To The Moon
by Percy Bysshe Shelley
Art thou pale for weariness
Or climbing heaven and gazing on the Earth,
Wandering companionless
Among the stars that have a different birth,
And ever changing, like a joyless eye
That finds no object worth its consistency?
It is wonderful to read this poem without a sound, just breathing its words, feeling images in the making. And it’s very special to hear them spoken by Marianne Faithfull, „wandering companionless“ with a companion. This night will include small interview excerpts from Kurt Wagner (Lambchop), Eduardo Henriquez & Caroline Chaspoul (Nova Materia), Shabaka Hutchings (Sons of Kemet), and perhaps a „vocal appearance“ from another well-known guest. Because of our long journey through an ancient Mexican jungle with Nova Materia, there are a number of really fine new albums that will not make it into this edition of my radio night (I think of St. Vincent, Lump a.o.) – they will probably be part of the night in August, for sure, amongst, f.e., an excellent forthcoming work by The Eivind Aarset Quartet (that will do their release concert at the Punkt Festival in Kristiansand, in the early days of September). Thanks again for „Klinger Factory“ providing well-shaped audio-files of the single interview sections. It is now a matter of fact, that my personal journey through three decades of „horizons of sound“ will end in December. Four radio nights left – and to avoid any kind of wrong sentimentality, the last radio show, a few days before Christmas, will offer a surreal ride through times gone by (the good side of sentimentality!), and not end with a whisper.
THE FIRST HOUR
Portico Quartet: III (from Terrain) / Sons of Kemet: Envision Yourself Levitating, from Black To The Future, / Anthony Joseph: Calling England Home, from The Rich Men Can Only Be Defeated When Running For Their Lives / Vijay Iyer: Touba, from Uneasy / Anthony Joseph: Maka Dimweh, from The Rich Men Can Only Be Defeated When Running For Their Lives / KURT WAGNER SPEAKING (OTON 1) / Lambchop: a track from Showtunes / Peter J. Schwalm & Markus Reuter: from Aufbruch
THE SECOND HOUR
STERNZEIT
Trees Speak: Machine Vision (single a-side from PostHuman, extended edition) / INTERVIEW EXCERPT NOVA MATERIA (part 1) / Nova Materia: Xpujil, from Xpujil (Made to Measure Vol. 45) – (one composition, 40 minutes long) / INTERVIEW EXCERPT NOVA MATERIA (part 2) / Trees Speak: from PostHuman – side B of the vinyl (X Zeit) – oh me oh my, i would have liked to play a much longer sequence, but that was impossible in regards to the album by Nova Materia being played. But in hour no. 4, the Diaz Brothers aka Trees Speak got plenty of time (necessary to get an idea of the full impact and to be literally drawn inside😉)
(Three photographs, provided by Trees Speak, Tucson, Arizona)
THE THIRD HOUR – „Around romantic poems, shadowy showtunes & spoken word magic“
Brian Eno: Vanadium, from Making Space / Marianne Faithfull: La belle dame …, from She Walks In Beauty / Lambchop: Unknown Man, from Showtunes / KURT WAGNER SPEAKING (OTON 2) / instr. Stephan Micus: Oh Chikulo, from his new album Winter’s End / (small text by Martina Weber on Robert Ashley‘s Private Parts) / Robert Ashley: The Park, from Private Parts (1978 – Lovely Music) / (small text by Michael on Robert Ashley’s Private Parts) / Stephan Micus: Companions / KURT WAGNER SPEAKING (OTON 3) / Lambchop: The Last Benedict, from Showtunes (P.S.: a composition from Paddy MacAloons bzw Prefab Sprouts spoken word (and more)-album „I trawl the Megahertz“ was only missing because Martina‘s and my excursion into „Private Parts“ were waaaaaayyyyyy too long:))
THE FOURTH HOUR – TIME TRAVEL (1)
From my email interview with Trees Speak: „OHMS was the exploration of sonic minimalism and interlacing sounds together to create two 20 minute opuses. At the time, we were listening to Tangerine Dreams: Zeit, 70s Italian soundtracks, John Barry’s records, and the 1970’s spirit of concept albums. We felt that form of expression had not been explored much as of late. It was a curious approach to creating a record. It was exciting to think about one large composition and take the listener on a cosmic journey. At the time, the standard was to keep it interesting, lead the music into the unknown, and to have a sense of danger. We constantly limit ourselves with basic analog instruments and gear from the 70s and stay away from creating music on laptops or computers.“
Trees Speak: from OHMS / Hector Zazou: from Geographies / Jan Garbarek, title track from It‘s OK to listen to the gray voice / Hector Zazou: from Geographies (Made To Measure Vol. 5 – just reissued), / The Coral: from Coral Island (a complete sequence of songs and spoken word-pieces) / Hector Zazou: from Geographies / Jan Garbarek: Considering a snail, from Paths, Prints / Hector Zazou: from Geographies / Trees Speak: from SHADOW FORMS
From my email interview with Trees Speak: „Soul Jazz Records inspired Shadow Forms. We had released OHMS in March of 2020 during the pandemic, and the record unexpectedly sold out within a month. Soul Jazz asked us if we had any more music to release. We went through our archive of outtakes from Ohms and tracks we were working on and sent them to the label, and Stuart Baker brilliantly curated the sequencing of the record. It was a serendipitous record. Sometimes some of the most exciting things come from a place you would have never conceived, and Shadow Forms came from that realm. Each song is a world in itself. We mostly listen to vintage music and pay close attention to the productions and instrumental arrangements from the past. It only makes sense that the aesthetics of the vintage flows through our records. Unfortunately, a lot of beautiful and important music from the 70’s era has been overlooked. Hopefully, we could help ignite people to revisit some of those fantastic records that still hold up today.“
THE FIFTH HOUR – TIME TRAVEL (2)
Can: Live in Stuttgart 1975 (aus Versehen habe ich die zweite statt der ersten Cd des Konzertdokuments aufgelegt, und dann sprang die Cd auch noch kurz vor Ende zurück auf Anfang, That‘s live. Und wenn dann, in der letzten halben Stunde, das Wort „Klappcover“ zum Zungenbrecher wird, ist das ein untrügliches Zeichen: nach so einer Nacht ist man „angenehm alle und seltsam erfüllt“ – die erste Raststätte wurde zum Kurznickerchen angesteuert, auf gut deutsch „power nap“.) / / 5.30 NACHRICHTEN UND PRESSESCHAU / / John Coltrane Alabama / OTON SHABAKA HUTCHINGS (on Pharoah Sanders THEMBI) / Pharoah Sanders: Astral Traveling / Marion Brown: from Vista (all three tracks taken from the 60th anniversary edition “Impulse Records: Music, Message and the Moment” – two of my favourite albums from the Impulse catalogue, apart from all those works by John C., Alice C. And Pharoah S. are from Marion Brown: Geechee Recollections and Sweet Earth Flying. And, to make a long list short, Keith Jarrett‘s Fort Yawuh, and Gato Barbieri‘s Latin America: Chapter One. (m.e.)