly Yokohama city around, no recordings except for only this medley (2 music 10min. aprx) was available

1974 "One Step Festival" held at Kohriyama City, Fukushima, Japan - NAMU played there and only recorded this track. 1978 disbanded

01 Opening (3'14)

02 Sora datte Toberusa (6'46) [meaning ; Fly even the sky]

Band:

1972

- Jun-ichi Murakami (vocal)

- Hiro Fukushima (guitar) --> Far East Family Band

- Shigemi Komiyama (drums) --> Hot Tuna

- Kitaro (Keyboard) --> Far East Family Band

1973

- Jun-ichi Murakami (vocal/organ)

- Nishibayashi "Boku-chin" (guitar) = Acid Seven Band

- Soul Tohru (drums) --> Otoboke Cats

- Tammy (bass)

Thanks to Kohsaku :o)

Link in comments...

ProgNotFrog

Birdland "Darkness Of Light" (1980,former-YUGO,jazz rock)

ふるさとのなつかしい民謡 Furusato no natsukashii minyoh (1970,jazz rock,Japan ,omnibus)

Gold - "Night Ride" {USA} [1979]

Jun Fukamachi "Alien Majyu Kyo" (1985,prog fusion,Japan)

Messengers - First Message (Germany,1975)

Natdamperen - Boogieman eats "frikadeller" 1976

April Orchestra presente Michel Magne Vol. 21 (1977)

Yasuo Inada & Bemi Family "Kankaku Shikou"(Japan,prog,1974)

Natdamperen 1975 (Denmark)

Orexis Communication 1980

Ptolomy Psycon - "Loose Capacitor" {UK} [1971]

Tempo e Modo - "Um Mundo a Construir" {Portugal} [1980]

Birdland - History of Love and Belief 1980

Paul Nash - A Jazz Composer's Ensemble 1979

Harry Sabar Friends "Lentera" (1979,Indonesian sympho )

Ronaldo Garcia - "Pra um Moleque" {Brasil} [1982]

Orexis (Germany, 1977)

Gideon "eight reasons why" (1981,Canada,progressive hard rock)

HAZARD - Le Chemin de L'oubli (7 inch)

村岡実 『恐山』 Minoru Muraoka "Osorezan"(1970,Japanese jazz rock)

Francois Wertheimer

Beausoleil Broussard - Mutinerie 1977

沖浩一（Koichi Oki) 『四季』"Shiki"(1974,Japan, prog jazz rock)

Toru Hatano "Yoko" (1977,Japan,prog,electronics,psych)

Beausoleil Broussard ST (1976)

Peter Schickele and Joan Baez - Silent Running OST 1971

Trance●Form "Stranger In The Same Land" (USA,1982,Symphonic prog)

OLIVE (1976.heavy sympho prog,Japan)

Elastic Rock Band - Faruk's Traum 1980 (Germany)

Freeport - Alternating Current and Duanelessness (Germany)

Beausoleil Broussard - Le mitan du siecle qui s'en vient... 1979

Georg Lawall Orexis Live 1981

Tales of the Electric Pong Orchestra 1977

Hill Andon "PAGE☆ONE" (1974,Japan,Folk ,Psych)

Band Aide "宇宙循環”(Japan,1978,ex-Flower Travellin' Band)

Fumanzoku (1974,Japan,folk,HR,psych)

Olive - "Olive" {Japan} [1976]

Moravagine (Fra 1975)

Red - "Red" {UK} [1983]

Window - "The Empyreal Ballet" {USA} [1978]

Serpentine - "In the Grass" {Netherlands} (1970)

Vårsøg - "Vårsøg" {Norway} [1977]

This Oneness "Surprize" (USA,1975,)

Canzoniere Del Lazio - "Spirito Bono" {Italy} [1975]

Stig & Steen - "Forchromede Dage" {Denmark} (1973)

Vãn Züllatt - "Betelgeuse" {Brasil} [2011] Exclusive for PNF!!

Jimmy,Yoko & Shin "SEI SHONAGON"(1978,Japanese Jazz rock)

Akira Itoh "Buddha"(1983,Japanese prog)

Profil "For You"(1982,German inst.prog)

GORO OHMI "Niji Sinden"(synths,recoded in November and December,1983)

Francois Faton Cahen Tendre Piano Solo 1978

Zebulon 1980

Sangi - Steps (Italy, 1978)

New Cross 1986 (US)

Indonesian masters of prog...

Kolibri - "Winterserenade" {Germany} [1985]

My loveletter to prog...

Apprentice - Rough Draft 1982 (flac and mp3)

Coalition - Mindsweepers 1975

Genre - Commercial Success (US) 1978

Jukka Linkola - Banana (1976)

Didier Bonin - L'air Lumiere 1982 (Private Pressing) {Bonus, Arbre-Verre 1979}

Crossfire Colourful Music

Avgrunden - "Nu Narmar Vi Oss..." {Sweden} [1975]

Resa - Lycklig Mardröm 1980

Dune - Le chien des dunes (1973)

Kazimierz Lux C.S. 1972 (Net)

Moonlight - "The Edge" {Finland} [1978]

Toshiaki Yokota & Primitive Community - "Primitive Community" {Japan} [1971]

Dew - "Live" Nunoya Fumio 布谷文夫 {Japan} [1971]

Everfriend - "Sphere of Influence" {USA} [1981]

J.F. Murphy & Salt - "Last Illusion" {USA} [1973]

A.Vuolo & E.Grande - "Desert" {Italy} [1979]

Thomas & Henry Kiefer "Improvisationen Über Edoardo-Antonius Eumel" {Switzerland} [1980]

Profondità - "Profondità" {Italy} [197X] Prog/Psych

April Orchestra Volume 28

Skyeros - "Skyeros" {USA} [1975] Prog/Psych

Orpheus - "Orpheus" {Japan} [1983]

Varis - "Varis" {Germany} [1979] (jazz rock)

ふるさとのなつかしい民謡　Furusato no natsukashii minyoh (1970,jazz rock,Japan ,omnibus)

村岡実　『恐山』　Minoru Muraoka "Osorezan"(1970,Japanese jazz rock)