Nipe Nyren Kvartett Live at Kongsberg Jazzfestival 1976, by request, and Merry Christmas / Happy Holidays

 

Very similar to the recently posted Missus Beastly Minden CD, recall that one back here. Of note Hakon Graf plays keys in this quartet. Nipe Nyren is a Norwegian guitarist, he has appeared here already in the Nordic Jazz Quintet.  Other than his time in this eponymous quartet, not clear how he spent his time in the 70s. Luckily for us the music is mostly relatively energetic fusion, a little bit meandering and overlong in places, there is a fugue like acoustic guitar number which is quite interesting (track 2 called Suite II), and note that Hakon Graf wrote 4 of the songs.

One of Hakon's is called 3-4-8:

I included a segment I found online which is described as Live on NRK TV from 1977 (presumably a bootleg someone recorded and uploaded?), which does last for about half an hour and it's quite impressive despite being left uncut and not divided into tracks. This is actually more enjoyable than the material released on the CD, a little surprising.

Mr. Euphoria 1983, by request plus Bob Moses Tributaries and Jukka Hauru

 

Wow thanks for reminding me about this masterpiece I once bought and ripped 12 years ago! I forgot about it totally. Should've been on this blog but it wasn't. Here's what I wrote about it back then:

Continuing on with American guitar-prog rarities in honor of the upcoming election in the United States, for which I strongly encourage all registered voters and registered nonvoters to go out and vote as soon as possible in yet another useless exercise of wasted time and unnecessary energy so the haughty political oligarchy or rather plutocratic ruling class can feel justified to do whatever it wishes with no regard whatsoever for human beings or their environment (and to think they used to laugh at communist countries for their useless preordained elections--  now you get two identical parties to choose from instead of just one-- woo-hoo!)--  here's the album that to me seemed like a progressive masterpiece utterly lost to time and even to prog fans.  [Footnote: What we need is a real "truth party" that could state the obvious: this is all a vacuous diversion so power can remain with the top point one percenters and the corporations they are eternally married to 'till death do us part'.]

Very simply, this sounds like the tightest, hardest, no-fat version of mid-seventies King Crimson you could imagine, as if the great Fripp was totally focused on song-writing and brutally keen on cutting out all filler, chamber pretensions, and excess frippery. Track 3 (1 Day 1 Month 1 Year) even features some of that trademark staccato Fripp guitar style. 

All songs are instrumentals powered forward by fully-automatic electric guitar chainsaw action.  Occasionally there is a touch of synthesizer, also played by the formidable guitarist, whose name is Richard Rhodes.  His backing band consists of Gordon Rhodes on drums (sib?), Tim Sanz on bass, guest Eric Petersen on synths for track 5.  Tracks 2, 5, 7 are compositions by Sanz and the rest is credited to R. Rhodes. The energy and tritones never really let up until the fierce ending in which you feel like you scraped your face and right temple on the pavement in extreme music-listening sports.  Guaranteed the ceaseless tritoning and riffs played as thirds (just like Fripp) will drive your wife (and kids, if you're unlucky enough to have those) out of the room, and if they are unable to so leave, they will be begging you for mercy (or at least throwing plates at your head).

When you listen to the rip notice too that the record is mint, the sound couldn't be any cleaner-- oh the joy of listening to that fresh vinyl (from almost 30 years ago) rotate...

As sample I uploaded the intro, with its awesome hard diminished chord riff, crank it up as loud as you can when you listen, it's awe-inspiring in the manner of the (ancient) seven wonders of the world. Note how the crazy reverbed-out lead guitar plays such interesting harmonies on top of the driving riff.

Aforementioned third track:

Another review, from rym:

The first thing that stunned me after listening to this album was the place and time of its origin. The USA and 1983? Much more appropriate would be, for example, France and 1971.

However, I began to be surprised already when listening to the first composition "Intro". After all, this is 100% math rock, the origin of which almost all music publications date to the end of the 80s. Of course, this was only one of the first swallows, but, nevertheless, judging by "Intro", the birth of math rock occurred almost half a decade before the official (albeit somewhat vague in time) date.

Okay, let's start from the beginning. Mr. Euphoria is a trio consisting of Richard Rhodes and Tim Sanz, who periodically try on the roles of a guitarist, then a bassist, changing them with each other. In addition, the first is the author of five songs on the album, and the second three. I tried to understand the composer's style of each of them based on the authorship of the songs. Frankly, I couldn't. For example, out of three compositions composed by Sans, one is made in the style of soft fusion, the second is heavy prog, and the last is jazz fusion seasoned with elements of raga. In the third "Northern Castle" Sans also plays the harp, but it sounds like a sitar. Oh, I almost forgot - the third member of Mr. Euphoria is the excellent drummer Gordon Rhodes (a relative of Richard?). And I want to say that the group is a triumvirate of equal musicians, each of whom is not averse to improvising. All eight compositions are instrumental and made in the form of a rehearsed jam session. In terms of style, the compositions are located in the segment from jazz fusion to gloomy heavy prog. When listening to some of them, I had an analogy with the composition "Cannonball" by the group Sky (though the music performed by Mr. Euphoria looks more serious). But the closest association seemed to me to be the album "IOU" by Allan Holdsworth.

The only minus is a certain "rawness" of the recording. Alas, but Mr. Euphoria did not have its own George Martin.

Not a bad album.

Info on discogs is here.

Another review at the bottom of the page:

Excellent all-instrumental prog rock! Angular, somewhat dissonant compositions that suggest inspiration came mainly from Red-era King Crimson, as well as minimalist composer Steve Reich. In their heavier moments (particularly on Side 1) you’d swear they were doing a sort of proto math rock style - something that Don Caballero made a career out of just 10 years later. They stray into other styles, as well… a couple tracks on side 2 made me think they were also into Zappa and Allan Holdsworth.

All 3 requested albums here, Mr Euphoria, Bob Moses Tributaries along with my big fave Bittersuite in the Ozone, and Jukka Hauru's masterpieces of prog fusion.

Pumpkin also from 1975 in FLAC limited time only

This album apparently from the same year is by the same mastermind as the preceding Crypto (Peter Schon) but oddly enough not quite as good, perhaps because it's more in the straight jazz direction versus energetic fusion. However it still stands tall among other fusion albums of the period and is highly worth listening and enjoying.

Have a listen to the lovely flutework (Fred Leeflang) on Matthew Welname again, the chord structure on this song is really interesting:

Requests 1: Amrakus Space Opera, Gianni Bonfiglio Luci Spent etc., Basil Kirchin Don't lose your cool, Sheriff [Sensations Fix], Sven Libaek Grass the Musical, Id Where are we going

 

That cover for Id's Where are we Going? from 1977 (recorded in 1975 in NYC) is just priceless, isn't it? And of course quite pertinent and topical for our times too, given the new directions we have taken in worldwide politics this year. On top of that I've always loved that album dearly, with its crazy psychedelic, almost outdated sound (in the late 70s) thanks in part to the mellotron and the hippieish naivete of the lyrics, in some place too reminding me of Yeti's Things to Come. Sadly a one-off from this band.

For Sven Libaek, who was and is a Norwegian-born Australian composer I posted the very library Solar Flares from 1974 which is great listening too, recalling the great Hawkshaw in places even.

Bunch of Oriental Wind albums from 1977 to 1982 by request

 

I mentioned before I don't really have a taste for this style of music with its ethnic importations. The group is Swedish but always played Mideastern style themes and styles.

These guys, led (I think) by the percussionist with the wonderful name of Okay Temiz, did put out a bunch of albums back in the day.  I've posted him before, when he played on the Turkish album by Tayfun Erdem about Ararat, back here. I thought he was in the Family of Percussion but he wasn't, that was German Trilok Gurtu, another percussionist who despite the name ending in a 'u', sorry to say is Indian. Clearly, Temiz should've been in that family, perhaps adopted, okay? Anyways, here are 5 of their albums beginning with the 1977 ST.

Crypto from 1975 in FLAC limited time only

This is utterly masterful European-style fusion, by that I mean it has emotional depth and variance, classical importations, complex arrangements and sounds and minimal overlong improvising in the American jazz tradition.  The mastermind or composer is a Dutch guy called Peter Schon who played in numerous other outfits, fusion at first but later on, disco, synth and rock, as one might expect.

Information on this brilliant work can be found here.

Gallfly is just a whole course on how to create memorable and inventive fusion with its shimmering strings opening leading into the funky keys pattern, then abrupt chord changes before tonic resolution:

My favourite track is Awakening and the reason is obvious, the soft keyboard intro leads into some outrageously creative and unique electric guitar arpeggiated melodies, it just blows me away how they came up with something at once euphonious, and totally odd, then this whole intro section transforms into a modal type vocal song:

Out to Lunch [Germ, 1985] in FLAC and Proteus' Infinite Change [USA 1981] more Gerry Brown John Lee with Chaser [USA 1979] by request

 

The Out to Lunch grouping is with Gebhard Ullmann (saxes), Andreas Willers (guitar), Hans-Dieter Lorenz (bass), and Nikolaus Schäuble (drums). I posted Willers and Ullman's Playful way back here.

The style is mostly improvised and possibly atonal or experimental contemporary jazz in that typical early 80s German style, with not too much to hold on to here unless you happen to have a taste for free jazz:

Proteus' Infinite Change on the other hand is fusion and does also have the influence of the period with the smoothness and perhaps lack of insane creativity. It opens a Mandala:

Requested albums: Carrousel La Vie est un Mystere [1982], Guadeloupe Reflexions Un Jeudi [1980], VS Quartet A Pot Zou [1986]

 

All of these were requested, and please, go ahead and make more requests because they turn out to be treasures I never heard of oftentimes. 

This stuff is all afro beat jazz from France, 1980s.

Carrousel - La Vie est un Mystere 1982, info here. A long description of this work can be found on that page that begins:

Loy Ehrlich, a multi-instrumentalist, was invited to Reunion in 1977 to join the Caméléons. This group, made up of René Lacaille, Alain Peters, Bernard Brancard, Joël Gonthier, and Hervé Imare, was in charge of the recordings and productions of the Royal studio in St Joseph, which had just been set up at the time.

In 1979 the group Caméléons ceased its activities and, under the motivation and the musical direction of Loy, the group Carrousel was born at the Etang St Leu with Alain Peters on bass and vocals, Loy Ehrlich on keyboards and vocals, Bigoun on drums, Joël Gonthier on percussion, Bruno Leflanchec on trumpet and Zoun on flute.

Vali:

Guadeloupe Reflexions – Un Jeudi A L'Arawak 1980 info here. Not much info actually, or tbh as the kids say.

Track called Guadeloupe Reflexions:

VS [Victor Sabas] Quartet – A Pou Zot... 1986, info here. Note that another album came out in 1991 from this grouping.

From that one, have a listen to the felicitous piano of Feliz:

Italian Drummer Aldo Romano in 3 from the late 70s [Divieto di Santificazione, Il Piacere, Night Diary]

From discogs:

Italian jazz drummer based in France, born on January, 16th, 1941 in Belluno, Italy.

Note he played with Christian Escoude, Enrico Rava, Henri Texier, plus a bunch of jazz bands of course, beside the great and brilliant Mariano, Philip Catherine, Porkpie, the Kuhn bros, so in short a lot or most of the well known brilliant Euro jazz / fusion artists, perhaps all of them in fact, and I believe everyone mentioned in this sentence has appeared here on this blog in years past for some album or another, as (incompletely) indicated. 

From 1979's Pleasure, a track called Pioggia sul Pineto can be heard here:

 

The phenomenal electric guitar playing is by the well known Frenchman, Claude Barthelemy.  All of his output under his own moniker is complex and worth hearing. I thought I posted the whole lot but maybe I didn't.

The next album, 1980's Night Diary wherein he has Van 't Hof on keys and Didier Lockwood on violin, as well as himself playing piano and guitars, has the most consistently enjoyable or accessible music while at the same time being interesting enough for us, and completely absent the 80s influence (digital drums, jumpy beats, shrill synths, etc.)-- consider Fina with its kind and appealing tenderness which owes a lot of course to the wonderful Didier's soft touch:

And the title track has an appealing soundtracky feel to it:

So in sum total, a very enjoyable mix of music and none-- absolutely none of the 80s influence and smooth fuzak one would have expected.

But I stopped listening to his output after 1980, perhaps I shouldn't have.

Someone surely knows more than me.

New Age Music & New Sounds - Vol. 052 [compilation]

 

I took a generic new age cover for that one, not sure if that's the right cover or if there even was one.

I post this because it has a track from the just mentioned duo of Rick Pruitt and Mark Davis, whose releases I can't find anywhere (if necessary I'll just buy the CDs or albums). You can see these guys made 1981's Winter's Ending, then later on, 1993's Breaking the Rules, and finally in 1997, Time's Arrow.

As usual I'd be highly interesting in hearing that 1981 one partly because it seems pretty rare out there but also on the strength of the track we do have which is the title track, Winter's Ending:

https://archive.org/details/02-pruett-davis-winters-ending-vari

Other than that one there's tons of nice laidback music on here, but I gotta say their track is def the highlight.

Larry Bright's Solar Visions (1978) and John Lee and Gerry Brown's Mango Sunrise from 1975, by request

 

Larry Bright was the drummer for Sun Ra in the mid-70s. He released this album in 1978, instrumental fusion with a spacey feel, appropriately called Solar Visions and it opens with the stunningly beautiful (and George Duke-like) electric piano sound for Aura Pt. 2:

https://archive.org/details/01-aura-pt.-ii

For John Lee and George Brown who were a rhythm section (bassist and drummer, respectively) I would think everyone is familiar with their first album from 1974, Infinite Jones, which has a number of fantastic fusion tracks on it. It was produced by Chris Hinze and the last 2 tracks are by him also.

After that one came Mango Sunrise, note the luminaries with first of all Jasper Van't Hof on clavinet, but on guitars Eef Albers who was posted here (Skyrider) and also for his masterpiece Pyramids, and the wondrous P. Catherine again.  Even Rob Franken on synths too (recall he was the keyboardist in the formidable fusion band Scope).

Their follow up was more accessible and a little bit tidier and commercial with simpler electric guitar riffs, on the whole. Minimal complex prog. If you look on this page you can see all the credits and observe John Lee did most of the composition. So for ex., on the track called Keep It Real, the synth is performed by Franken and both guitarists are playing (Catherine, Albers):

https://archive.org/details/3-keep-it-real

In terms of more uptempo high-energy-physics stuff, Magnum Opus is really magnum:
https://archive.org/details/8-magnum-opus

Some rather wondrous top-velocity soloing work on that number.

Muffins violinist Michael Zentner in Present Time (1983), Playtime (1995)

 

Michael Zentner, violinist, is known to everyone here as a performer in the US RIO band The Muffins:

American violinist.

Founding member of Washington DC Art Rock band, The Muffins. Toured England and France with British saxophonist Lol Coxhill and others. Worked with manager/producer Georgio Gomelski on various projects including Georgio's ZU band (which later became the band Material) as one of it's founding members.

First solo album "Present Time" is released in the US, Europe, and Japan. While the album received consistently high marks from critics, it's harp and violin duet Tears and Spheres became one of the first of the “New Age” offerings being aired on US radio.

Founding member of Peter Blegvad's Big Guns - a precursor to The Golden Palominos, with Carla Bley and the Palominos' Anton Fier, Bill Laswell, and Blegvad.

Group and solo electric violin concert performances in the US, Canada, Europe, Middle East, and Latin America along with some session work in Los Angeles and New York City. Recorded self produced second solo album "Playtime".

Embarked on a series of Duo concerts and group performances with John Goodsall. Various appearances in Los Angeles, performing with a variety of musicians including Patrick Moraz (Yes), Tom Fowler, Don Preston (Zappa), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers). Some US performances and intermittent but extensive touring in Europe and Latin America.

Present Time from 1983 has an amazing track called Tears and Spheres which with the harp and violin sounds a lot like the preceding Alan Stivell stuff:

https://archive.org/details/8.-tears-and-spheres

(Not sure why the embedded links don't work anymore with archive, but sigh.)

Another track called Cliche you can listen to here:

https://archive.org/details/3.-cliche

He then made another solo album called Playtime in 1995 which doesn't quite have the same fierce complexity but I included it down below. 

Alan Stivell's Renaissance of the Celtic Harp from 1971

 

From the usual discogs:

Real Name: Alan Cochevelou

Profile: Multi-instrumentalist, born January 6, 1944 in Riom, Auvergne, France. Best known for popularising the Celtic harp.

Son of Jord Cochevelou. Was taught the harp by Denise Mégevand. In 1961 he became the "penn-soner" (lead) of Bagad Bleimor.  [A celtic music band with bagpipes that is.]

I confess I haven't actually ventured beyond this 1971 album with info here, which I heard when quite young. At that time the first track which is called Ys (a legend and mythical city) completely entranced me with the supernatural and ethereal, spacey feeling of the harp which is so reverbed and echoey and the surrounding arrangement. In addition to the harp, notice Alan plays bagpipes, bombarde, and flute on this record. Otherwise he's backed by a chamber orchestra set of players complete with strings and cellos.  Starting with the rainy stormy sounds which were a little overdone in albums back in the day, we move on to that incredibly euharmonious and pleasing harp sound playing arpeggios, before it moves into some obligato patterns repeated and a cello commences a really plaintive melody, a bit like the old Canadian Amakudari album I loved so much back here. On top of that the flute starts playing another melody, really taking it off into the heavens. This kind of complicated acoustic folk is so far beyond the usual ethnic genre in its complexity.  Unfortunately, the remainder of the album is a little more simplistic and to me not necessarily worth remembering and rehearing the way the first track is.

Play it here:

https://archive.org/details/01.-ys

Since the rest of the LP was less interesting in terms of complex composition I didn't venture past this one to see if there's more in his oeuvre worth hearing but maybe someone else can enlighten us on that.

Hopefully others can enjoy this as much as I've enjoyed it in my life.

Thomas Flinter in 2 from 1978, 1979

 

It might be the case that everyone is already familiar with this band with a person's name. Info here.  Specifically, the notes state:

Thomas Flinter was a troubadour who lived in the middle ages. He never failed to be inventive and showed his own character as for his musical ideas. As it is he was not always respected for that. This may also be said of our group, and that accounts for the name Thomas Flinter.

The music is really classic prog from the Netherlands, similar to so many others that combine fusion with vocals such as the recently posted Prisma but also like other famous ones like Earth and Fire, or Mayfly, Galaxy-Lin, Finch, or Water Damburst or Supersister-- well, perhaps less fusiony than those guys of course.

The first album is definitely the best with no compromising the fierce proggishness, the second much smoother and more commercial but it definitely has its garden of earthly delights. It's odd that only a year separates the 2.

Old Man is the track that opens the album and presents the music to perfection:

Brass for Farmer T demonstrates the more fusiony and somewhat Zappaesque sounds they were capable of creating, and notice the very professional playing and perfect timing, and the wondrous beauty of the electric guitar soloing, quite magnificently played:

They thew in a fugue in there too to show off their classical education although it's more of Four-Seasons-Vivaldi imitation than a technical fugue, at least not until the end when it does segue into that specific structure.

From the 2nd album which apparently was recorded in 1979 but not released until 5 y later, the track called Changed World always entranced me with its really unique and original chord changes under a well-crafted melody:

With regards to their 'missing album' called TF, info'ed here, note the following:

Not For Sale Promo in fully laminated sleeve.

The initials 'TF' and the Turning Point Records logo are printed on front cover.

Distributor Inelco information on the back. There are no song titles mentioned.

This album appears to contain the same tracks released a year later on the

official second album Thomas Flinter - For A Fugitive (there may be slight

differences in the mix). It seems likely this was a demo or promo edition

intended to attract the record company's interest.

It's sad such great music is still so unknown, as usual. And I can't believe I wasn't familiar with this, heretofore.