German Touch

Let's forget about that grotesque cover, presumably hinting at an interesting theatrical show associated with this band and work.  The music itself is very enjoyable Genesis-style inventive and well-written with picturesque Gabrielian singing.  By far the best track is the closer, the Dawn of Fantasy:

Catalonia from Spain, 1981

I was puzzled as to why this album was in such high demand until I realized on reading the band information bassist,Rafael Escote was in my favourite Spanish group, Gotic.  For those like myself who have pretty much memorized their brilliant masterpiece "Escenes," Rafael wrote the compositions "La Revolucio" and the last track, the story of the drop of water.  On the other hand, keyboardist Jordi Vilaprinyo was in the band Coses throughout the seventies, and was responsible for my favourite tracks...

Back to this release, which is rounded out by the following musicians in addition to Escote: Angel Pereira on percussion, Lluis Vidal on piano and Antonio Peral on saxes; there are hints of the old Gotic magic but here we are delving deeply into slightly Hispanic-inflected complicated and composed fusion, winding beautifully into remote and reflected chambers of acoustics, flashes of gorgeous scenes and memories of beautiful emotions, cascading like a technicolor dreamscape after an unsettled night... or imagine the fresh insomniac feeling of falling in love (so long long ago for me) and being filled with the ups and downs fighting for your soul and that feeling of high-focused attention making you look at the world like a crystal, a geode full of light...

Check out the ultra-chromatic lush romanticism of the Sueco in America, with hints of Debussy or Ravel in the rich red and lingering vintage:





These composers really knew their stuff!  Whilst the most Goticlike track is the Lorelai: with its diatonic majesty of stepping stones in whole tone chords:





Apologies for the poor quality of the rip, btw.

Finally, notice that Escote later teamed up with Max Sunyer for the fusion superband Pegasus, which put out quite a few records.  Those are of course a little more disappointing in general, at least to me, being with both feet in the slick decade of the 80s.

But this stands out as a true fusion masterpiece with the passionate and hot spirit of the country from which it came.  Aren't we spoiled with treasures already?

1980's Austria Drei and Roidinger's Computer and Jazz Project I from 1984

This is again clearly and cleanly in the ECM tradition of emotional and intellectual jazz.  But it's very good.  Here is the information, as usual.  I think on this record everything came together beautifully for these talented musicians and with this entry we will depart from gorgeous alpine Austria for other countries to explore....

Finally mention should be made of the fantastic album Roidinger made later with electronics and his bass:

Austria fünf: Pirchner - Pepl - Von Alten - Darling - Zadlo in The Loss from 1981

Information here.

Werner Pirchner was an Austrian vibraphonist who was quite productive in this period.  He made at least one very pleasant ECM album with Jack de Johnette and Harry Pepl (in 1983) which I highly recommend, his most progressive and insane work was the 1973 half double album (which mutant sounds once posted, & I can reup if need be).  I think his best record though is Austria Drei, which will be coming up shortly, but this one is very good too, it's highly ECM-like with its legato Weber-like bass and smooth and complex Towner-like guitarwork (from Pepl).  Each guy is responsible for one song.

Pirchner passed away in 2001. Listening to this, we can contemplate The Loss.

Adelhard Roidinger's Schattseite from 1981

Information here.  This is relatively acoustic, ECM styled mental and emotional jazz with that typical meandering thoughtfulness that is their modus operandi.

With regards to this bassist, I want to pre-mention a wonderfully progressive and brilliantly composed record that will be coming here shortly called Austria Drei in which he participated, coming out in the year 1980 which was so fecund for the European jazz and progressive scene.  I'll post that one in a bit, after also presenting Pirchner and Pepl (guitar and vibes players on the Austria Drei record) in another highly intellectual album they did called, beautifully, "The Loss." 
Stay Tuned!

Luna Sea, USA 1976, by request

I remember long ago (almost five years ago!) reading about this record on the cd reissue wishlist.  At that time Tom certainly didn't make it sound appealing and worth fighting for.  But in time a friend sent me a copy so I could ascertain that he was (or perhaps rather the AC), indeed, spot on in his assessment:

"This is another rarity sent in from The Alaskan Connection. I thought he did a magnificent job at describing the album, so take it away AC: ' It's the lone private press LP by an almost totally unknown US band named Luna Sea. They were from Blair, Nebraska of all places, but the album was recorded in Iowa. The first side is going to really test your willpower, as it's just straight radio-rock a la the Eagles, so you'll just have to "man-up" and slog through it. There is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, though, because side 2 is totally different. Suddenly the synths appear, and things start getting a lot more interesting. It starts out in a still fairly accessible style, but things get proggier literally by the minute, until the last track "Rousing The Ghost", which is a fantastic piece of instrumental symphonic prog with great guitar, keys, and even a little flute. Oh, and be sure to stay tuned for the unlisted (and totally stupid) outro! A completely schizophrenic album, but even the band seemed to know this as they named the first side the "Light Side" and the second side the "Dark Side"! Hard to tell what they were really trying to accomplish here. But, such is the nature of the US underground. One part confusion and one part inspiration. I guess that's kind of the charm! In any case, this thing is seriously rare. It only first emerged onto the collector scene within the last year or two, and since it was first discovered only like two or three copies have popped up." Thanks AC!  So true on the question "what are they trying to do here?". It was very typical for bands in the 1970's to try for a radio hit while mixing in their progressive rock ambitions. That strategy never did work.'

The last track ('Rousing the Ghost,'  mentioned above) is clearly killer, there will be no political debates on this issue, not at all, not ever:





Information from database here.

Please note that in Tom's comments section, the following appear:

I can't believe this record exists in even a blog. My old roommate in Hot Springs Arkansas, Collin Thompson, was the drummer in this band, and also did a lot of the vocals. They toured with the band Firefall in the late 70's, and when Firefall came out with an album titled "Luna Sea", this upset band members enough to file a lawsuit. From the stories I have heard, Luna Sea members sold equipment and paid legal bills. Well you all know what happened: Firefall went on and Luna Sea disappeared. Unfortunate too because I rate this album better than any Firefall! I love the song "Everybody You Ever Met" and "Almost Profound Melancholia". Only a couple hundred of these records were made and mine is autographed. Thanks for remembering this!

Anonymous Joshua Gear said...

Another one to join in with a tie to this: 

My old guitar teacher, Craig Nance, was the guitar player for this album. He now lives in Harlan, Iowa where he performs with jazz groups though the area and teaches lessons (I learned from him from age 5 though high school).

He gave me a copy of this album, played onto a CD. I would KILL to get a copy of this record, but I recall him saying that there are probably very LPs left around. 

He is an amazing, fantastic guitar player, and it's a shame these guys never took off. 

Thanks so much for this write up, it was really surprising finding this review online!



And thanks indeed to the guys in the band, for crafting this beautiful record!

Impuls' Naïma i and II from Czech by request, 1988 and 1990

This is typical Eastern European fusion-- of the kind we all know and love so much.  For example, from the first album, Monika 3:





And from the second, My Old Friend:





And of course, I dedicate this to my old multilingual friend, generous and dedicated and eternally impelled by the love of beauty, who ripped this record for the benefit of all of us: may you one day finish your search and return to us again...  we all miss you so much...

But in the meantime you have left us with your music and, as the great Greek poem said:

"Still are thy pleasant voices, thy nightingales, awake;
For Death, he taketh all away, but them he cannot take."