The Chitinous Ensemble by Paul Buckmaster, 1971

This is a bona fide masterpiece and definitely the kind of LP that just belongs on this blog, with its incredibly creative mixture of modern classical music, jazz, and fusion, passing through some quite experimental ideas, but never meandering.  It's the composition of Paul Buckmaster, who was also in the Sphincter Ensemble and the Third Ear Band (their magnificent soundtrack for the 1972 Roman Polanski MacBeth movie, if anybody remembers that one, was incredible).  Peter Robinson plays electric keyboards on this work, and Ian Carr on trumpet.

I find it absolutely stunning that artists were so imaginative and creative in this time period and were willing to fuse together everything wonderful invented by previous composers into one harmonious whole with everything it, electric instruments as much as conventional acoustic classical instr. like the string section. What happened to that wonderful spirit? I mean, when I overhear some pop today, because I definitely try to avoid it as best I can, I just want to cry, there is not even any evidence people know of the presence of minor chords, or added sevenths even.

The track called De Blonck, imho, melds together the instruments beautifully:

My favourite one though is the Aldebaranian Song (refers to the star I'm pretty sure):

The fusion of classical and electric, traditional and modern, old and new, is perfect here.

PS from an amazon review, as pointed out by commenter below:

"I was curious to hear this disc as the material was written and directed by Paul Buckmaster. While rock fans know Buckmaster for his work Elton John (the string arrangements on Madman Across the Water for starters) and the Stones (Sticky Fingers), he was also heavily involved in the creation of Miles Davis's On The Corner. Miles first met Buckmaster in 1969 in England and they hit it off (Buckmaster gave Miles some Stockhausen records which in turn influence Miles's 1970s work). This album was recorded in early 1970 but not released (in a very small pressing) until 1971. You can definitely hear how it presaged On The Corner and why Miles brought in Buckmaster to collaborate on the album. I played this disc for Dave Liebman a few years back (and gave him a copy - he hadn't heard it before)) and he said flat-out that this record had definitely influenced Miles in a big way. So there you have it - from someone who was there (and played on the records). The music requires some open ears but if you're a fan of Miles's work from Bitches Brew through Get Up With It, this is must listening."