Back to Anders Koppel with the 2-LP Album from 1987

When I saw this one hasn't been available thus far, digitally, I thought I better grab it.  On the one hand his 1977 work was magnificent, on the other hand, we know he headed down a bit of a dark side street in his Bazaar phase.

So there's a lot of material here to slog through, not all of it good of course, many a promising composition turns silly halfway through as if we were watching one of those 1960s Hollywood comedies in which everyone starts running around in circles followed by a small firetruck.  I personally can't stand dixieland music or simple blues and it drives me crazy to have to listen to either one.  On top of that, on side b the tracks run into each other which caused me a great deal of frustration and grief.

First track is called Indgang:





Pay attention to the long tracks, of which there is one on each of sides c and d, they are well worth hearing.

Note that all regular instruments are played by Koppel, which is admittedly rather impressive-- especially since both electric guitar and keyboards are equally highly proficient.

Blurb:
A collection of musical pieces used for films, theater and commercials.

Danish Bazaar in Live 1978, Gibbon Jump, Nimbus, and Live 1987

From discogs:

Danish worldmusic/folk band formed 1977 as Peter Bastian, Anders Koppel and Mehmet Ozan collaborated on the soundtrack for the 1977 movie "Aftenlandet". They were later joined by Flemming Quist Møller. After the first album "Live" Ozan left the group that after several stand-in's were used remained a trio. The style is folkmusic from the Balkans, Africa and Brazil.
In May 2012 the band announced they would disband after the summer concerts.


So yes of course this is highly ethnically propulsed and whether or not you enjoy it depends on your liking or perhaps tolerance for ethnic incursions in music.  I personally am left cold by the tablas plus sitars and other drony sounds that seem to stay in the same key or chord for way too long like a pungent incense stick reek that gets on your nerves in those third world stores full of woven handmade naturally sourced crap.  And I think most of us who live in the Northern hemisphere are getting just a bit tired of those ethnic incursions if you know what I mean, at the risk of being politically incorrect, with the notable exception of the majority of our political leaders who make those condescending fatherly decisions for the rest of us.

On the track called Zyrak from the 1980 work it's our old prog friend the tritone of course that provides the plaintive sound of the starting chord (i.e. E on top of a B flat chord), which later cleverly resolves to a key of F major thanks to the peregrinations of a sexy sax blowing hard, getting more and more aroused-- oops, he just got fired from his job for that:





I suppose what I would most complain about in these albums is the simplicity of the ethnic fusion, such a far cry from the standout Matao for example, or from the intricate inventions of my old favourite artist and also favourite point of reference Georg Lawall.

From Nimbus, the 2nd track is passable, again recalling the Samla Mammas crew:





I threw in the 1987 Live album which is really just Koppel playing supermarket hammond sounds with rhythm section backing, in a very random and all over the place overdrawn set of classical-themed compositions, as if he were trying to entertain a delegation of Turkish nougat dealers wearing fez's too low over their ears.  He could do much better than this.  And more Koppel to come, soon...

Anders Koppel ‎– Aftenlandet & Regnbuefuglen (1977)

From Wikipedia:

Anders Koppel (born 17 July 1947 in Copenhagen) was a co-founder in 1967 of the rock group Savage Rose. From 1976 to 2012 he was a member of the trio Bazaar. He plays in the trio Koppel-Andersen-Koppel which includes his son, saxophone player Benjamin Koppel. Koppel has twice received the Danish film award Robert for best film score (1994 and 1996). His first daughter Sara Koppel is an animator and artist, and the second daughter Marie Carmen Koppel is a gospel, soul, and jazz singer.

Koppel has composed music for eight ballets for the New Danish Dance Theatre and music for more than 150 movies, 50 theatrical plays and three musicals. He has also composed more than 90 works for classical ensembles, chamber music and 20 concertos, among them two saxophone concertos and four marimba concertos.

He played the piano as a child with his father, composer Herman D. Koppel, and later clarinet with several television and concert appearances. He began playing the organ in 1966.


This early album from him features a very eclectic mix of folk, some classical composition, mixed with fusion, perhaps reminiscent of (Swedes) Kebnekajse.  On the other hand, it's not very much like the lighter ethnic fusion which he later produced with the band Bazaar-- whose first few albums I highly recommend.

I've always loved the Samla Mammas-like sound of the track called Toget: