Catching up with Mezzoforte (with unreleased material)

 

Recall I posted their first couple of LPs here.  This one fits with those as it includes earlier material that was unreleased.  It's databased here, and I should've added it to the earlier post before giving up on this band.  But better late than never, as we say.

Note the following:

This compilation was released after Mezzoforte gained popularity in UK and Europe with the track 'Garden Party' from the album Surprise Surprise (relased in 1982).

Tracks were taken from previous albums, Í hakanum (or Octopus) and Þvílíkt og annað eins.

Tracks 'Eftirsjá / Octopus', 'Með mátulega hóflegri bjartsýni / Modestly Optimistic', and 'Greiðið Afnotagjöldin / Pay Your License' were omitted.

Check out in particular the nice, almost Finnforest sound of a composition called Sweet Nothings:

I'll take a break again until Monday with a lot more beautiful lost music...  Believe it or not, a lot more great stuff to hear.

VA: Dani Jugoslovenske Zabavne Muzike JRT - Opatija '78 - Orkestralna Izvedba - wav LP rip

 

A mixture of easy orchestral, silly generic 'schlager,' trad. jazz, and fusion, databased here.  Some standout tracks, mixed composers.  I suppose you could go so far as to say the music is all over the place.  From google:

The term Opatija records most commonly refers to historical music recordings from the famous Opatija Festival (Festival Opatija), a major annual pop, rock, and chanson music festival held in Opatija, Yugoslavia (now Croatia) from the 1960s through the 1980s.

Unfort. discogs doesn't have a general "Opatija" page where the annual releases are listed.  Although this '79 LP is well known among the prog cognoscenti (with Soncna Pot, Den za Den, etc.).

Tracklist with composers (for what it's worth):

A1 Baj, Baj (S. Ilić, Z. Skerl)

A2 Zbog Jedne Davne Melodije (M. Prohaska)

A3 Mili (N. Kalogjera)

A4 Gledam Tvoje Oči (S. Kajtazi, V. Simić)

A5 Ne Mogu Sakriti Svoju Bol (A. Stefanović, S. Vujović)

A6 Okrečem Listove Kalandera (D. Dukić)

A7 Človek, Ki Ga Ni (J. Robežnik)

B1 Vozi Me Vlak V Daljave (J. Privšek)

B2 Jednom U Gradu Tko Zna Kom (A. Vlatković, B. Adamič)

B3 Ako Sada Odeš (S. Mihaljinec)

B4 U Nedelju Ane (A.Kobiljo, L. Kuntarić)

B5 Eden Bakneš  (A. Džakonovski, P. Pešev)

B6 Moma Primorkinja (B. Zenović)

B7 Na Deževen Dan (J. Privšek, J. Robežnik)

The second track is without a doubt the highlight, being inventive fusion:

Back to Uli Harmssen and Jochen Voss with their first album Mother Nature from 1986, Father Harmony, FLAC limited time only

 

Posted the second one here, back in 2016, a decade ago.  Information on this release here.

Voss is a saxophonist, his page.  Uli Harmssen the keyboardist was in Thirsty Moon, I don't recall if they were good versus just ordinary krautrock, probably the latter given it didn't stick in my memory.

Anyways, put the two of them together, and you get some very laid back highly professionally played acoustic music, cross between new age and contemporary jazz-- good for sedation perhaps?

First track, Closed Eyes:

The requested 2025 Runaway Totem feat. Andromaca: Metaphorm Tetraphirm

 

Information here.  Runaway Totem:

Italian progressive Zeuhl rock band. Founded in Riva del Garda, Italy in 1988.

Amazingly this is the 16th release from them, at least acc. to discogs.  This is over a continuous career spanning 38 years though-- if this can be believed!  Surely a record for this blog.

To my ears however, not having listened to it all yet, this latest from them, from 2025, sounds more like psych - electronic than fusion / zeuhl.

Many, many thanks again to the person who generously contributed this...

Cam's Shearer Delight, from Canada 1981

 

Profile:

Cameron Shearer

- Canadian musician (keyboards) Producer and engineer.

- Engineered at Master's Workshop. Rexdale Ontario, Canada

- Winner of Academy Award 1998 - Scientific and Technical Award (Scientific and Engineering Award). To Cameron Shearer, Robert Predovich, John Scott, Mohamed Ken T. Husain for the design and implementation of the Soundmaster Integrated Operations Nucleus operating environment.

- Product Manager, Yamaha

This is his only album, from 1981. Note the similarity of the track titles.

There is a lot of the generic electronic music, eg circus music, polkas, drivel like that. However at least half the tracks are really impressively well composed, for ex., the Mystery of the Woman:

And Power of the Air really shows off his musical education:

Hugely enjoyable (in parts), and oh so rare!