Graziani 's a Dumane... a demain...

Highly in-demand French folk presumably dating from the early 70s, check the price of this baby here, it turns out this is an odd mix that intersperses a great deal of talk with the music.

The 'psych' folk of A Dumane:





From the blurb on the back:

A Dumane. C'est le croisement du texte et des synthetiseurs... C'est le carrefour d'un nationaliste corse et deux musiciens français... 


This one looks interesting too, anyone know it?

Many thanks again to the help of my friends, without whom this blog would be virtually and in reality impossible, for bringing these fascinating rarities to our attention...

David Friesen and John Stowell: Star Dance; Waterfall Rainbow; and Through The Listening Glass

Bassist David Friesen made quite a few albums back in the day with a very Oregonian feel, thanks to the frequent use of not just modern classical influences but also added string quartet, oboe and soprano sax textures.  There is a quite a bit of 'filler' (for me) bass solo material to wade through in these but here and there some true delights shine through, and these are far far less known than Ralph Towner and Collin Walcott's group.  (Incidentally I just recently heard their bassist Glen Moore's 1979 album Introducing which is also incredibly well composed.)

The towering Ralph Townering of Star Dance from Friesen and Stowell's first, 1976 album of the same name:

Note the scoring of oboe and clarinet with string quartet.

More of the same plus more chamber instruments on the Wedding Dance from the second album featured here:

From the final collaboration album, Opening Out:






Obviously, christian themes permeate.

David Rosenstein's Hot Spots, from 1988

Sadly, it seems the last installment's brilliant Icarus flew too close to the sun with his wax wings, despite his father's warnings, and crashed on this album, which is merely or exactly as described, smooth jazz, of the kind I've reviled on this blog before.

Here compositional credits are attributed to David Bernbach, John Grunt, and William Bodil, with the orchestra conducted and arrangements by Rosenstein.  Note that the great Rainer Bruninghaus is on keyboards somewhere in here-- hard to tell.

Very little information on David here.

First Track:

David Rosenstein's Icarus from 1986

Another marvellous unknown library record full of interesting fusion, it really reminds me of the earlier Phil Moon one -- but sadly it's not as good.  Can we expect more at this late stage?

The track called Desolation I (which amazingly was written by our old friend Manfred Schoof):






For Schoof fans like me, you will happily note he was responsible for some of the best compositions on this record.


And everyone, have a very good Good Friday!

Coste Apetrea's Airborne, from 1989

It's always surprising to dig so deep into the muck of the eighties and come out holding a lost prize.  Well, you might have to polish it quite a bit to give it valuable status.  But for tired ears there are some real reasons to operate normally.

There is no reason to introduce Coste, recall he worked with infamous (and brilliant) Swedish RIO band Samla Mammas and in the later 70s to 80s with guitarist Jukka Tolonen.

Alicante:





I don't think you could come up with a better and more poetic track title than Unidentified Flying Sadness:






I actually found most of his earlier solo material quite disappointing, lacking in punch and inventiveness, though I know I'm in the minority with that opinion.