An impressive lineup of legendary players in this much-need reissue of guitarist Derek Bailey's 1976 Music Improvisation Company album 1968-1971", exploring innovative free and electroacoustic improvisation in these 1969 & 1970 recordings with Evan Parker on soprano saxophone & amplified auto harp, Hugh Davies on live electronics & organ, and Jamie Muir on percussion.
Format: 2 LPS Condition: New Released: 2019 Country: UK Packaging: Double LP in a Gatefold Sleeve Side A and B recorded in London, England, on July 4th, 1969.
Side C and D recorded in in London, England on June 18th, 1970, by Bob Woolford. Originally released on LP on the Incus label in 1976 as catalog code INCUS 17.
1. Its Tongue Trapped to the Rock by a Limpet the Water Rat Succumbed to the Incoming Tide (9:01)
SIDE D
1. In the Victim's Absence (10:33)
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descriptions, reviews, &c.
"Though music journalists made a big deal recently about the release of a 1965 rehearsal tape by Derek Bailey's Joseph Holbrooke trio with Gavin Bryars and Tony Oxley, those early efforts were mere tentative steps along a cliff edge wearing a line safely attached to Coltrane. There's still a whiff of jazz to Bailey and Parker's work with the Spontaneous Music Ensemble up to and including 1968's Karyobin.
But with the addition of Jamie Muir - the first great free improvising percussionist who didn't start out as a jazz drummer - and the way-leftfield electronics of Hugh Davies, the MIC leapt right off that cliff.
These six tracks - tight, electric, pointillistic, brilliant, uncompromising and exhilarating - sound like nothing else that came before.