Wednesday 6 July 2016

Family of Percussion & Guests in the fabulous Sunday Palaver (Germany 1980)





Peter Giger et cie. made a handful of records of which this third from 1980 is the most accessible, in my view.  Note the presence of progressive luminary Wolfgang Dauner (perhaps that word is insufficient, let's refer to him as German artistic genius with the golden Midas touch, every album he was involved in such as the Et Cetera band turned to musical gold).  But let's not ignore Peter Giger, of Dzyan and subsequently Giger Lenz Maron fame, and Sax player Alan Skidmore (Soft Machine connection there), plus the great Trilok Gurtu.  (The last and least known members Doug Hammond and Tom Nicholas were percussionists as well.)  I guess these all-percussion albums were another odd trend of this progressive period in time, I doubt many such are being made today anymore.

Check the prestidigitation of all sixty fingers from 6 humans in this track:




Amazing?  Unfortunately their other records are not quite as good, with a surfeit of the percussion to which their name is all too deeply indebted.  The first in particular, wherein the band name appears as album title, was all improvised, and mostly drumming.
But thanks to my friend for introducing this little jewel which I would otherwise have eschewed.



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