Dørge/Becker/Carlsen Feat. Marilyn Mazur in 1986's Canoe, by request

Set aside the sheer ridiculousness of the throwaway cover shot, wherein each artist appears either bored or stoned, or wishing to be, here's a request that turned out to be quite pleasantly enjoyable, information here.

The trio made another album the next year, Irene Becker keyboardist is third from left, Marilyn percussionist second from left, with the other gentleman Morten Carlsen (on saxes) on the right, and Dorge on the left.  This last artist, the guitarist, was the brains behind Thermaenius, recall.  And to be honest the music on this LP is very similar, instrumental fusion with some very intricate smooth jazz sounds, full of dreamy interludes of high-flying sax and electric guitar interplay above sustained synth chords.  Note the bio of that band on discogs:

Danish Fusion jazz band active late 1970's to early 1980's lead by Pierre Dørge. Since Thermænius folded, Dørge, Irene Becker and Morten Carlsen have continued playing together. First as Dørge/Becker/Carlsen and later with Becker and Carlsen as members of Dørge's New Jungle Orchestra that was formed after Thermænius, and the three of them continously performs as a trio.

Irene Becker was in a rock group (with Dorge on some albums) in the seventies, called Hos Anna, as you can see here.  Those lost albums are incredibly hard to find, although cheap as dirt, anyone know anything at all about the style, if it's simple pop or what?  That they are not logged in rateyourmusic, the master class for connoisseurs, is always a bad sign of course.

Sky of July, a Becker composition, is typical of the style:





Perhaps we can call this the next, or last, Thermænius album.

More Thermaenius with Copenhagen Boogie from 1982

Notice that on this subsequent album, Pierre Dørge the guitarist/leader shares compositional credits with Irene Becker, pianist (who was present previously).  All the bad habits of the previous instalment are still in evidence and (un)duly entertained: the interminable jams, ridiculous almost joke-like sax solos, live acoustics and in case you didn't have enough of the silliness, overlengthy sides, yet there is a bit more experimentation and complexity to the compositions which is a welcome sound for tired ears.

First notice that each side is named after a cardinal direction e.g. side one is South with its African percussive beginning and the excellent composition on the subject of the peacock (by Becker), ending in the West-- though certainly the leaders of the UK, the USA and soon France will perhaps ignore everything except the North, to their loss, as that first Southern side is quite strong (unlike their economies).  

So here's the (presidential) Peacock in honour of them:






...oh how simple the world was back in 1982, 34 years ago...






Well, let's not forget those fears of nuclear war were pretty terrifying... remember the evil empire and star wars...

Thermænius Live: Musikcaféen, May 28,1979, released 1980 [by request]

A very unknown band indeed.

From discogs:

Danish Fusion jazz band active late 1970's to early 1980's led by [guitarist] Pierre Dørge. Since Thermænius folded, Dørge, Irene Becker and Morten Carlsen have continued playing together. First as Dørge/Becker/Carlsen and later with Becker and Carlsen as members of Dørge's New Jungle Orchestra that was formed after Thermænius, and the three of them continuously performs as a trio.


This was their first record barely audible as live.  On the verso you will see the band is quite proud of the length of their record sides, with each being at least 26 minutes, presenting us with about 108 minutes of music in total--!

Consider the last two tracks on side A which I didn't split as they run into each other, Praeludium plus Sunrise as representative of their instrumental, improvised and perhaps slightly tentative style of fusion/jazz:






My main complaint would be their propensity to get into usually Eastern, diminished, or minor second style grooves that then drag on for far too long on the same riff or chord change as basis without any constructive development.  I suppose the idea was to provide an exact recording of a bona fide live performance, warts and all, but for that same reason I hate live records.  Too bad it couldn't be edited down to the best ideas.

More to come.