23 March 2020

PYGMY UNIT - SIGNALS FROM EARTH (PRIVATE RELEASE, 1974)




A1. Coke
A2. Trees
A3. Little Flute
A4. Big Flutes
A5. Pyramid
A6. Dragonfly Dance
A7. Might Not Be On Time

B1. Where The Dreams Are Kept
B2. Clouds
B3. I'm Going Down To The River Again
B4. Or
B5. Signals From Earth


Frank Albright, flute, alto and soprano saxophone
Darrel De Vore, flute, bass, percussion, piano, voice
Marvin Kirkland, flute, percussion
Terry Wilson, percussion
John Celona, soprano saxophone, synthesizer, percussion (B1-5)
Ron Grunn, flute, bassoon (B1-5)
Jim Pepper, tenor saxophone (B1-5)

Private release - LPS-3460

LP Rip

18 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  2. thanks a lot, very welcome upgrade!!

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  3. Wow Nick what a come back!
    thank you to have answered to one of my request posted only few days ago. I was searching for this record due to the presence of the underrated Jim Pepper. The record is very different than Pepper's music but no surprise to hear him in this kind of music even if he is not easy to identify, he was a very open minded musician. This album is the kind of record that I want to listen actually, a music that sounds like nothing else.
    Nick are you interested in the work of historian Eric Fillion who have worked on the history of quatuor de jazz libre du Québec. I have interviewed him recently for my radio broadcast and worked on his work to prepare the program. I discovered many interesting things about the connection between the jazz libre du Québec and the political movements for the independence of Québec.

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  4. Thanks CS. I like that it is distinctive too. I haven't read any of Fillion's works - I guess my interest in music is more superficial.

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  5. @Nick I don't think that your interest in music is superficial considering the records that you have posted here. perhaps you are less interested in the political connection with the music but your interest in music is true. In searching always for underground music is a proof of real interest.
    In fact when I prepared the program about the history of le quatuor de jazz libre du Québec I discovered the question of the identity of those people who speak french in the middle of the north America. France have left this part of Canada almost two hundred years ago and I think that we have totally forgotten the people from Québec. In another hand the independent movement in Québec didn't show a link with France but tried to front the specific cultural identity of Québec. In this way in the late sixties writer Pierre Vallières developed the idea that people from Québec could consider themselves as "white nigger of America" because like the black people in the US they didn't have the same rights. I learned that at this time it was not the french people who had the most important political status in Québec.
    In the same way I learned that Jean Préfontaine and Yves Charbonneaux from the QJLQ came first from the mainstream jazz and it is when they heard the free jazz from American musicians that they thought that free jazz was the music that expressed the most clearly their political purpose, they called it a music action.
    During this program Eric Fillion explain that Guy Thouin is still playing and recording. maybe two years ago you have posted a link in one of your post that drives to le nouveau jazz libre du Québec, it is a very good record. Recently Guy Thouin have recorded two new discs for the small scale music label, they can be found here:
    https://smallscalemusic.bandcamp.com

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  6. Now I see Eric Fillion wrote the liner notes

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  7. His work is very interesting because he have been very involved in the research. it is not often that a searcher create a label to publish some of the music that were the subject of his research. He have been the first to add a new chapter to the very small discography of the QUJLQ publishing the live 1973. Since that there is a new interests in the music of the QJLQ with the recent publishing of the box set on "tour de bras" and some more recordings of Guy Thouin.

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  8. I discovered a 128 version of this album in my pc, I forgot about it, thank you for the upgrade, this sound like... nothing else

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  9. Wanted to come back and express my gratitude for this really unusual music. Flutes are not my favourite instruments but here they help to create an atmosphere which seems to be from another world. Thank you, Nick.

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  10. I attended a conference at the University of Ottawa in 2017 and in my spare time strolled around Ottawa and visited the Canadian Parliament among other sites. On the picture below, you can look across the river into Quebec. Parliament Hill is right in the middle of the picture.

    https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-canada-ontario-ottawa-downtown-the-ottawa-river-in-the-background-48054543.html

    I ought to be more famiiar with Canadian history, so while in Ottawa, I picked up this book which provides a detailed overview.

    https://utorontopress.com/us/canada-s-odyssey-3

    I was advised by several people I spoke with to visit Montreal which in their view was the most European city in Canada and not as Americanised as Ottawa. Hppefully one day ...

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  11. Undeniably strange and really lovely! Thanks!

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  12. Removed the links. The LP was reissued on Holiday Records.
    F.e.: https://www.soundohm.com/product/signals-from-earth

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