20 January 2015

Alan Silva - Luna Surface





Here's another one, reactivated from the early days of the blog, posted back in 2009, again due to a request. This time I did not have to go the archives to find it; instead went to the Rutracker torrent site and lo and behold, there it was! Only difference was that a audiochecker log file was attached, informing me that the files are 99.5 per cent compact disc digital audio, which is kinda funny considering the file was taken from a fine old rusty analogue lp. Stuff travels, eh? Anyway, enjoy the cacophony!

Original post follows:

While in the business of resurrecting old BYG Actuel records, here's another one, also posted on the Church#9 blog, then in the mp3 format, but again upgraded to a lossless audio format for posting here.

How to characterise this one? It is what it is, I guess. To some, an inpenetrable wall of sound, to others a no holds barred piece of collective improvisation. However which way it is viewed, assessed or interpreted, it's a piece which hardly had any precedents and hardly has seen any successors. Or maybe it has, but in terms of intensity and aural onslaught, rare by most standards.

A veritable star-studded cast of free jazz maestros on this 28-minute piece:

Bernard Vitet - trumpet, french horn
Grachan Moncur III - trombone
Archie Shepp - soprano sax
Anthony Braxton - soprano and alto sax
Kenneth Terroade - tenor sax
Dave Burrell - piano
Alan Silva - violin
Leroy Jenkins - violin, viola
Beb Guerin, Malachi Favors - bass
Claude Delcloo - drums

Recorded 17 August 1969 in Paris

Dive in!

22 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. I used to have this as an LP, thanks for the memories :-)

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  3. Thanks a lot for this, kinabalu! (Did you see my comment over at NGC?) I first heard this one at C#9, but I really enjoyed it. Not the kind of thing Braxton was likely to do again any time soon! A wall of noise, yeah, but a finely textured wall full of interesting splatches & globs.

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  4. Thanks!
    I have a clean copy of Muhal Richard Abrams 1-0QA+19 at your disposal if you can wait four more weeks...

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  5. Thank you so much for making me aware of such wonderful music! Djoz

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  6. 1009,

    glad you liked it. It's an acquired taste, but you can play the "spot the individual player" game if you feel so inclined. I also have the triple Silva album set on BYG Actuel, but that's one helluva job getting it digitised, but it can be done, so if there's an interest ...

    discobole,

    any time is the right time!

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  7. Thanks for the tip. This piece is amazing!!

    Keep up the great work. Yours is the first blog I hit every Monday morning.

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  8. kinabalu, thanks for the reminder of how compelling this disk is (you might have shared it the first time I got it)

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  9. Yes, I contributed this one, though did not actually post it. Many of those who followed that blog may have got it then, but there may be a few who didn't. In any case, this is an audio upgrade to flac - the original rip is always in the wav format and then converted to whatever compressed audio format is appropriate.

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  10. thank you so much!!

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  11. This is Seasons by Alan Silva & Celestrial communication orchestra on 1970 live performance. Non stop 2hour and over 20 minutes huge works. In mp3.

    Enjoy it!

    http://rapidshare.com/files/443237801/AS-seasons_mp3.rar

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  12. I think me and Alan have the same dentist, just getting this now, didnt realize i was missing it..

    Oh yeah here is a link for Siva's Orchestra SEASONS:
    https://mega.co.nz/#!XlR0HT4K!ZidUMWCGATQyNQaIvXYP2X3B9ZJZbN6LpGUxDkugKOk

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  13. Back to the Lunar surface-zo20 January 2015 at 01:48:00 CET

    The clown will raise off his sic-bed toamuse y'all w/ a couple of anecdotes. THis was early in my record-life, and of course blew the roof off my civilized life.
    Man! I cannot begin to express how overwhelming this stuff was at the time, and I'm sure the old cats and kitties from then can remember the feeling that we couldn't rest until we tracked down all the rest.[This shouldn't be too hard to physically get, so get on it!]Years later we drove Globe Unithy around town in our school bus! and he he wowed us with tales of the 60s demonstrations that happened all around us- he got some dates wrong, but you can tell his heart was in the right place.[And that he had found a good dentist!]To these guys the revolution was not the worship of a flag, or a t-shirt icon, they paid their dues the hard way, and in a lot of cases with crumbled families ,spouses,livers and such a lack of respect that lack of respect was eventually internalized and turned into a "Red Badge of Courage".
    Wishing you all a happy MLK-day!

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  14. Houston, they uh crashed-zo20 January 2015 at 02:53:00 CET

    I meant to add that the Cadence magazine interviews with both Silva and with Marzette Watts are incredible insights into these giants.
    And my "better-half" says my first comment is"Bullshit", and why am I wasting my time on this stuff, instead of figuring out how to make more money. Never pays to argue with her!

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  15. Thank you kinabalu, Wow what a story hope you feel better soon Lunar surface-zo

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  16. Great to hear this again. Thanks, kinabalu.

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  17. Thanks, kinabalu, most of these old byg actuel records are really amazing. And Grachan Moncur III is always a treat!

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  18. Thank You ! I have the LP but happy to get digital rip so I can hear it now.

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