Blowhole ‘Gathering’

01 Gathering – side 1 (21:38)
02 Gathering – side 2 (21:34)

Daniel Barber: assorted percussion
Patrick Barber: electric bass
Amy Denio: alt. saxophone, voice
Catherine Holmes: amplified cello
Jeph Jerman: drums
Ernst Lung K.: trumpet & amplified trumpet
Nick Sherman: electric guitar
Mary Shokes: electric violin
Adem Tepedelen: electric guitar
Hyla Willis: amplified loom, voice

Total time 43:12

LP coreleased by Giardia Recordings, Fusetron and Carburetor Records, WORM 003 – FUSE 006 – BRT 004, USA, 1995.
Hand-painted cover with stickers.

Blowhole was founded in 1987 in Colorado Springs by percussionist Jeph Jarman and the Barber brothers, with Scott Hiller, Fil Rodriguez and Dr. Soule. At one point there was one Blowhole in Colorado Springs and another branch in Seattle when Patrick Barber moved there. Starting 1987, Jeph Jarman also ran his Hands To solo electroacoustic project, turning to what he calls ‘concussion’ when playing with Blowhole – actually, an assortment of scrap metal objects including hubcaps, as is the case on this LP. Blowhole issued nearly 50 releases between 1987 and 1998, with some CD-R reissues in the 20th century. The music on ‘Gathering’ is culled from live and studio recordings from 1994. The fairly short tracks are interwoven to form 2 long suites. Some tracks are straight free jazz numbers with prominent saxophone and regular drumming, while others are more noisy rock affairs. Some are group efforts, while others are solos by one band member. The music would work perfectly as a soundtrack to a Rauschenberg painting: large scale, ironical and collage-like. This incarnation of Blowhole includes 4 women: Amy Denio, Catherine Holmes, Mary Shokes and Hyla Willis, the latter credited with ‘amplified loom’, an interesting nod toward Industrial Age, I guess.
Great album.

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Below: ‘Gathering’ LP alternative covers found on the net (each unique):

Raymond Boni ‘Rêve en Couleurs’

01 Chanson pour Indio (7:43)
02 Thème Imaginaire (5:57)
03 Les Clowns (4:35)
04 Tu viens Bastien (1:06)
05 Rêve en Couleurs – side B (19:25)
– Face au Soleil Couchant (0:00 ~5:32)
– Invitation au Rêve (~5:32 ~14:06)
– Rêve en Couleurs (~14:06 ~19:25)

Total time 38:40
LP released by Palm, France, 1976

French guitarist Raymond Boni (b. 1947) is known for his various partnerships with leaders of the European improvisation scene (André Jaume, Claude Bernard, Gérard Marais, Joe McPhee, Terry Day), and released only a handful of solo albums, of which this is the 2nd, after 1971’s L’Oiseau, l’Arbre, le Béton on Futura Records. Raymond Boni famously played his guitar with typical Flamenco technique and gestures, while playing his own take on radical Free Improvisation. Boni plays 2 kinds of guitars on this LP: an acoustic Carbonell model, the brand used by Django Reinhardt and typical from other Gypsy guitar players ; and an electric Jacobacci model, probably a Gimenes from the 1960s (it’s the one shown on the back cover above). He’s heard mostly on electric guitar on side A, using a lot of effect pedals and re-recording. The music is based on virtuoso technique and a quest for unusual sounds. He’s consciously playing like no one else at the time, his strange, angular chords grounded deep in dream and humanity. Side B is a Suite dedicated to Dream (Rêve) with interwoven tracks, alternatively on acoustic and electric guitars. The somnambulist guitar playing on the longest track, Invitation au Rêve, is an apt evocation of dream, a lucid-dream-cum-improvisation on slow mode and a lot of delay+reverb effects. Sounds like sleepwalking guitar playing at times, to this listener.

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See also:
1978 Raymond Boni & Claude Bernard ‘Pot-Pourri Pour Parce Que’ >

The Palette Jacks ‘Volume of Joy’

01 Ultima Finis Vitae (15:50)
02 Metal Tides (6:46)
03 Time Is Current, See? (8:35)
04 Death Is Forgetting (8:25)
05 For A Breath I Tarry (23:005)

Total time 60:00
Cassette released by Joy Street Studios, San Francisco, 1990

Ramona Tamiyasu: voice, percussion, radios, tapes, t.v.
Tony Calvo: saxophone, flute, organ, percussion, tapes, radios, electronics, t.v.
Mike Shannon: flute, guitar, voice, percussion, tapes, organ, electric 12-string guitar, erhu, dilruba, t.v.

The Palette Jacks were a trio of San Francisco musicians gathering in the basement of Mike Shannon’s house, a place equipped with recording facilities he dubbed Joy Street Studios. Between 1987 and 1989, Tony Calvo and Shannon had played in various bands together, like Earnerve (with several cassette releases), Joyo or Robert Horton’s Plateau Ensemble. Calvo died a few years ago. Here’s how Shannon describes the Palette Jacks project:

Tony, Ramona and I decided to make 4-track tapes which we would pass back and forth between our houses. Our early recordings were made that way, Tony and Ramona might record a track or two in their home and I would then add tracks at my home or I would start with tracks and give them the tape to add to. I would then mix them in my studio… We performed unique live concerts that involved visual projections and scents that were color-chakra related to produce certain effects (the results of Ramona’s studies in acupuncture, aroma therapy, and herbal medicine). The music was essentially improvised within a general intuitive flow of structures relating to the sequence of colors, images, and scents.
[Mike Shannon email, Sep.1st, '09]

The tracks on this cassette adopt a similar strategy of free improvisation on traditional instruments by each members, with the use of re-recording at various stages. On the best tracks (#4 and 5), the casual voice of Ramona Tamiyasu adds a surrealist dimension to the trio’s undecipherable music, build on slow-paced, non-rhythmic drumming, found instruments and TV/radio excerpts. The last track, ‘For A Breath I Tarry’ (from a Roger Zelazny book) is noticeable for it’s beautiful acoustic sounds, disregard for structure, uneventful, Cageian moments and disorienting false starts. While adroitly avoiding the traps and clichés of improvised music, the trio venture into a kind of West Coast free music, typical from some LAFMS non-music, for instance. Thanks to Mike Shannon for his help with this post.

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See also:
Mike Shannon ‘Into a deeper unknown’ >
Mike Shannon ‘Tourniquet of Roses’ >
Robert Horton ‘This bug’s for you’ (w/T. Calvo) >

Ron Anderson ‘Fever Dream’

01 Fever Dream (4:39)
02 The Point (6:35)
03 Three Friends Remembered (1:27)
04 Eastern Blues (5:48)
05 Closed Door An Open Door (7:04)
06 Visions Of Sand And Eyes (2:33)
07 Rainwater (9:48)

Total time 37:45
LP released by Tragic Mule, NY, 1987

Ron Anderson: guitars, bass, synths, percussion, drum, programming, vocals
Ken Clare: alto & soprano saxophones
Ed Rollin: oboe, english horn, tenor saxophone
Kathy Life, Oren Bloedow, Toby Crocket: vocals

Ron Anderson lived in New York from 1982 to 1989 before relocating to San Francisco to launch his famous power trio The Molecules (see discography). In NY he played in no wave bands Rat At Rat R and Yellow Tang, while helding improvised music sessions in his Brooklyn studio. Tragic Mule was Anderson’s own label, later to release the first Molecules CD in 1991. His first solo LP, ‘Fever Dream’ can be compared to Robert Horton’s early releases (see previous post) or Marten Ingle’s Tago Mago cassette (see here). It actually sounds like a lost classic, with its highly creative use of synth and reed instruments, clever synth and drum programming, a jazz sensibility, Asian and Middle-East music hints, and guitar solos a la Fred Frith ca ‘Cheap At Half The Price’. The music has ‘avantgarde’ written all over, though with a decidedly relaxed, West Coast flavor thanks to its clear-cut guitar parts, exotic keyboard sounds and great horn section throughout.

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Festival Mimi 88 ‘Scène Ouverte’

01 Pierre Bastien Solo [bass clarinet+mecanium] -   2:16
02 Tenko Ueno+Catherine Jauniaux [voice duo] -   6:41
03 Tenko Ueno+Fred Frith [voice+guitar duo] -   5:48
04 Tenko Ueno+Bruno Meillier [voice+flute duo] -   5:03
05 Amy Denio+Frank Rühl [guitar+bass duo] -   2:38
06 Fred Frith+Ferdinand Richard [guitar+bass duo] -   5:26
07 Jim Meneses+Pavel Fajt [drums duo] -   5:14
08 Pierre Bastien+Ferdinand Richard [double bass+bass guitar duo] – 3:22
09 Pavel Fajt+Fred Frith [guitar+drums duo] -   6:22
10 Klaus Wilmans+Fred Frith [double bass+guitar duo] -   10:43
11 Marius Cesarienne+Olivier Masson [voice+sax duo] -   2:00

Total time 51:40
Cassette released by Association Aide aux Musiques Innovatrices, AMK,  3001, France, 1989

This cassette documents inprovising duos taking place after the regular performances of the respective artists at the MIMI (Mouvement International des Musiques Innovatrices) Festival, Salle Jean Macé, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, July 1988. It is different from the LP and k7 release of the almost same title ‘Festival Mimi 88′. Tracks on ‘Scène Ouverte-Open Stage’ are unreleased on any other format.

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Alain Bouhey ‘La Voie Scriptorale’

01 Self-System (5:20)
02 Trabla-Air (4:29)
03 Techouba (7:23)
04 Szerzeket – Allegro Vivo (6:00)
05 Szerzeket – Cadence (6:30)
06 Szerzeket – Largo and Presto (6:41)

Total time 36:30
Self released LP, France, 1988

Alain Bouhey: all saxophones
Yochk’o Seffer: piano, b-clarinet
Carol Lipkind: piano (#4+6)

Alain Bouhey is a pedagogist, author of several books on saxophone techniques. He was teacher in Senegal during the 1970s and is teaching saxophone in Rennes and Paris since the 1980s. This vinyl oddity is dedicated to Leopold Sédar Senghor, the poet and Senegal’s president from [1966 to 198?], himself a music lover and organizer of the 1st Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres (Black Arts Festival) in Dakar, 1966 (the LP from this festival is itself a strange thing). On ‘La Voie Scriptorale’, Alain Bouhey’s saxophone playing is highly enjoyable, without the shrieking sounds or violent demonstration from other free jazz horn blowers. Magma’s pianist Yochk’o Seffer shows muscular abilities in his keyboard ostinatos and arpegiatos, but he’s mixed a little behind Bouhey so that the music is allowed to breathe. The A side has 3 delightful duets with written sax parts and piano improvisation, except Techouba, a saxophone+bass clarinet duet. The B-side is a piano+saxophone sonata with Bartok and atonal reminiscences courtesy of Seffer himself, though it is probably partly improvised rather than written down. The LP comes with a 16-pp LP-sized booklet of writings and technical diagrams by Alain Bouhey – not included in the zip file.

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Meltable Snaps It s/t LP

01 Wing And Fin (3:57)
02 Already Vermont (1:21)
03 Interskin (3:43)
04 I Remember What You Saw (3:17)
05 Yowella/Faded In Hand, Delivered In Practice (6:32)
06 Elewhale Rising (0:48)
07 Cooling Fingers (3:36)
08 Possible Beast/More Than Sleep (7:32)
09 Cane Cutters (6:50)
10 This Notice Or No Notice (4:48)

Total time 42:20
LP released on Corn Pride East Records, USA, 1981

Michael Lytle: clarinets, electronic, tape, voice
George Cartwright: saxophones, flutes, guitar & talking
David Moss: percussion

This is the first Meltable Snaps It LP, though it is sometimes ommitted from their discography. A handful of tracks from this LP were later added to the 2001 CD reissue of the 1986 Point Blank LP but the whole LP was never re-issued. Saxophonist George Cartwright moved to New York late 1979. Michael Lytle featured on the classic ‘Iowa Ear Music’ (1976) and Curlew’s first self-titled 1986 LP. The music is  a kind of stochastic free-jazz based on a large array of exotic percussion instruments (including steel drums and Bertoia sound sculptures). The clarinets and flutes sound more ethnic than Downtown and a saxophone solo is not an option here.

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See David Moss’ 1st LP >

Simon H Fell ‘Compilation I’

01 Compilation I – Part I (20:01)
02 Compilation I – Part II (20:54)

Martin Jones: trumpet, flugelhorn
Charles Wharf: sop. & tn saxophone
Shay McIntire: trombone
Ray Harborne: guitar
Andy Street: piano
Simon H Fell: oboe, keyboards, double bass, bass guitar
Tony Shepherd: drums
Neil Bates: drums
Peter Fairclough: drums, percussion

Total time 40:55
LP released on Bruce’s Fingers, ref BC01, Cambridge, UK, 1985

Simon H Fell’s 1st LP on his own newly launched Bruce’s Fingers label is titled ‘Compilation I’, possibly due to the fact that the album is a collection of shorter tracks/sessions culled together to form the 2 side-long epics. It seems the source material was recorded during regular jazz sessions and then re-constructed by Simon H Fell with the use of sampler (the cover says ‘computer’ as well). Silences have been inserted to form a suite of sorts, sometimes as long as 1 minute at the beginning of side B – a quite unusual feature in an otherwise regular post-bebop album. Discreet experiments in sound panning, speed change on one instrument and sampler interjections complete the special effects. Good session musicians add to the leader’s many original ideas. While he was certainly not the only jazz player to experiment with electronics at the time (think Alfred Harth & Heiner Goebbels, John Zorn, Richard Teitelbaum with Braxton…), Simon H Fell succeeds in building a coherent soundwork from various sessions and techniques.

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