The Locals Young Lovers

This album is quite unique in that it features a German band with distinct and definite Frank Zappa tendencies.  I would go so far as to say it's definitely one of a kind except my knowledge is certainly not comprehensive enough to express such confidence.  Nonetheless it's for that reason that I wanted to document this-- that, and the remarkable cover painting which in my opinion deserves to be in an art gallery, particularly with the humour of the misspelling of the graffiti on the wall, and the nude drawing tacked in the corner.  The biggest and most tragic loss, for me at least, in the change from LPs to CDs was the loss of great cover art.

Due to its size the record cover almost forced artists to be visually creative while due to its small area, the CD achieves the opposite effect, unfortunately.  Another way in which we can say that this period was the golden age of albums, though I feel relatively alone in mentioning the importance of this issue, I think.  But no one can disagree that the above is heart-achingly beautiful-- after all they are young lovers, as Prevert said in his poem which I will be featuring in an upcoming post "Les enfants qui s'aiment: "

"The young lovers kiss, standing up, against the door of the night.
And the passerbys who pass, point them out with their fingers--
but the young lovers are there for no one.
It's only their shadow that trembles in the night,
exciting the anger of passerbys,
their anger, their disdain, their laughter and their jealousy;
but the young who love each other are there for no one
they are elsewhere, much farther than the night,
much higher than the day, 
in the blinding clarity of their first love..."

Here is a very Zappa-esque track called Wet Napkin-- not only musically similar, but similar, obviously, in nomenclature:





And here is the title track itself:




...

Gallery is ECM 1206... recorded in NYC, 1981 [new rip-- lossless limited time only; requested]

From prognotfrog: [by permission]

"Gallery is ecm 1206. It has never been released to cd. Why is this? Does the world really need another box set of Ella's greatest hits? If there are indeed some of you out there who have yet to buy one, please do so quickly, so the music industry can get to the lost ecm treasures like this one, by far my most wished-for cd rerelease (altho by now I've listened to it so many times I would never actually play the cd if I bought it...)

The first song is the most apt musical description of a bird in flight I've ever heard. A vibraphone (Dave Samuels) repeats a broken chord of F minor and cello and oboe take over melody, with that classic ecm sound of slow musical patterns soaring over a 16th note beat, slow over fast (Michael DiPasqua, percussion, Ratzo Harris, bass). The use of cello (David Darling) creates a plaintive sound throughout the album. Frequent modulations are the 'key' to this song, every phrase is succeeded by a change into another unrelated minor key, exactly the kind of unexpectedness that makes good jazz or prog so intellectually recharging.  The second song "Prelude" sounds like a Chick Corea composition as in his children's pieces but quite classical influenced being played by cello with vibes accompaniment. "Painting" consists of maddeningly complex chords gradually transfiguring into one another, like a roomful of Rothkos maybe.  In "Pale Sun" a soprano sax dialogues with the cello evoking those old sci-fi paintings of white dwarfs sunrising over cold dead planets. "Egret" returns to the ornithological exposition, cello melody, flightlike song structure. 

When I hear these albums it saddens me to think someone spent so much time writing these elaborate compositions, probably months committing them to paper, after likely years of musical training, only to be lost to the fourth dimension. I would like to live to hear these musical works being performed at the local symphony hall by a chamber group. Well, obviously that's a crazy dream. There is not a single throwaway song. The cohesiveness of the composition and style are remarkable. 

One must mention the cover art as well, a very beautiful image, almost a cartoon in black and white on a greying page: a yellow clothed figure running away in the left upper quadrant appears to be watched by a quartet of shadows in the foreground and a streetlight, like a nineteen seventies Georgio di Chirico, enigma of the late dusk.  A mysterious quatrain is handwritten below the image."


BTW here is the mystery quatrain on the cover:

"First you notice the wind
you're walking aimlessly
there in the middle of events
you'll stop when you think you know"

[by Mikko Hietaharju]

The group consists of Ratzo B. Harris (bass), David Darling (cello), Michael DiPasqua (drums), Paul McCandless (saxes, oboes, horn), with David Samuels on vibes. More information here.  These performers appeared on multiple other ECM releases that sounded similar, but the way these guys came together on this particular record is really special and outstanding-- it was a one of a kind event for sure.  All the compositions here are very strong.  Truly beautiful music.  Just check out D. Samuels' "Soaring:"



...

Carita Holmström - We Are What We Do (Finland, 1973)

From discogs:
"Finnish pianist, singer and composer of jazz, pop and classical music, born February 10th, 1954 in Helsinki, Finland. She took part in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1974 with the song 'Älä Mene Pois'. "

This was her first album, and there's a great little self-written blurb up there on the top left corner on the back.  So the title is about her life in music.  She recalls to me such Scandinavian artists as Maru and Mikael or the acoustic songs of Baltik.

Note that it's Carita who plays the acoustic piano so gorgeously all throughout this record.  She wrote the songs as well except for track A4, Yes' Time and a Word (by Jon Anderson and David Foster) -- how this song made it here flummoxes me, it seems to stand out. Her work at least so far as this record is concerned is very much a part of the seventies zeitgeist with its earnest insistence of all of us liking each other as brothers, saving trees, and singing to the earth. That super-idealism is what makes this to me and hopefully to others out there so poignant and heart-breakingly beautiful.  It's unfortunate that those principles were so fully disregarded.  What happened to that "new world a-comin' " in the words of Duke Ellington?  

In mood some of this reminds me of my beloved Radka Toneff, I've mentioned before how Scandinavian music often leans towards the melancholic, surely not surprising when considering its environment, as one can see from the predilection in Caribbean music for the festive.

Now consider the last track which is called "The Knight."  I will reprint in full the beautiful lyrics.  The remainder of the album is absent any Christian references, so this dream she has about the medieval knight who puts her sword on her and then vanishes, to me, seems more like a vividly actual dream than a religious vision.  But the ambiguity of it is there, it can be interpreted (to the detriment of the artistic quality in my opinion) as a faith conversion too.  Perhaps the beauty of it lies in this 'over-interpretation' as Freud would have called it.  The musical interplay between acoustic bass and piano recalls Bill Evans and Herbie Mann discussing Nirvana and is really utter perfection, the lilting of the waltz tempo adding to the dreaminess.  There is a great intermission section in which piano and bass travel down from the key of G to F major, to D minor 6, to B half-diminished, back to A minor, with sustained bass (i.e., played with a bow).  Notice too the quivering E note played by the acoustic bass at the end of stanzas, that perfectly simulates a knight holding his sword.  (Incidentally, the bass is played by Pekka Sarmanto, brother of famed composer Heikki Sarmanto.)  This is the sort of touch of artistry that made Radka's records such a delight.


"On a Sunday afternoon I heard the church bells distantly ringing out
On a Sunday afternoon on a day in spring, 
I heard the sound of streaming water, in a dream.
And the sounds from the motorway suddenly disappeared,
Faded out to a sound like trumpets playing
And he was there, the knight, in his silver armour, from ancient times.

He looked at me, I stared at him, and the white horse with golden wings stood beside him.
He took his sword, took a step towards me, and he lay it on my shoulder.
And then it returned-- the trumpet sound, and he was gone for a battle.
He was gone, the knight, in his silver armour, from ancient times.

On a foggy afternoon, on a day in spring
I heard the church bells distantly ringing out.
On a Sunday afternoon on a day in spring,
I heard the sound of streaming water in a dream."


Incredible, utterly lovely. So seventies.






Now let's rewind back to the beginning.  In prognotfrog's write-up on Kurt Memo's Capt. Thunder the issue of unintentionally humorously earnest seventies lyrics was discussed at length.  
Consider the second song:

"Standing here at the top of the hill, singing to the earth,
Standing here looking down to the valley, singing to the earth,
Nobody in the world is near me,
Nobody in the world can hear me,
Here I stand feeling oh so lonesome now..."





Anyone who grew up in the 1970s like me will be reminded of Coke's classic ad of "I'd like to teach the world to sing" or Sesame Street's comparable and equivalent: "Sing a song, make it simple, to last your whole life long..."  which my own small kids still love to hear me play.

On track A5 (We've got to change) meantime she discusses the political strife in the world circa 1973:

"This is a funny world we're living in.
No room for feelings, no room for love.
People turning their backs on you
'cause they've forgotten the way to live--
and in their eyes you can see weariness and boredom,
in their eyes you can see a locked-up soul,
in their eyes you can see, they want to feel.

We got to change, take the sword of hate out of each others' hearts
and look into each others' eyes and say, I like you."

Surely that would go over well at one of the meetings of the G20.  
So no, we didn't change.
But let me ask you this: did we miss the boat?  Aren't we today well aware we took the wrong path in that forked road, down the path of consumerism, vanity, and short-term gratifications, instead of the narrow road less travelled of postponement and care for each other, blithely chopping down that last truffula tree?  Don't we, seriously, all realize this to the same degree we are helpless to do anything about it?  Few people cannot be aware of the insanity of endless consumption, the effects of it on the world today, particularly in poor countries, and the future our children will live in, and especially the incessant boredom that is the partner to continuous self-gratification.  So what she is saying is as true as it ever was, but we have newer and more cynical or modern ways to ignore the message.  We have to couch the prescription in medical or scientific terms, encouraging walks in nature and reassuring bromides or Oprah'ídes that giving will make us happier people, rather than admitting the truth of it.  Don't you think so?  I suppose this is a case where our human nature was too powerful for us to suppress, and if you're a pessimist like me, you realize we are innocent, we couldn't help ourselves, we'll destroy this world and our species who like all others is entirely dependent on it.

But I hope for the sake of my young children that if doom does come, it comes later rather than sooner-- and all those parents out there better be agreement on this point... which is why it does matter what we do and say today.

I want to thank my friend for purchasing this album-- well, first of all for being aware of it, and then for introducing me and the rest of those with open minds to yet another beautiful and long-lost singer.  Although at first I wasn't sure this was even good, it grew on me after several listens and now, these last days, I can't stop playing it.

Pastoral Scenes and Underscores, plus REUPs Rena Rama, Sicher, Magic Spell, Skyeros...

From prognotfrog (reprinted by permission):

"Another beautiful library album. Orchestral pieces often with a melancholy edge evoke a plushly verdant landscape, the irresistible earnestness so typical of this era in music almost could make one believe the earth was a garden of Eden, though one now deforested by diesel-powered caterpillar trucks for mining, logging, and clear-cutting to grow either palm oil (for your nutella sandwiches) or soybean for the export industry to go into the insatiable maw of the western world's frenzied desire for animal feed for hamburgers, biofuels to drive SUVs, and wood for cheap Ikea furniture destined for you Europeans and N. Americans… At least when we hear these songs we can remember there was a time when the planet (and our stereo) was pure and fresh and full of wildlife like frogs not yet decimated by chytrid fungus and fish not yet sickened by PCBs, and the woodland winds Fiddy and Sieben composed were not full of mercury particles from coal plants or nitrous oxides or CFCs designed to turn unprotected UV photons on caucasians into skyrocketing skin cancer statistics, nor could they truly have foreseen the 'continental sunset' they scored for the sonoton orchestra was the cultural sunset of your own western civilization designing its own gradual but certain demise in a plenitude of technocratic lassitude punctuated repeatedly with perpetually bored but impatient 'twitter feeds' along with instinctual overindulgence of every gluttonic form…
Anyways, it's a beautiful album!"

From prognotfrog:

"I believe I am once again victim of a case of mistaken identity, this is now the third time this has happened with this new identity I have, for the record, I am Tristan Stefan, I live in east Westphalia and I have two boys, named Hans und Franz. I was an installation artist in Berlin Kunstcraftsgesammenwerkschaftung discussing through my work paradigms of being and becoming in a meaningless existential universe, one of my most famous pieces was pile of dog poop on head of a Botticelli nude. One artwork about holocaust, a skull of Hitler made out of reese's pieces, I sold for 3 million Euro to a rich collector. He was also a mental defective. In another famous work I did with my brother I covered the Reichstag in Berlin with a giant lederhosen in protest against capitalism and the high cost of knackwurst. Then I had a midlife crisis, decided to give up art and go into the corporate world, so I became quality assurance control officer in BMW, we looked for design flaws in middle managers. We also made sure all labcoats were correct shade of white. This led to job in Bayer pharmaceuticals, I worked on developing vaccines for the HIV virus, the H1N1 viral pandemic and for athlete's foot. Currently I work fulltime in ISO 9001 Europa office we are designing implementation manuals for guidelines in standard operating procedures universal protocols involving light machinery, mostly phillips screwdrivers. These will be implemented ahead of schedule in ALL of EU by 2025 (the manuals, not the screwdrivers). What about the music? Well, I inherited the record collection of a hugely wealthy benefactor who made a fortune devising the nozzles for pouring beer from barrels for Oktoberfest (now used throughout the world) he was known in westphalia as 'Baron Bier'. He willed the vinyls to me after his horrible accidental death when he drowned in a brewery beer vat. I remember the tragic day well, I said to the brewmaster, "I hope it was quick at least" and his answer to me, "bitte, nein, Herr Tristan, it was not so quick. He climbed out of the vat three times to go take a pee."

Beausoleil Broussard Compleat By Request

From prognotfrog: [reprinted by permission:]

"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."

From prognotfrog: [reprinted by permission:]

"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."

from prognotfrog:

"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."