Format: CD Condition: New Released: 1994 Country: Great Britain Packaging: Jewel Tray Recorded at the Unity Theatre, London on April 1st, 1975 by Martin Davidson.
"The music herein, like most of the vital music of the last thirty years, is totally improvised. Such non hierarchic and non idiomatic music is beyond pigeon holes, even though it usually gets pigeon holed as ÒabstractÓ and/or Òjazz.Ó At the end of 1971, Cardew and Rowe departed for other things leaving just the tenor saxophone and percussion of Gare and Prevost - an acostic duo in the age of electronics they had presaged. The absence of RoweÕs swirling veil meant that this duo was the most naked version of AMM - there was nothing for Gare and Prevost to hide behind or amongst. It was also the AMM with the most jazz like sound, revealing that this highly original pair of individuals had long absorbed their early influences of Sonny Rollins and Max Roach. However, as before, the methodology was unlike jazz - absolutely nothing (melody, harmony, rhythm, tempo) was predetermined. (Even the use of GareÕs beautiful tune BURNISHED GOLD at the start of BACK AGAIN was improvised on the whim of the moment.) The two 1974 recordings are unique in that they include natural unedited AMM silences. These were an integral part of the music of both this duo and the preceding quartet - an influence (like the use of radios, not used by this duo) of John Cage (who was probably the first to package silence). In this era when every space is stuffed with noise (sometimes called disco, muzak or internal combustion engines), these silences will probably be the most difficult part of this music for most people. One needs to stop to think whether it is really necessary to say something when there is nothing to say. (And whether the world would be a much better place if all jukeboxes and all muzak tapes were full of recordings of 4Õ33). "-Matchless