Which of the following i your favourite album?

This was a difficult choice but considering the contenders in my discotheque it is the only possible one, I think. The two other records I was contemplating about, Rubber Soul and Highway 61 Revisited are just too ubiquitous to be my personal faves. Like a Rolling Stone may be the rock song with the highest nostalgy value and George Harrison's sitar on Norwegian Wood opened a new world for us Westerners but the two albums they are on are by no means flawless. Lots of average songs are packed in between the jewels. I like those records but I don't love them. They lack the spark of Ascension, the ecstasy.

Ascension is a totally different thing than A Love Supreme. Which as I said before never did anything for me. I really dislike the motif which to me is dull and annoying. What is going on around it may be quite exciting but the repetition of the theme every two or three minutes kills that record for me. Ascension does only have a small motif which is mainly played in the opening and the concluding ensemble. It is a collective improvisation on a loose composition by Coltrane.

It was certainly inspired by Ornette Coleman's seminal Free Jazz from 1961 which is responsibe for the genre name of improvised jazz. Ascension to me is largely superior as Free Jazz lacks its intensity and to my ears almost sounds conventional in comparison. It isn't as dense as my 1965 pick which may also be due to the smaller band. On Ascension we have 5 saxophones, two trumpets, two basses plus piano and drums.

Ascension surely is a challenging listen but it is by no means cacophony. There even is a structure in the 40 minutes piece. In between the ensembles almost everyone has got a solo and the others provide a background "carpet of sound" (Klangteppich). I get the impression that the collective lifts up the soloist who slowly emerges from the crowd, stands in the centre for two to three minutes and then returns back into the womb of the band after. Especially the overblown sax solos are outbursts of pure energy. Altogether a perfect equilibrium of the community and the individual. In this sense Ascension does not only stand for a spiritual experience but also for a shared experience.

There are two versions of this piece. Coltrane preferred edition II because of more variety concerning the successive solos. That's the one I listened to most. On the 2000 reissue CD there are both versions, first #2, then #1. The first take has the advantage that in a way it is more complete as Elvin Jones on drums also has a solo. On both editions the basses only duet.

Personnel:

• John Coltrane, tenor saxophone
• Freddie Hubbard, trumpet
• Dewey Johnson, trumpet
• Marion Brown, alto saxophone
• John Tchicai, alto saxophone
• Pharoah Sanders, tenor saxophone
• Archie Shepp, tenor saxophone
• McCoy Tyner, piano
• Art Davis, bass
• Jimmy Garrison, bass
• Elvin Jones, drums

Links:

• Marcello's analysis
• Listen to two realaudio excerpts totalling about 17 minutes over at Aquarius Records.

Here is the overview of the series 40 years, 40 albums of which part XXXIX was this post.

Three songs (AAA2, Baby It's Cold Outside and Loretta and the Insect World) of Howe Gelb's latest project Arizona Amp and Alternator can be streamed at the BBC collective site. The first two songs evoke Crazy Horse at their most electric and Billie Holiday at her most glorious (Scout Niblett). They feature of course Howe Gelb's usual deadpan voice and his unpredictable twists and turns. By the way Grandaddy and M Ward are also present. I had to order the album a second ago.

Two phantastic calm and moody pieces over at Xanax Taxi, my fave mp3 blog for jazz vibes:

• The 1st track Silence, the swan song of the Keith Jarrett Quartet with Redman on tenor sax, Haden on bass and Motian on drums. Touchingly sad esp. the sax line.

• The last track She Has Four Thorns by saxophonist Chris Speed whom I had never heard of a minute ago. He is accompanied by Cuong Vu on trumpet, Rob Burger on accordion, Skuli Sverrisson on bass and Jim Black on percussion. The wistful accordion together with the sax and trumpet which create the foggy notion make this a wonderful impressionist piece.

(via reisenotizen)

P.S. Can someone tell me what is on that flickr image as it does not display on our laptop?

How to make technology sound warm. One secret of the charm of Boards of Canada. The childhood associations which come automatically when listening to them. The naivety and spirituality in their music. As if unreligious people have got a more direct grasp of transcendency. Not obstructed by dubious beliefs. Who needs a god if there are Boards of Canada?

John Peel is not forgotten.

The Montgolfier Brothers use kids' and adults' voices in the background on Seventeen Stars. Just like BoC did before. Then BoC don't use them anymore (or only buried deep in the mix) and instead have an acoustic guitar playing simple hooks on the new album. A kind of stripped-down version of the acoustic guitar which is mainly responsible for the Montgolfier's sound.

I just listened to Dayvan Cowboy (see last post) on headphones when being sober and realised that it needs space to blossom. Its impact is strongest on good speakers when you are on a trip. Be it a trip in a car or a mind trip like when you've had some red wine, e.g.

Whereas Everything You Do Is a Balloon (my other fave BoC track) is ok on headphones. Maybe as it is more varied and/or calmer and not building up? It also seems to last so much longer (I think there are only 2 minutes difference between the two). Whereas Dayvan Cowboy always seems to finish much too soon. Maybe that's the best about it. It never reaches its climax. Like a withhold aurgasm (what a great name for a music blog).

Both tracks have two parts. The first part is in both cases rather impressionistic, an introduction. Like when you smell the wine. In the second part the wine touches your palate. On ... Balloon it stays there for about five minutes and slowly warms in your mouth whereas on Dayvan Cowboy the wine runs down your throat and it heats you from inside. The song is too short though so that the narcotic effect of the wine cannot yet take hold of you.

I am totally overwhelmed by The Campfire Headphase. It gets better with each listen. And already my first aural encounter was mesmerising. I think I made it through six complete listens in the last four days. No. 7 is about to finish. There is no other album I can put on. The Boards have eaten my entire music collection and I don't care about it.

TCH is much better than its predecessor which had some corny almost cheesy tracks on it. And it is even better than the first album as there is not one dud track on the new one. The dreamy bucolic mood holds from the beginning to the end. The inclusion of guitars was a great idea. They add an extra warm acoustic flair to their music. Amazing how tired they sound. The band probably got that effect by rerecording the recording of the guitars many times.

I am not sure which track I like most. Maybe Dayvan Cowboy which in the beginning has got that late My Bloody Valentine quality where distortion is used to make a simple repetitive melody even more appealing. After two minutes it takes off to another, a slower, a riper universe. Where words are superfluous.

TCH is my fave album of this year so far and it is definitely much too beautiful for the disgusting rotten world I live in.

Listen to Boards of Canada's new album The Campfire Headphase in full and listen to three full tracks (Precious, Macro and I Want It All) of the new Depeche Mode Playing the Angel.