"Alchemy" 180 gram vinyl limited edition released!

As announced, "Alchemy" has been released on 27th September for Esoteric Records in a vinyl limited edition to 1000 copies (catalogue number: PECLECLP 2668). The album is an exact facsimile of the original 1969 Harvest LP release (yellow-green record labels included!). Also, it's in a gatefold sleeve and on 180-gram vinyl. 

Here's a sequence of photos taken from my personal copy: 

 

EMBLEMATA NOVA DE SECRETIS NATURAE CHYMICA (Scrutinium Chymicum).

EMBLEMA VIII
Accipe Ovum & igneo percute gladio [take the egg and strike it with a fiery sword] 

“Emblema VIII. Accipe ovum & igneo percute gladio. ‘Take the egg and strike it with a fiery sword.’ The egg is the Subject of the Art, which must be struck by the martial igneous agent wielding the ‘double-edged sword’ of the Secret Fire. Mars thus comes to the help of Vulcan, and from the ensuing darkness of Putrefaction (Nigredo) the hermetick chick will hatch. Raymund Lull, quoted here by Maier, stresses in several places that the fiery sword is a sharp lance, because Fire, like a lance, pierces bodies, rendering them porous and permeable, so that Water may penetrate them and turn their hardness into softness” (p98).

 

According to Luca Ferrari's excellent and detailed notes inside the booklet of the 50th Anniversary edition of "Alchemy", the iconic cover was taken from the book "Atalanta Fugiens" by Michael Maier (1568–1622), published by Johann Theodor de Bry in Oppenheim in 1617 (2nd edition 1618). 

It consists of 50 chapters with engravings by Matthias Merian, a great artist rarely quoted. Alongside illustrations, poems, and alchemical explanations, it included 50 pieces of music in the form of "fugues" scored for 3 voices. 

Being a fan of Early, Renaissance and Baroque music, I let my imagination fly: if Third Ear Band were around at the time, could their music be considered some kind of alternative "secret" sound to the more famous composers of the era? I suppose there's no answer to this question, but I think that it could definitely be interesting to hear what the original pieces from the book sounded like.

Among the countless transcriptions of the work you can listen to a nice vocal performance here below:

More performances here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQliTHH7EXk&list=OLAK5uy_mIjRwdIHzyghXInVVwhUGL_HkMNM2U44g

For voices and instruments here:
https://soundcloud.com/honza-hejzl

A different Czech ensemble recorded the fugues using for the cover the same engraving of the TEB:

...and even two modern transcriptions for piano and synthesizer here:
https://archive.org/details/AtalantaFugiens
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1a6X-JUL2LE

 

It is also worth noting that for many researchers and musicologists "Atalanta Fugiens" may be considered an early example of multimedia.

Alessandro Monti :: unfolk

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

New "Alchemy" 180 gram vinyl edition out on September 27th, 2019!

As announced, Esoteric Records will publish a new "Alchemy" 180 gram  limited remastered vinyl edition on September 27th, 2019. It will cost £ 17.99.

Here's the press release: 

• A NEWLY RE-MASTERED 180 GRAM VINYL GATEFOLD LP EDITION OF THIRD EAR BAND’S LEGENDARY 1969 DEBUT ALBUM

• NEWLY REMASTERED FROM THE ORIGINAL HARVEST MASTER TAPES

• CUT AT ABBEY ROAD STUDIOS

Esoteric Recordings is proud to announce the release of a new 180 Gram limited edition gatefold Vinyl LP edition of the classic album “Alchemy” by THIRD EAR BAND.

One of the first releases on EMI’s progressive rock label, Harvest in July 1969, “Alchemy” was the debut album by THIRD EAR BAND. One of the earliest signings to Harvest, the band was formed in 1968 around a nucleus of GLEN SWEENEY (percussion), PAUL MINNS (Oboe), RICHARD COFF (Violin, Viola) and MEL DAVIS (cello). Third Ear Band were unique in their exploration of exotic baroque music fused with experimental rock. Signing to Blackhill Enterprises in 1969, the quartet opened for many of the legendary Hyde Park free concerts by Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Blind Faith.

Recorded at Abbey Road studios in the early months of 1969, “Alchemy” is regarded as one of the most striking and original works of the era with its unique gothic improvisational music and this new Esoteric Recordings 180 gram vinyl edition is a faithful reproduction of the original 1969 gatefold LP release. It has been re-mastered from the original Harvest master tapes and has been cut at Abbey Road studios for this definitive edition vinyl reissue.

Pre-order at https://www.cherryred.co.uk/product/third-ear-band-alchemy-180-gram-remastered-limited-edition-vinyl/

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

A book on the Air Studios Montserrat announced...

                                          Air Studios Montserrat today...

Brian Sallerson is an American freelance journalist who's writing a story on the George Martin's Air Studios.

He e-mailed me: "I am a writer who is working on a book about the history of AIR Studios Montserrat. Denny Bridges was the operations manager for that studio when it opened in 1979. I am traveling to the UK in October and was trying to track him down to see if he might be open for an interview about his time at AIR Montserrat. I cannot find any contact info for Denny and your TEB site is the only place that has any recent correspondence with him. Is there any way that you could get a message to him for me? If you prefer, I could contact him directly if you provide an email address. Denny played a significant part of the launch of the studio so an interview with him would go a long way to help me get the full history of the studio. Any help you could give me would be greatly appreciated."

A synopsis of Brian's book project can be found at
https://www.sallerson.com

                                                   The ruined pool today...

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

A review about "Alchemy" on "Let It Rock".

Web site "Let It Rock" reviewed "Alchemy" in July 2019 with interesting and acute words by Dmitry M. Epstein...

"Tribal brewing from British combo with alien tones were rooted in traditional tunes – refined and expanded for further focus.

They may have played in Hyde Park on the same bill as THE STONES and KING CRIMSON in 1969 and shared the stage with THE WHO at the Isle of White festival a little later, yet in terms of intensity THIRD EAR BAND seemed totally opposed to their more prominent and longer lasting contemporaries. While others rolled on, dwelling on a single note or two for a protracted period of time – where time could take on very irregular signatures – was typical for the English quartet whose relation to rock had always been tenuous. Nevertheless, in the climate of the day, the ensemble entered progressive stream and got ahead of the curve by confessing minimalism much earlier than many an avant-garde-minded artist, and their debut still affects the listener’s psyche fifty years on.

Although the foursome ascribed their efforts to a raga tradition, what they did had a lot in common with traditional Celtic drone, rather than with Indian lore, but the album’s opener “Mosaic” oozes exotica once plucked cello has met the bow and ushered pipes in, for the resulting mesmeric miasma to be spiced up by hand drums without leaving its chimes-laden chamber soundscape. Still, if pieces such as shamanic, yet static, “Druid One” (also present on this double-CD reissue in a lengthier, albeit less abstract, take from the band’s BBC session and in a fantastic rendition from the group’s next line-up) suggest claustrophobia, the multidimensional, momentum-gaining expanse of a 10-minute “Ghetto Raga” – which Glen Sweeney’s tabla and Paul Minns’ oboe and recorders drive towards delirium – is as exposed to elements as it gets for the players who participated in pagan rituals at Glastonbury Tor.

It’s whence that the strangely jubilant “Stone Circle” emerged to wrap heartbeat in the thick, but breathing, web of woodwind, while the strings-drenched “Egyptian Book Of The Dead” plunges into modal play, simultaneously plumbing low frequencies and scaling high notes to an increasingly horrific effect which is dispelled when the Eastern sonics of “Area Three” blow up and expire to leave cosmic conscience cleansed. Whereas the many incidental parallels in “Dragon Lines” render this piece cinematic, “Lark Rise” offers a simple folk motif and reveals the inspiration behind most of the album’s tunes, yet two takes on “Hyde Park Raga” – one laid down at Abbey Road, the other delivered for the Beeb – reflect the most perfect blend of so disparate, sources, and it’s a pity the track didn’t make the LP cut.

Neither did the three melodies the ensemble recorded early on, in 1968, even though the humbler-in-scope “Devil’s Weed” and “Cosmic Trip” feel as mind-boggling as the album’s material, but 1969’s “Unity” is given sparse grandeur of symphonic sort, with specters of Ravel and Ligeti lurking in penumbral agitation, and “The Sea” anticipates electronic escapades of the nearest future. For TEB the future would hold music to Roman Polanski’s “Macbeth” – their most memorable work – yet “Alchemy” remains as magical as it was supposed to be."

(digital version at http://dmme.net/third-ear-band-alchemy/) 

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

Steve Pank announces new Ursula Smith's live concert in London!

"Hi Luca.
It is great to see so much new material on the Ghettoraga website.
Ursie is playing another concert in Hampstead, and anyone who remembers the Third Ear Band and who likes classical music, would enjoy this concert, I have attached a flyer.
Good wishes,

Steve."

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

A review on "Alchemy" on Facebook...

Esoteric according the G-man, on his Facebook page, reviewed here  "Alchemy"...

Sometimes, I wonder why I do this to myself.........after the “Elements” album being quite, shall we say, “challenging”, I was consumed with curiosity, bearing in mind I'd never heard any of their albums before now, to see what happened next........
…..to which the answer is........things got “less challenging”..... you can see this review is really gonna help, can't you.......
With a whole CD and a bit of previously unreleased tracks, let's start with the “Alchemy” album itself. The whole package is instrumental – get that out of the way first – and the main album is a whole lot more cohesive and structured than what came before, or it certainly sounds that way. For the first track, against a shuffling tabla rhythm, the violin, or viola, interweaves with the oboe and the effect is both mesmerising and hypnotic as the instruments kind of stride along with the textures counteracting and creating an almost melodic feel to the density. The 10+ minute “Ghetto Raga” that follows, is, however, the first time for this band, that my ears (lol) pricked up and something really grabbed me, coz this track is an absolute gem. Again, with tabla rhythms to the fore, the viola and oboe continue to weave, soar, drone, stride and fly over the ever gathering rhythmic clouds and something akin to Terry Riley meets Indian, unfolds in all its glory to remarkable degree and itr's this track that makes you think “thank the heavens I bought this album” as, despite what comes next, you somehow manage the resist the urge to loop this and make it last about 10 hours, never mind 10 minutes. There follows a couple of 3+ minute tracks that are more sedate, as the tabla rhythms calm, the strings plink and pluck and drone their way to infinity while the oboe continues to whirl and swirl, the whole thing achieving that Philip Glass/Terry Riley kind of cyclical nirvana, but injected with greater texture, less intensity and more melody.
“The 8+ minutes of “Egyptian Book Of The Dead” (kinda gives it away, really) starts more of a wail before the slow tabla beats begin, the dervish like dance of the oboe begins and it all gets rather rhythmic in a quite unexpected but delightful way, as the cello unfolds a mournful meandering underneath, and you can just picture the boat with the body on it, floating down the Nile, as the mood darkens, the strings shimmer eerily and the beats keep beating.
From there on in, things swing to and fro from slowly sailing to wickedly dervish swirling and most points in between, the whole album a huge step up from the first and, although I never thought I'd say this, something I'll be listening to again when the mood is right (you know, funerals, bad news, your girlfriend's dumped you – that sort of mood). As a bonus there are two 6 minute tracks froma 1969 “Top Gear”session which continue the mood of the album, only here in a “live” situation, the viola and cello sound incredibly Cale-esque (that's John, not JJ) while the oboe is just sensational sounding with the tablas as the heartbeat that keeps it all alive – superb stuff and a thoroughly excellent CD.
The extra bonus CD consists of all previously unreleased tracks from recordings made in 1968 (back to “challenging” although not quite as harsh) plus tracks recorded at Abbey Road studios in 1969 which are more varied yet consistent with the moods of the main album, but I won't go into detail as (a) you'll be bored, and (b) life's too short. Suffice to say, the main album is a stunner so give this a go and if you only ever own and love one Third Ear Band album, this is definitely going to be the one.

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

"The Magus" vinyl edition out now!

As announced, the vinyl 180-gr vinyl edition of "The Magus" (TB0006430), the so-called TEB's lost fourth album, is out now thanks to a London label Tiger Bay (https://tiger-bay-records.com/).

As you can see here, the album is a traditional cardboard coloured gatefold cover record with black vinyl. It has spare notes on the back and a sober label.

The quality of sound is good, better than the CD edition published in 2004 by Angel Air and for any record vinyl addicts, it's worth to have it.

About the music (composition, lyrics and playing), you know what I think about, but it's just a question of personal opinions and I know that many TEB fans are enthusiastic about this album...

So get it and enjoy, all in all, it's a brand new Third Ear Band record for your collection! 

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

"ALCHEMY" ON VINYL!!!

"Alchemy" is being released on vinyl on 27th September for Esoteric Records in a limited edition to 1000 copies. The album is an exact facsimile of the original 1969 Harvest LP release. Also, this new edition is in a gatefold sleeve and on 180-gram vinyl.

It was cut at Abbey Road Studios.
  
no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

Italian band Marsala quotes the Third Ear Band...

Marsala is Andrea J. Marsala electro-acoustic solo project, his first album recorded with synth, keyboards, bass/drum machine, loop stations, samplers, harmonica, xaphoon and vocals.

"Psychedelia, industrial, ambient, folk, blues and noise music are the coordinates in which the voodoo scenario of Marsala's debut album moves: if you love Tangerine Dream, Third Ear Band, Goblin, Dead Can Dance and Foetus, you have found your own thing." 

(from Wallace Records press release)

As always, listen to the album (HERE) and check the music... and if you like to share your opinions please write here!

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

Celebrating the TEB 'curious story' on PROG magazine...

"It's the same the world over", as they said. English rock magazines are generally better than the Italians, but anyway we are very far from the famous legendary Oscar Wilde's statement about the critic being as an artist...

This long tribute to the TEB's saga under the title "Dragon Lines. The curious story of the Third Ear Band" written by Malcolm Dome for PROG magazine (#99, July 2019) is cheap of revelations and shows some little errors (the  worst  of all is stating Richard Coff is dead!), with well-known opinions by Blackhill's managers (the same old things about Glen being a trickster and a good PR man of the band...) and a arguable assertion by Denim Bridges on the mystic nature of TEB's identity.

Dome: "Celtic, raga, Chinese, Indian and Native American daubs abound throughout Alchemy. And there were rumours the band were actively involved in mysticism. But guitarist Denim 'Denny' Bridges, who joined in 1970, has his own views on this."

Bridges: "I believe Glen was very knowledgeable about the subject. But he was certainly also prepared to use it to get interest in the band. If he felt that using alchemy and magick imagery would get us attention, then he would exploit the side as much as possible".

As often happened on English magazines or books, also for Dome the TEB's Italian reunion is quite irrelevant, and THE MOTHER OF ALL QUESTIONS seems to be that there are still some mysteries around that have to be solved. "For instance, did Sweeney actually fight in World War II?"

So, apart from some well-known pictures, the very scarce informations about the recent three Cherry Red's reissues (!!!), no elements to the readers for understanding the great musical intuitions of the band, no references to the huge work made by this Archive in the last ten years... this is an important stuff because can let many young Prog fans to know the intriguing underground story of the Thirds.

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

"The Magus" new vinyl edition out soon!

Tiger Bay will release on June 21th, 2019 a brand new edition of TEB's  1972 album "The Magus" in a gatefold vinyl edition (as TB0006430) for € 27.00. 
This is the label press release:

"Recorded in 1972, but not released til' 30 years later, this magnificent 'missing album' by the free-thinking UK psych-prog band is now available on 180-GRAM VINYL, packaged in a gatefold sleeve. Sounding like an east-meets-west kind of affair, this spiritual work includes early electronic experiments and vocals."

Tiger Bay is "a label specialised in luxury and limited edition releases on vinyl. Focusing on progressive, experimental, psychedelic and jazz-rock, TIGER BAY’s releases include both out-of-print reissues and rare or unreleased material works by artists that contribute to expanding these genres through the years. TIGER BAY works closely with artists and labels to realise high-quality licensed vinyl, with re-mastered sound, and finely designed artworks."

Web contact: https://tiger-bay-records.com/

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

Denim Bridges' lyrics for "Hyde Park"!

Our friend Denny Bridges sent me the original lyrics used for "Hyde Park" singing. 

He wrote me this: "Here are the lyrics to my song "In A Man" that we're used for "Hyde Park". Subject to the comments below you can reprint them as long as you clearly credit "Lyrics by Denny Bridges". 
It is clear from my garbled vocal performances of "Hyde Park" that I didn't know the lyrics that well, but in my defense the original idea was for there to be no words just sounds. I couldn't manage that so I had to use words. You will also notice extra lyrics that I have put into parenthesis (). 

In the original song there was a chromatic chord change into that section and TEB didn't do chromatic chord changes, so that section was cut. It is noticeable in both recordings that I forgot that and went for the change and no one else did. Oh well."

In A Man

We can live without fear
We can look to make our peace
(Given time so we can know
How to be certain as we grow)
Like a child's sign of truth in a man

All our fortunes can be real
If our handling of them seem
(Starting wrong. But in the end
Firm resolve that still can bend)
Like a child's sign of strength in a man

Can't deny we know the way
But the few still lead astray
(The masses following as one
But some lone voices sound alarms)
Like a child's sign of love in a man

There's a story, it's always told
About today but still it's old
(It relates what we have done
Nothing learned from what was shown)
Of a child's sign of love in a man

 
(lyrics by Denim Bridges)

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

A review about "Alchemy" remastered edition on Italian magazine "Rumore".

A very short review is published on the last issue of Italian magazine "Rumore" (#329, June 2019), a great effort of imagination (!): "An esoteric acoustic trance music that does not give space-time grips, marked by tablas and circumscribed by the oboe, violin and cello."

No©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

A Denim Bridges' solo LP discography.

Who knows Denny Bridges was a sound engineer in Brian Eno's "Here come the warm jets"? Or in Jeff Beck's "Blow By Blow" produced by Sir George Martin?

Just after the involvement with the Third Ear Band, thanks to a tied friendship with Paul Buckmaster, Denny had the chance to work at the London Air Studios as a sound engineer.

He told to me: "I was closer to Paul Buckmaster than any of the other members. He was always a mentor to me. He was responsible for introducing me to most of the music that was to influence me within the scope of The Third Ear Band and he encouraged me greatly. We also got on very well on a personal level and occasionally saw each other outside of the band. Post TEB I had the opportunity to engineer sessions at Air Studios for him when, for example, he had arranged for the orchestra. I was always thrilled to work with him again in that different capacity."

Here below you have the full Denim Bridges' solo album discography penned by himself (with some integrations by me) in chronological order:

1972
Carly Simon - "No Secrets" (Elektra) sound engineer  
T. Rex - "The Slider" (T. REX) assistant sound engineer

1973
Paul McCartney & Wings - "Band on the run" (Apple) sound engineer 

The Electric Light Orchestra - "ELO 2" (Harvest) sound engineer 

Brian Ferry - "These foolish things" (Island) sound engineer

Kiki Dee - "Loving & Free" (The Rocket Record Company) assistant sound engineer

Roxy Music - "For your pleasure" (Island) assistant sound engineer

Roxy Music - "Stranded" (Island) assistant sound engineer
T. Rex - "Tanx" (T. REX) assistant sound engineer
John Williams - "My Heights Below" (Cube Records) assistant sound engineer

1974
The Electric Light Orchestra - "Eldorado" (Warner Bros) sound engineer 

Sparks - "Kimono my house" (Island) assistant sound engineer

Roxy Music - "Country Life" (Island) assistant sound engineer
Badfinger - "Badfinger" (Warner Bros) assistant sound engineer
ELP - "Welcome back my friends" (Manticore) assistant sound engineer

1975
Jeff Beck - "Blow by blow" (Epic) sound engineer 

Birth Control - "Plastic People" (CBS) sound engineer

Fripp & Eno - "Evening Star" (Island)  sound engineer

Bobby Vince Paunetto - "Bottle the Edge" co-producer

1976
Quantum Jump - "Quantum Jump" (The Electric Record Company) mixing 

Jeff Beck - "Wired" (Epic) sound engineer
Stackridge - "Mr Mick" (The Rocket Record Company) sound engineer
Joe Cocker - "Live in   L.A." (Cube Records) sound engineer

Cleo Laine - "Born in a Friday" (RCA Victor) sound engineer
Philip Goodhand-Tait - "Oceans Away" (Crysalis) recording engineer

1977
Elkie Brooks - "Two Days Away" (A&M Records) recording engineer

1978
The Strawbs - "Deadlines" (Arista) sound engineer

1983
Rick Wakeman - "G'olè!" (Charisma)  sound engineer & producer 

1985
Ryudogumi - "Gaia" (Epic) sound engineer

1988
Shakin' Stevens - "A Whole Lotta Shaky" (Epic) sound engineer
TM Network-Tetsuya Komuro - "Seven Days War" (Epic) recorded and mixed

1989
Annie Haslam - "Annie Haslam" (Epic) sound engineer & mixing

1991
Soul Engines - "Ghost on a Landscape" (Not on Label) producer

Band of Blutus - "Tiny" (???) co-producer

1994
Annie Haslam's Renaissance - "Blessing in disguise" (One Way Records) sound engineer& backing vocals on one track

1995
Bar Scott - "Confession" (JSR) co-producer

1997
Annie Haslam - "Live under Brazilian skies" (Transatlantic) sound engineer and producer

2005
Bobby Vince Painetto - "Composer in public" (RSVP) co-producer

2010
Annie Haslam - "Live in Philadelphia 1997" (Floating World) sound engineer

Other artists Bridges worked with include

Apple Mosaic - Beat - Wild Swans - P.P.(Pat) Arnold - Harry Nilsson - Paul Young - Aztec Camera - The Babys - Orange Juice - Gene Pitney - Julia Downes - Rod Edwards - Rupert Hine - Pamela Moore - Babylon Sound - Livingston Taylor - Matt Sevier - Tom Rush - David Wilcox - Poker Face.

Denny today posing with his guitar.

no©2019 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)