Back to A. Stalteri with Early Rings from 1974-1975, limited time only

 

Info here. Posted stuff from him already here.  Of course this one recorded in that golden age of progressive seemed quite interesting, which it is.

I wouldn't hesitate to say I really love this guy and I've got to thank you from the bottom of my heart for requesting his material which turned out to be so completely impressive, varied as well and consistent through some decades of music making, beginning of course with the band Pierrot Lunaire.

This is very squarely in the acoustic-electronic mode of the seventies, cf. compatriots Leprino's Integrati, Disintegrati, or the exquisitely beautiful Sonanze from Cacciapaglia. Just listen to the opening track with its classic title of From Hobbiton to the Land of Shadows (note the lovely recorder playing grace note cuckoos on top of the ostinato):

And on it goes, just tragic that it wasn't released back in the day when it would have been appreciated so much. It does stand comparison positively with similar works such as Bo Hansson's Rings concept album from the earlier parts of the same decade.

Bobby Vince Paunetto's two 1970s LPs

Love the above cover, Commit to Memory.

Information discogged here.  A great recommendation from Simon666.

This is latin-infused big band plus fusion, in equal parts I'd say, with minimal samba / bossanova / flamenco simplicity which as is well known drives me completely crazy (it's a short drive of course).

Paunetto's Point from the ST album:

From the second, Delta:

Back to Michael Cassidy with Nature's Way from 1976

 

Information here.

Not quite as good as the predecessors posted earlier here and here (with link removed by bot/AI ?).  Basic acousticky folk ssw stuff.

Note at the bottom of the back:

Special thanks to James Hunter, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, Alfred Ford, George Harrison and John Fahey for their contributions to ISKCON Projects

Spirit of Reason:

Quatuor Noir - Des Ténèbres A La Lumière, requested

From discogs:

Enregistré Les 29, 30, 31 juillet 1987 aux studios de la RTBF Bruxelles (Place Flagey) - Corporation RTBF Haynaut. A l'occasion du 150ème Anniversaire de la faculté polytechnique de Mons.

299 copies were made and quickly scattered.Quatuor Noir is an ensemble playing music on mythological themes and very similar to Univers Zéro, Julverne, Art Zoyd... Christian Leroy created in 1980, the now famous trio MÉTARYTHMES DE l'AIR, with Philippe SAUCEZ on clarinet and José BEDEUR on bass and cello.

Their very much RIO album Phagocyte appeared back here. 

Note that Christian Leroy is the composer and piano player for this album too.

Most of it is quite avant garde, perhaps improvised (?), with little to hold on to, with here and there some more accessible music, a piano solo on side b, etc.  The Suite Magique sounds inspired by Debussy:

Some lovely vocals from one Helene Barbigant.

Solar Plexus - Earth Songs from 1980, fresh rip from LP

 

It's a good thing I bought and ripped this, in order to complete the discography. It's quite impressively written and squarely in the progressive US fusion tradition with a little latin, some chamber arrangements, and quite diverse in its range.  What a shame these guys threw in the towel after this, and the 5th disc!!  All the info here.  Note all compositions by Randy Masters and pianist / producer Berthiaume.

In fact, behold the track by Berthiaume called Behold a Pale Horse which presents to us all that is magnificent in not only dramatic fusion composition but human-generated music, in general, as far as I'm concerned:

Unfortunately, the last track, a simplistic blues-jazz piece that sounds like something out of the early 50s, is a total throwaway (at least for me).

Solar Plexus #5 from 1981, limited time only

 

Recorded in 1981! on CD.

The CD "Solar Plexus #5" was recorded in 1981, and has now been mastered and released to an unsuspecting public!

SOLAR PLEXUS #5 is dedicated to our listeners and to those musicians who appeared in all the Solar Plexus groups.

SOLAR PLEXUS 5 (THE STORY BEHIND THE CD):

It’s May 1981. Six musicians, the current crop of players in the San Francisco Bay Area jazz fusion group SOLAR PLEXUS, gather in the Los Altos living room of bassist Jon Ward. During a 3 day period, the band records its last project. No overdubs. No digital recording. Only an Ampex ¼” tape machine in 2-track stereo (4-track tape, 2-track stereo in each direction). Most of the material is done in one take. Only a few tunes are two takes. The project is rejected by Inner City Records, the band’s label and promoter of its 3rd “album” (SOLAR PLEXUS) and 4th “album” (EARTH SONGS). A month later Inner City is Chapter 11. A year later Solar Plexus disbands, its members going on to other music projects and teaching careers.

An astounding progressive fusion album that I am so very thankful to friends for bringing to my attention. It's just never ending, interesting, advanced and creative fusionary instrumental sounds that you will, guaranteed, love-- if you love fusion. Obviously, they made 5 albums, but this is by far the best of them, quite surprisingly, not following the natural trend of things which would make you suspect exactly the reverse.

Visions of Hope:

Back to Brian Brown with the lost Winged Messenger [lossless temp link]

Posted so much from him in the past, as you may see if you were to follow that label there at the bottom.

In the end the one I loved the most was Wildflowers. Those tracks were so beautifully crafted and original with so much thought and expressiveness.

This one is more free jazz, but still well worth hearing once. Maybe more often than that. This one came out in the late year of 1987.  The title track, with lovely quasi-crystalline vocals from Judy Jacques, for ex.:

Back to Mwendo Dawa with Dimensions, 1987

 

More of theirs stuff from earlier posted here before. This one 8 years later from the initial is still quite progressive in spirit and has the welcome addition of electronic keyboards front and centre (played by Susanna Lindeborg).

The lovely track Chords gives you an idea of what I mean:

Finnish Royals: Spring 1976, Out 1977

 Discogged:

Finnish rock band, founded in 1975. Disbanded in 1978.

Line-up:

Albert Järvinen - guitar

Pave Maijanen - vocals, bass

Ippe Kätkä - drums

Mikko Rintanen - keyboards (1978)

I love this kind of blind hard rock with just a little bit of progressive spirit, original, mostly blues based, but nice and electric. Not at all like Groundhogs in terms of progressiveness but not everyone can be, right?

The Real Me really grew on me:

Kings of Power, from the 2nd:

Back to K. Kovac in Butterflies, 1981

I guess we all agree the former posting of his 1977 Izmedu work was formidable indeed.

From this LP, the lovely progressive instrumental composition India:

Of course, this will not be as good as the previously posted, by the laws of nature we believe this to be self evident (being from 1981)... however it still has its moments and is well worth hearing.

Information here.

Kornelije Kovac in 1977's Izmedju Avetlosti i Tame

I guess right from the start, right from the first one minute you know you're in for a progressive fusionary treat here on this one:

Discogs:

Kornelije Kovač (1.1.1942 - 13.09.2020)

Famous Serbian composer, pianist, keyboard player, producer and arranger. His career as a professional musician started in 1961 when he formed his first jazz trio 'BKB'. In 1967 he joined 'Indexi', but stayed with them for a short time. After leaving them he formed famous 'Korni Grupa' band.

In 1989 he moved to Spain where over the years he worked as a composer, arranger and producer, collaborating with TV stations TELE 5 and ANTENA 3, as well as prominent artists such as Nacha Pop, Thalía, Rocío Jurado, Rocío Durcal, Juan Pardo, and Chiquetete.

And so on it goes, with fusion, progressive music, some vocal tracks, some instrumental, a brilliant lost record really, lovely to find, and many thanks again for bringing this to our attention!

Cheiro de Vida's albums / releases, limited time only

 All instrumental Brazilian fusion band from the early 80s and onwards and typical of the smooth style of the era, who released some amazing material that is harder to obtain than the original ST album, from 1984. Discogged here.

I presume everyone is already familiar with the original 1984 release with the lovely flower cover.

From that one, their Bosch composition is not nearly as aggressively surreal as one would have liked or expected (perhaps inspired by the boring heaven panel?):

At any rate I was recently surprised to see they had more instr. compositions from later albums that are far less known, but are quite interesting, note the track called Africa with its lead guitar dissonances:

So there's a whole bunch of material to digest from later recordings...

Claudio Guimaraes in Meu Irmão Toca Na Sinfônica (BRA 1981)

Information here sparse as it is.

Again, an absolutely stunning progressive fusion find, the kind I salivate over any day of the week but that rarely pops up anymore these latter days of unearthing obscurities endlessly.

 The track Brooklyn Heights begins relatively inauspiciously with a bouncy Latin rhythm but progressed quite astonishingly in its length through more composed, intricate passages, similar to the great Carlos Franzetti (Prime Element's Alborada) who I still love and adore for his mastery in combining fusion with orchestral composed classical music:

It's astounding what the human mind can generate with creativity and thought in the lengths and breadths of musical or other artistic beauty...

And you can look forward, believe it or not, to more tracks on this lost LP, that are similarly amazing!