company- fictions 1977 incus.. flac and lame

An early improv purchase , thats long out of print and hasn’t seen cd reissue.
This is an often misunderstood album.. almost universally panned by critics who tend to miss the pervasive whimsy and obvious self parody.
In part it stems from the fact that each of the group read from Derek baileys book ‘improvisation its nature and practice in music’ as the music unfolds.
Nothing portentious or even remotely self important here though at times they appear to be hamming serious pretense..

Mengelbergs solo and interaction with coxhill( in particular) on side 2 where he builds an incredible solo which incorporates quotes and dissections of several Beethoven sontas,(including the’ hammerklavier’) seemingly tossing them all in a rhythmic blender.

Beautiful stuff.



Great to hear bailey, mengleberg,and coxhill together, I hadn’t listened to this in years .. what a joy !!!



Info
Side 1
Consisting of-
1) theology
2) ontology
3)speak up lad

side 2
1) so few
2) so many
3) so so
4) so what
5) so long



Derek bailey- guitar, voice
Lol coxhill- soprano sax , voice
Steven Beresford- piano ,toys, voice
Mischa mengelberg- piano, celeste, voice
Ian croall- voice

Recorded in London, august 1977