Henry Cow - In Praise of Learning (1975)

In Praise of Learning is an album by British avant-garde rock groups Henry Cow and Slapp Happy, recorded at Virgin Records' Manor studios in February and March 1975. It was the second of two collaborative albums by the two groups and was released in May 1975.
The album cover art work was by artist Ray Smith and was the last of the three "paint socks" to feature on Henry Cow's albums.
In Praise of Learning was the most overtly political album Henry Cow made. Printed on the back of the album cover is filmmaker John Grierson's quote "Art is not a mirror - it is a hammer", and the Tim Hodgkinson 16 minute composition "Living in the Heart of the Beast", augmented by Dagmar Krause's Armageddon-like vocals, made it quite clear where Henry Cow's political aspirations lay. Krause's powerful voice had added a new dimension to their music. The album opener, "War" (Moore/Blegvad) had been recorded the previous year during the making of the first Slapp Happy/Henry Cow collaborative album, Desperate Straights (1975).

"Living in the Heart of the Beast" began as an unfinished instrumental that Hodgkinson presented to the group, which was cut up and performed live in 1974 with improvisational sections added.[1] One such performance, "Halsteren" was recorded in Halsteren in September 1974, and appears in Volume 2: 1974-5 of The 40th Anniversary Henry Cow Box Set (2009). After the merger with Slapp Happy, Hodgkinson commissioned Peter Blegvad to write lyrics for the piece for Dagmar Krause to sing. But after several attempts, Blegvad admitted that he was "out of [his] depth", and Hodgkinson wrote the lyrics himself.

Chris Cutler's lyrics on "Beautiful as the Moon - Terrible as an Army with Banners" were the first song texts he had written, and the song was the first writing collaboration between Cutler and Fred Frith that later grew into Art Bears. The song also became the longest lasting "building block" the band used in subsequent live performances. [in wiki..]
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1. "War" (Moore, Blegvad) – 2:25
2. "Living in the Heart of the Beast" (Hodgkinson) – 15:30
3. "Beginning: The Long March" (Henry Cow, Slapp Happy) – 6:26
4. "Beautiful as the Moon - Terrible as an Army with Banners" (Frith, Cutler) – 7:02
5. "Morning Star" (Henry Cow, Slapp Happy) – 6:05

Bonus track on 1991 CD re-issue:
6. "Lovers of Gold" (Henry Cow, Slapp Happy, Cutler) – 6:28
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John Greaves - Bass, Piano
Lindsay Cooper - Bassoon, Oboe
Tim Hodgkinson - Clarinet, Organ, Piano
Chris Cutler - Drums, Noises
Anthony Moore - Electronics, Tape, Piano
Fred Frith - Guitar, Violin, Xylophone, Piano
Dagmar Krause - Voice
Geoff Leigh - Soprano Sax
Mongezi Feza - Trumpet
Peter Blegvad - Voice, Trumpet, Guitar
Phil Becque - Noise Oscillator

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Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble - Toward the Margins (1996)

British saxophonist Evan Parker was one of the first musicians to record for ECM, appearing on the label's fifth album in 1970 as a member of the Music Improvisation Company; his partners in that collective included Stockhausen associate and electronic composer Hugh Davies.

Over the past three decades, electronics have been one of Parker's abiding interests and his collaborations both with improvisers using electronics and with composers of electronic music have been many. In 1992 he formed the Electro-Acoustic Ensemble to explore more fully the potential of live electronics in improvisation, a potential that has grown as the technology has become more sophisticated.
The Ensemble pools musicians from the worlds of free improvisation, jazz, contemporary composition and computer music research, with most of its members straddling more than one idiom or area of activity. The Evan Parker Electro-Acoustic Ensemble has toured widely, and its North American debut at the Victoriaville Festival was widely hailed as the event's highlight: "An orchestral music of panoramic scope, full of spatial detail...cascading layers of morphing transmutations ... the electronic manipulations charged the music with a sense of spontaneous discovery" - Cadence, "Ardent ... grandly ambitious ... broadly sweeping schemes, mating improvised activity with MIDI-fied crosstalk" - Jazz Times.
There is a great deal of slowly-evolving tone colour and space, with the opening track almost entirely textural and hung around Guy's sonorous bass. Sepulchral gong-sounds echo behind Parker's whirling soprano sax, there are spooky percussion solos of slithery whispers and sounds like buckets of broken glass being emptied onto concrete, and the leader's remarkable capacity for contrapuntal solo playing acquires even more voices as the electronics echo it. Serious play, in every respect. John Fordham, The Guardian (Jazz CD of the Week)

Evan Parker - soprano sax, gong
Barry Guy - double-bass
Paul Lytton - percussion, live electronics
Philipp Wachsmann - violin, viola, live electronics, sound processing
Walter Prati - live electronics, sound processing
Marco Vecchi - live electronics, sound processing

1. Toward the Margins
2. Turbulent Mirror
3. Field and Figure
4. The Regenerative Landscape (for AMM)
5. Chain of Chance
6. Trahutten
7. Shadow Without an Object
8. Epanados
9. Born Cross-Eyed (Remembering Fuller)
10. Philipp's Pavilion
11. The Hundred Books (for Idries Shah)
12. Contra-Dance

Recorded in May 1996 at Gateway Studios
Released in 1997 by ECM

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AMM - Ammmusic 1966

"The first recording by these pioneers of electro-acoustic improvisation, AMMMusic stands the test of time both as a remarkably prescient session and as an utterly powerful and deep piece of 20th century music. Drummer Eddie Prevost's superb and detailed liner notes document AMM's early history, including the confusion engendered not only in audiences and critics but even in the band members themselves, unsure if they were in a free jazz ensemble, a contemporary classical group, neither, or both. The aphorisms adorning the original LP issue (the disc includes additional portions of the concert) give some indication of what was facing listeners and musicians at the time: An AMM performance has no beginning or ending. Sounds outside the performance are distinguished from it only by individual sensibility. Or: Every noise has a note.

Even so, at this early stage in its development, there are more "normal" instrumental sounds with a conceptual basis in either jazz or classical music than there would be later on. Lou Gare's tenor saxophone wrings out occasional avant-garde peals that wouldn't have sounded too out of place in Sun Ra's band of the period, and Prevost's drumming shares some affinities with the energy players of the day. Similarly, Cornelius Cardew's piano and Lawrence Sheaff's cello sometimes refer to this or that modern classical tradition. But the overall sound of the group, even in 1966, was so different, so idiosyncratic, that it's not at all surprising that both new jazz and contemporary classical audiences were baffled, if not horrified. The experimentation in sonic assault, noise, and chance sound (including transistor radios) would, however, reach the rock fringes (as Prevost points out) in the work of '60s bands like Pink Floyd as well as later industrial groups like Test Dept. and the Jesus and Mary Chain. But the palpable thrill of producing such music at the time is unique to AMM. The group's sonic conception in its totality is so enveloping and comprehensive that, once heard, it becomes impossible to hear music the same way again. Recent devotees of electronica, free improv, industrial, and noise bands owe it to themselves to check out their primary source: AMM. Brian Olewnick, All Music Guide

Originally recorded and released in 1966, this has long been considered one of the early high-watermarks of contemporary improvised music/sound. AMM were one of the first completely non-idiomatic free improvising ensembles, and this was their very first release. Out of print for over 20 years, this includes 30 minutes of bonus material from the original sessions.

Lou Gare: tenor saxophone, violin
Keith Rowe: guitar, transistor radio
Eddie Prévost: percussion
Lawrence Sheaff: cello, accordion, clarinet, transistor radio
Cornelius Cardew: piano, cello, transistor radio

Recorded in 1966 in London. Originally released in 1967. Re-released in 1989.
Tracks 2 & 6 are from the 1967 LP, and are shorter edits of tracks 1 & 5 .
Tracks 3, 4 & 7 are from the same sessions, previously unreleased.

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Experimental Audio Research - The Köner Experiment (1997)

"If you're home really late at night and you randomly spin the radio dial to see what you pick up, you just might end up falling asleep to burbling, phased-out static. To distinguish such an act from listening to The Köner Experiment might be harder than you think. Here, the Experimental Audio Research collective restrains their avant-garde indie noise rock to come up with ten untitled tracks that try to explore the seedlings of collaborator Thomas Köner's more minimalist philosophies... When these pieces sound like an insomniac's heartbeat, pulsing along to an unsettling world of twilight paranoia, the effect is deeply disturbing. There's a mechanist's glare to a number of these tracks. An exhausted lucidity that probably points to one of the most potent and coherent constructions of all the E.A.R. releases so far". Dean Carlson, All Music Guide

"The Köner Experiment' is the collaboration of several of the finest experimental artists of the time, namely Sonic Boom, Kevin Martin (God & Techno Animal), Eddie Prevost (AMM), Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine) and Thomas Köner and Andy Mellwig (Porter Ricks). This release was recorded during 1991 in studios in Coventry & London, the material was then sculpted in Dortmund into its present form by the much acclaimed German artists Köner and Mellwig. Taking the ethos of experimental audio research to new levels, this release shows us the deep and complex nature of the music E.A.R. (Experimental Audio Research) produce. Deep, rolling waves of sound producing emotions and thoughts like no other style can".


Sonic Boom: EMS VCS3 & Synthi A, Serge Modular Music System, Guitar, Wind Pipes.
Kevin Martin: Saxophone, Wha Wha, Echoes.
Eddie Prevost: Bowed Cymbals, Percussion.
Kevin Shields: Treated Guitar.
Thomas Köner & Andy Mellwig: Rhythms & Pulses.
Produced by Thomas Köner & Andy Mellwig

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This contribution is a courtesy of Moita's Double Avenue