Moondog

Snaketime Series [VINYL]

Label: Moondog Records Country: UK

Moondog's first LP release in 1956, on his own label and recorded in NYC, was soon picked up by Prestige and rereleased that very same year. Since then the album has languished in obscurity, until this grey area reproduction. The music on this issue is the same as the original, but the original album art has been restored.

From the Prestige liner notes: "Sometimes Moondog the enigma defeats an unprejudiced view of his music. But, if we ignore the cloak of seeming inscrutability and concentrate on the music, the experience can be astonishing. Moondog possesses an admirable virtue; he perceives music everywhere in life. The collection of vignettes contained in this album are fully realized attempts to integrate music and sound. Music and life's sounds are inseparable to Moondog. Thus, the complete 'Lullaby' contains the cry of the baby; a string duo appears comfortably at home in a 'Frog Bog' setting; a New York 'Street Scene' includes (American-Indian inspired) drum solos, the wisdom of a Far-Eastern philosopher, and the strident blowing of a police whistle commencing the flow of traffic. A vast amount of the world's music is part of Moondog's working vocabulary. This reservoir of material serves his eclectic approach to composition. Moondog chooses deftly amongst all of music to elicit his surprising couplings. A pair of violins bowing a Bach-influenced counterpoint might be heard over a rhythmic pattern of Cuban drumming. The ability to find unexpectedly complementary areas of music is an essential ingredient in these miniature portraits of life's many parts. The countless hours spent by Moondog on the streets of New York provides a constant stream of material for this great silent observer. Moondog's music is what he has found in the world in which he lives. Through him we can view the world in a more perfect form."-Robert S. Altshuler.