C'è anche una fascinosa versione strumentale di Maryan - desunta probabilmente dal wyattiano Shleep, se non da For The Ghosts Within, anziché dall'originale Marian di Philip Catherine (in September Man, 1974) - nell'atmosferico album di debutto del duo costituito da Paul Jones e Steve Black: si fanno chiamare Group Listening, e l'album è Piano & Clarinet: Selected Works Vol. 1, prodotto dalla Prah Recordings con sede a Londra e un'altra sede a Margate, neanche mezzora da Canterbury...

Piano & Clarinet: Selected Works Vol. 1 is the debut album from Group Listening, a collection of ambient works - from the likes of Brian Eno, Arthur Russell, Roedelius and Robert Wyatt - arranged for clarinet and piano. Cutting out the post production and keeping overdubs to a minimum, the clarinet and piano were passed through guitar stomp boxes and other analogue effects to enable processing and manipulation directly in performance. The result hums with the ghostly energy of sound pioneers Joe Meek and Martin Hannett, while mbira and drum machines are sparingly deployed amid enveloping folds of space echo.
Like Virginia Astley or Simon Jeffes, Group Listening tread the overlap between classical and experimental music. Perhaps most startling here is the breadth of material arranged as one atmospheric whole. The pieces range from the ever-spiralling, fractal phrases of German composer Roedelius to the haunting rasps of game and Hollywood soundtracker Disasterpiece and the pioneering sonics of early electronic inventor Raymond Scott. Somehow, shot together through Group Listening’s electro-acoustic lens, these works evolve into something supremely calming, poignant and new.

https://grouplistening.bandcamp.com

Con Made Available, Repeat/Metal e Live 80-81 prosegue e si conclude l'azione di recupero in vinile dei documenti storici di This Heat intrapresa due anni fa da Modern Classics Recordings. Saranno pronti ad agosto, con quel caldo: https://lightintheattic.net/artists/1292-this-heat

Formed in 1976 in Brixton, a multicultural, and – at the time – down-at-heel part of south London, This Heat were born into a music scene in rapid flux, first thanks to the punk explosion and then via new wave and its myriad offshoots into pop, rock and art-rock. But while many sought to apply punk attitude to chart-friendly sounds, This Heat were concocting some of the most experimental ideas ever committed to tape, taking influence from musique concrète, krautrock, the burgeoning industrial scene and even the dub reggae blasting out in their home borough.
Given the difficult, abrasive, and involved nature of their furiously forward-thinking sound, This Heat never found anything approaching mainstream success, but patronage by the influential Radio 1 DJ John Peel meant they reached a national audience – whether that audience was ready for them or not. Made Available collects This Heat’s two Peel Sessions, recorded for BBC Radio 1 in April and October of 1977 and features essential songs that would later appear on their debut album, This Heat (1979) and the follow-up, Deceit (1981), as well as electro-acoustic works unique to these sessions. These are the earliest public recordings of the band, showing even in their infancy, masterful use of live tape loops and radical song structure.
Following Modern Classics Recordings’ 2016 reissue campaign to mark the band’s 40th anniversary, these new releases Made Available, Repeat/Metal and Live 80-81 round out the story. Each release is sanctioned by surviving members Charles Bullen and Charles Hayward and features newly remastered audio sourced from original tapes.

https://www.facebook.com/thisheat.official

E' pronto l'album che Mike Westbrook ha voluto dedicare al grande Lou Gare (1939-2017), raccogliendo alcuni passaggi di rilievo tratti da registrazioni effettuate dal vivo con la Big Band - divenuta poi The Uncommon Orchestra - negli ultimi anni di attività. Il cd si intitola Mike Westbrook in memory of LOU GARE, e lo si può ottenere direttamente dai Westbrook.

Ne accompagna la pubblicazione l'affettuoso ricordo di Mike: "I believe Lou to have been one of the most original saxophonists of our time, one of those legendary figures little known to the general public, but a major Influence on all those who knew and worked with him. He was in my band in the early 60s in a sax section with Mike Osborne and John Surman. He then spent many years on the Improvised Music scene, as a founder member of AMM, often in partnership with the drummer Eddie Prévost. This revolutionary group achieved international recognition and made a number of albums. Eventually Lou settled in the West Country, still playing, but in relative obscurity. This is where we got together again, ten years ago, when Lou joined the big band that became The Uncommon Orchestra. As a free improviser with strong jazz roots, his playing in the context of a large ensemble was a revelation. Lou took part in many projects and performances with the band until couple of years ago when health problems began to limit his activities. Lou was greatly loved and respected. At Lou's funeral on October 17th in his village church in Cheriton Bishop, North of Dartmoor, his wife Penny, family and friends were joined by musicians from London and the South West. The service ended with his unaccompanied tenor saxophone in one of those limitless streams of invention, audacity and lyricism that only Lou could produce. A master, and a great loss."

http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/mikewestbrook/lou_cd.shtml
http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/lou/index.shtml
http://westbrookjazz.co.uk/westbrookrecords/index.shtml
https://vimeo.com/257104182
https://tinyurl.com/y787tp4j