BELTANE (01 May 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

AQUILAR ILDEFONSO

Erosión


Original Issue: 1985 Ja-Ja (Ja-Ja-6)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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from Progarchives :

Not only an electronic artist, but a dedicated photographer and painter as well, ILDEFONSO AGUILAR seems to state a small late pioneering into Spanish electronic music by just an album, "Erosion" (released 1978, later rehashed into more complete music). After studying Beautiful and Applied Arts, he makes several audio-visual experimentations, plus, between 1978 -1980, he makes impressions and recordings out of journeys taken in different countries.

His devotion in this figment goes towards the soft electronic machinery, as well as guitar mastering. Dedicated, from 1986, only towards the artistic activity, his little reached record production becomes palliated, despite being a fan artist and being the collaborator with the most impelling work for the Visual Music festival, that is celebrated since 1989, and that takes place in natural scenes of his native island Lanzarote. (and that, although it is not a contest centered exclusively in electronic music, has welcomed in musicians of the stature of Constance Demby, Steve Roach, Robert Rich or Brian Eno). He also appeared, recently, on a Russell Mills wide collaboration-album, along royal (read: imposant) names.

Ildefonso Aguilar's studies interact with the natural compelling, covering the sound motemp or the analog synthetism. Whilst his photography has the landscaping, ortographic and consumating look appeal, so is the music sheet able to, in general, spire placid work, beauty and sensitivity, rescriben privacy, ebeautiful levation in impression. It's taken as an ancient and work of rarefact and isolationist ambient music. Also as a conceptual point of electronism in opposite of a real and truthful rock vein. Cosmic music reveales a loose symphonic synth solvent. Mystical, instrumental of a new compulsory attitude and ober-toned. Inside the logic, "Erosion" can be conceived as concept blatant affinity. The adventurous synth escapade of it recommends, somehow flawlessly, the hints of drone aftertaste, or the natural omuses like Edgar W. Froese's "Aqua".

Ildelfonso Aguilar seems both the complete artist and the personality with the heart of an artist. In the short term of music, his album is a concrete result of his studies, dedicated equivocally to landscaping, to finding the ambient inside the world, to measuring the scales of a music fade. His album is rare, consequently intentional.

FULL SNOW MOON (18 February 2011)

The musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

EMMANUEL J.D.

WIZARDS


Original Issue: 1982 North Star Productions (NSP-2003) Buy it here!

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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Do not forget to take a look at the comments section :-)

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from Boomkat:

Chances are you won't have heard of J D Emmanuel before.

This record in particular was a private pressing released back in 1982 and owned by a select few punters who quite clearly did their research. In recent years the record's reputation has spread, with rumours circulating that it was a transcendent blend of Terry Riley, The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Popul Vuh and early Kraftwerk - but finding it was about as easy as looking for a connection between Wolf Eyes and The Spice Girls.

Then, without fanfare, the album re-appeared as a limited edition on the Belgian 'Dreamtime Taped Sounds' and we knew as soon as we got our grubby mitts on a copy that this was something that simply had to be heard to be believed, that would stun just about everyone we know with its almost meditative electronic explorations.

I'm sure many of you remember Delia Derbyshire's amazing 'Electrosonic' LP (that lasted about two weeks...) and this album gives us the same kind of chills, it's just THAT sound, it's impossible to put your finger on but even more impossible to re-create. With the amount of retro-electronic music coming out at the moment you'd think someone would have nailed it, but no, it's still these records that emerged at the time, that came from people genuinely excited by the technology and the possibilities this technology could inform that really hit you where you need to be hit. Using three Sequential Circuit Pro-1 synthesizers, a Crumar Organ and some delays (recording direct to tape) Emmanuel manages to conjure up deep, distorted faraway lands, astral plains and shimmering multi-coloured skies - the soft synthesizer tones dictating the journey perfectly. Whether with bubbling, almost sequenced-sounding synth bass, or with organ-like improvised phrases, Emmanuel never takes a wrong turn and this is an album that will rarely leave your turntable (trust me, it's been welded to mine since I got it).

The sensitivity and simplicity of the music is almost impossible to convey, suffice to say we think it's one of the best (and most unexpected) things we've heard this year so far, and followers of early electronic music, Kraftwerk and the Radiophonic Workshop need to get a hold of one right away. Stunning stuff, and incredibly limited - we only have a few so be quick if you want to secure yourself a copy.

ESSENTIAL PURCHASE.

IMBOLC (02 February 2009)

The musick dedicated to this Sabbat is:

YATHA SIDHRA

A MEDITATION MASS


Original Issue: 1974 Brain/Metronome (BRAIN 1045)

Reissue: 2004 Motor Music (06024 981308-4)

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Margot-meter: 5 moons / 5

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1 Part 1 (17:45)
2 Part 2 (3:13)
3 Part 3 (12:00)
4 Part 4 (7:16)

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from Amazon:

Yatha Sidhra was a little known Krautrock group that didn't get much attention, despite recording for Brain. A Meditation Mass became one of the rarest albums to surface on that label.

The original LP came with a die-cut cover, in which The Laser's Edge nicely replicated when they reissued it on CD back in '92. In '95 Spalax in France reissued it again on CD, but this time, without the die-cut replication.

Comparisons to Ash Ra Tempel and Popol Vuh are often leveled at these guys, and of course they were contemporaries of such groups. The band consisted of Rolf Fichter on guitar, keyboards, Indian flute, and vocals, Klaus Fichter on drums/percussion, Matthias Nicolai on 12-string guitar and bass, and Peter Elbracht on flute.

The album is loaded with flute, while Rolf Fichter plays the guitar in the style of a sitar, trying to create a droning effect. Moog and electric piano surface from time ti time. As the album title suggusts, A Meditation Mass tends to be mellow, so the music isn't hurried. That means you won't get raw, intense, in-your-face passages like you might get with Ash Ra Tempel at times.

The music tends to keep one pace, except when the band decides to venture off in to jazzy territory, which you do have your fair share. The music is basically one long piece divided in to four parts. Each part revolving around a theme or a jam, while the final part is basically previous themes on the album revisited. Great stuff, but requires a few listens to get it. I very much highly recommend this album.

Benjamin Miler

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from Geocities:

Yatha Sidhra is the only group I am aware of that released only one song in their entire recording career. This song, the forty-minute 'A Meditation Mass' is one of the more soothing tracks in the genre.

For their CD release, Spalax divided the track into 4 sections; I am not sure why? 'A Meditation Mass' builds slowly and includes a hypnotically repetitive guitar and percussion background overtop of which flute solos and moog drones can be heard.

Unintelligible droning vocals are introduced around the ten-minute mark further enhancing the meditative qualities. The track picks up musically near the eighteen-minute mark when the beat shifts towards a rock bass riff led by some jazzy electric piano work. This middle section extends throughout track 3 and gets heavier and more psychedelic until ultimately ending in an explosive fury twentyeight-minutes into the track. Slowly, the meditative qualities build, returning the track to its original hypnotic state for the final seven-minutes.

The members of Yatha Sidhra were friends with Achim Reichel, whom many believe had a helping hand in procuring the bands recording contract. Sadly, they made just this one album; however, Rolf Fichter did record an album with the band Dreamworld in 1980.

FULL STURGEON MOON (16 August 2008)

The Musick dedicated to this Esbat is:

BATTIATO FRANCO

FETUS

POLLUTION

SULLE CORDE DI ARIES

CLIC

Original Issue: 1972/1973/1973/1974 Bla Bla (BBXL 10001/BBXL 10002/BBXL 10003/BBXL 10006)

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Margot-meter: 4,5 moons / 5

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Tracklistings

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from Gnosis2000:

Franco Battiato, as is well known, was an Italian pop singer who for a span in the 70s made a string of very experimental albums that fit very roughly in the vein of groups such as Opus Avantra or Pierrot Lunaire. Battiato on all of these titles (and beyond) set out to create completely new musical forms, and evolved from strange pop and rock realms to systemic and minimalist music before returning to pop music.

Fetus was his first and arguably not as impressive as his later titles. There are a lot of influences here, Italian popular music, folk, electronic experiments and tape collage all swirled into an unusual tapestry of music. I would say his folk/pop influences show through the strongest here, and with the albums short duration there's not a lot you can sink your teeth into.

Pollution, however, is a much more successful outing, with the disparate styles blending into a much more cohesive whole. Battiato's music can jump from neo classical to Italian progressive rock (somewhere between Sensations Fix and Le Orme) to space rock like Gong and on to bizarre tape collages with narration. It all adds up to a fascinating and innovative album with more humanity than you'd expect from this type of experimentation.

Sulle Corde Di Aries was Battiato's third release and showed his fascination for electronic, minimalist and systemic musics. As such, it is quite similar to "Pollution" except much more electronic based and with a more definitive style. There are also a lot of modern classical strains coming through here and a great spacey feel again reminding me of Sensations Fix or Gong at times. A simply fascinating album.

Clic is the Italian version and not the version that was on Island records. It too moves in a far more electronic direction, sounding like an avantgarde Klaus Schulze with lots of systemic patterns and neo classical vocals. This is often quoted as his best album, and certainly deserves a listen. The latter three titles, if not all four, all deserve the attention of those into experimental or avantgarde rock albums.

Mike McLatchey

BLUE MOON (musick by request)

ANNA SJÄLV TREDJE
TUSSILAGO FANFARA
(INTRASK I KOSMISKA GRÄNSMARKER MED)

Original Issue: 1977 Silence (SRS 4646)


Margot-meter: 4 moons / 5

01 - Mossen
02 - Inkomster Utanför Tiden
03 - Den Barbariska Söndagen
04 - Tusen År & Sju Timmar

I LOVE THIS COVER...PERHAPS MY ALL TIME FAVORITE ARTWORK!

from Progarchives:

Anna Själv Tredje (with a reference, I think, towards St. Anne, mother of Virgin Mary) is a duo created by music-makers Ingemar Ljungström and Mikael Bojen. Neither of the two artists' music experience tells the consistent shrud of the duo's journey, the music decides "itself" on the entire meaningful style and experiment. The two artists practiced this music starting 1975 or 1976, they succeed a defining album, titled Tussilago Fanfara, then dis-ambled at the end of the decade. Ljunström himself is much more known, since he joins a couple of more electronic, punk, wave or rock duos or trios, most profoundly Cosmic Overdose (a polished band, but an insatiable order of sound) or Twice A Man (even trickier...). Mikael Bojen is yet an obscure artist and music composer as, in this album, he makes entire ornaments and sound-ballads towards the uncommon artist and the un-related passion.

The importance of the Anna Själv Tredje ensemble, and of Tussilago Fanfara, should be rather big, considering a few things, like the flawless (or very atom-hard perfectioned) creation orientation, deep in the humble electronic artistry and progressiveness, the colorful obscure intentions marked by the precision or the delouse of their initiative, the pretty rare recording factor (that has an entire emotion of great and adapted music) or the symbols of a band with no echo and misty presence, that surrounds all the intelligent and organic means and natures of its so-approved style. Then again, Anna Själv Tredje isn't about the glory of the music in the dust of the resemblance, some things are moderately elevated and dynamic, others contemplate the music that the entire breath of classic electronic and modulating experiment covered up, in the 70s, to an extent of a powerful overdose.

The band's marked flavor has tendencies towards a psych-active late impression, or towards the kraut-bytes of some dimensions beyond the bad dream and the teared reality. Yet, for sure, Anna Själv Tredje is exclusively a band for the electronic mature stage, upon the vast influence that comes from Klaus Schulze and the even more enormous impression the music-melody-sound intricate line of thought goes through, directly convincing of Schulze soundscapes, dark ambients or sequence energetic conversion. The point of ephemeral and experiment even can allude some drone-actions, likewise the serene or subtle machine-shades from Cyborg. But the best fragrance comes from the mid-Schulze delight, starling Moondawn when working on sound-mist and melody-raptures or Mirage when the dynamics and the sequencers, the synthesis work and the strange forms have a better and more significant development. There are small minimal parts that can satisfy parallel-styles from Hamel, Glass or Reich. Plus, upon the electric guitar work Bojen does (and in fact, given an entire piece, Tusen år & sju timmar), the album opens up its color to breath in more popular, shapeless or post-experimental substances, genre a low-pitch groove and guitar swell by Ashra.

Overall, Anna Själv Tredje are greatly hooked in the entire Berlin School mechanism, plus they share (gratingly) their own moment of music, experiment and vaporous sound-stream. The album is a "mindphase" for aficionados, yet stands out just as much as an electronic gift of sound and surround.