A wonderful TEB gig poster found!

Designed by talented British artist David Arnott, this is a rare poster for a gig the TEB played at St. Johns Church in Redhill (UK) on 30th October 1971.

David Arnott designed posters for Tony Stratton-Smith productions in the early 1970s and did posters for colleges in the Surrey area, such as Ewell Technical College.
An amazing gallery of his works is available HERE

no©2020 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

Italian composer and filmaker Francesco Paolo Paladino writes about the TEB book...

My friend Francesco sent me this little unexpected gift, a review of the TEB book. It's in Italian, but I know that the one interested can translate it in English and appreciate his pyrotechnic way to write.

 

ULTIMO TANGO ALCHEMICO

Luca Ferrari me l’aveva preannunciato: “Ho scritto a Chris Cutler per farti inviare una copia di BOOK OF ALCHEMIES e a giorni ti arriva”. Confesso che ero scettico, non certo per i suoi buoni intenti, fuori discussione, ma per la politica Recommended Records che, pur da elogiare senza se e senza ma per essere una delle poche etichette rimaste in trincea nonostante la desolante situazione attuale, non brilla certo per prodigalità.


“BOOK OF ALCHEMIES, the life and times of Third Ear Band, 1967-1973”, per chi non lo sapesse ancora, è un raffinato volume di 225 pagine (231 pagine per alcuni, qui c’è odore di cabala), edito dalla storica R&R il cui autore “potrebbe essere” Glen Sweeney, membro fondatore dei TEB,, ma che in modo quasi pirandelliano viene attribuito “anche” a Luca Chino Ferrari. Io so che il libro è di Luca e soltanto il suo squisito senso di generosità lo porta quasi a renderne fumosa la sua paternità. Per non farci mancare nulla il libro contiene anche un CD “THE DRAGON WAKES- The legendary unrealesed album” una chicca di cui ha scritto in modo più che eccellente Alessandro Monti su queste longitudini. Sorprendente che a scrivere dei TEB siano – per ora - soltanto musicisti e/o creativi e che i dichiarati critici non abbiano ancora assaggiato questo indispensabile manicaretto. Non vedo l’ora di leggere le parole di Gino Dal Soler su "Blow Up", uno dei pochi critici indispensabili alla nostra salute. Ma torniamo al volume, è scritto in inglese, niente traduzioni in italiano, il “range” (si dice così?) di pubblico che vuole interessare è internazionale ed è ben comprensibile. Oggigiorno i budget sono talmente risicati che è già un miracolo avere tra le mani un volume come questo! Per le traduzioni ognuno s’ingegnerà come potrà. Io che mastico poco la lingua inglese, speravo in una versione “kinder” da poter tradurre con Google trad, ma – come vi ho già accennato - per ora non è previsto. “E più non dimandare” direbbe il Sommo Poeta. Ma la soddisfazione di avere tra le mani nel 2020 un libro che, per 225/231 pagine, parli di T.E.B. è talmente un “godimento esperanto” che supera ogni possibile cimoseria. Per la verità io e Luca condividiamo da anni una insana passione per la THIRD EAR BAND; anzi questa nostra passione ci ha resi ancora più amici e ci ha indotto a collaborare in altri mille progetti.


Poi, qualche giorno prima di Ferragosto, in mezzo ai consueti scatoloni di Amazon, trovo un plico che contiene un libro. La modalità di apertura dei pacchi postali meriterebbe un articolo a sé; diciamo che per noi musicomani senza speranza assume una sacralità rituale. Ed è un rito plurisensoriale che include un primo movimento muscolare il più delle volte lieve (il ritiro del plico/pacco); l’apertura con lacerazione o con tentativo conservativo dell’orecchia adesiva con o senza oggetti opzionali (forbici, coltelli, plettri, monetine); rimozione di eventuale strisce di scotch o nastro adesivo; eliminazione di plastiche anti-urto e/o giornali ammassicciati per espletare tale importante funzione. Ma forse la fase clou dell’apertura del pacco/plico è il percepimento dell’odore dell’oggetto che viene sfilato fuori dal pacco, che non è più l’odore del vecchio vinile, ma una “essenza cocktail” di tipografia, plastica protettiva, odore di carta non sfogliata, sudore del corriere e –certe volte- della passione dell’autore.


Bene, visto che non so leggere la lingua inglese come vorrei, ho annusato più e più volte il libro di Luca e devo dire che l’essenza cocktail di cui vi ho parlato qualche riga fa, vede prevalere senza possibilità di smentite l’ingrediente della passione dell’autore. Una passione che, si badi bene, non è una smanceria da fan club, ma una virginale ed immensa estasi da stupore. Luca ha superato da tempo la gelosia del giocattolo personale; il suo lavoro è quello del minatore che sa di essere in una miniera, una miniera piena di gemme che però non sono lì in bella evidenza, non basta schiacciare un tasto per farle emergere, bisogna lavorarci duramente sopra, ecco cosa bisogna fare. Un lavoro minimale di contatti, di amicizie guadagnate nel tempo, un lavoro di rianimazione di spigoli musicali inadeguati, di insperati ritrovamenti impensati.


Ecco il libro che vi consiglio caldamente è un piccolo museo di tutti i reperti che Luca ha trovato in quelle dimenticate miniere che ha picconato da mattina a sera senza mai perdersi d’animo. Mi diceva Luca qualche tempo fa che scrivere un libro serio sui T.E.B. non è cosa facile perché i musicisti principali sono tutti deceduti e quello che riesce a ritrovare emerge da persone che erano vicine ai tre TEB principali. Ora se avete visto qualche serie televisiva gialla su Netflix, solitamente “le persone che erano vicino” allo scomparso la pensano in modo completamente diverso da quello, pur amandolo o stimandolo immensamente. Danno poco importanza a cose, frammenti, oggetti che l’ispettore di turno, quando ne prende possesso, ne comprende invece l’importanza fondamentale per la sua indagine. Ferrari ha fatto una lunga indagine, ha interrogato familiari e amici con quel senso di ottimismo che è assolutamente padano. Un lavoro maniacale, che lui stesso definisce “non finito” che è consistito nell’accedere a tasselli e indizi sui quali ha duramente lavorato. Il libro è bello di per sé ed è bello dentro, cosa volete di più? A tutti gli appassionati di “musica diversa” non potrà che eccitare; ai fans dei TEB regala nuove emozioni nella rilettura e risistemazione della cronologia dei concerti e della discografia e nell’emersione di foto di cui si era persa traccia. Questo libro, rispetto a “Third Ear Band Necromancers of the Drifting West”, che Luca aveva scritto nel marzo 1997 per Stampa Alternativa, ha una dimensione più “internazionale”, un respiro più compiuto e – soprattutto - la minestra non è riscaldata. Il nuovo libro di Ferrari testimonia e documenta tutta la ricerca che l’autore dal ‘97 in poi ha continuato e splendidamente realizzato. Luca è un amante dei T.E.B. sincero e appassionato. Per lui non è una fesseria ma una necessità continuare a dimostrare il suo amore per i TEB. Con BOOK OF ALCHEMIES, the life and times of Third Ear Band, 1967-1973 il suo atto d’amore diventa uno splendido scritto, un libro sublime. E noi non potevamo chiedere di meglio perché così le rifrazioni di quei raggi di passione ce li godiamo tutti.

17 agosto 2020
Francesco Paolo Paladino


no©2020 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

The very first Web review about the book.

This is the very first Web review of the book by Arcana.fm, "set up to give you the chance to step into classical music with no fear or pressure – just the chance to enjoy and read about good music!", written by  Richard Whitehouse and put on line on August 8, 2020.

On paper – Glen Sweeney’s Book of Alchemies: The life and times of the Third Ear Band 1967-1973 by Luca Chino Ferrari 

Glen Sweeney’s Book of Alchemies: The life and times of the Third Ear Band 1967-1973
by Luca Chino Ferrari
ReR Megacorp/November Books [softback, 226pp plus CD, ISBN: 978-0-9560184-6-5, £18]

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

What’s the story?

Over two decades after his pioneering biography of Third Ear Band, Necromancers of the Drifting West (Sonic Book: 1997), Luca ‘Chino’ Ferrari has now published this larger and more inclusive survey of arguably the ultimate cult band to have emerged in the late 1960s.

What’s the book like? 

One thing it is not is an update of that earlier study. Instead, Ferrari has assembled a range of documents from a variety of sources centred on TEB’s guiding force: the often enigmatic and always recalcitrant Glen Sweeney. Only in those (brief) first and second sections does Ferrari posit his thinking as to why this outfit flourished, foundered yet refused to die across a period of almost 30 years. The third section showcases Sweeney’s poems and lyrics – ranging from the inspired to the not so inspired while suggesting that, with a degree of luck, the proto-new wave incarnation of the mid-1970s (aka Hydrogen Jukebox) just might have broken through.

The fourth section features Sweeney’s writings – engaging and frustrating in equal measure – but most valuable are the interviews in section five; above all, an expansive 1990 Q&A with Unhinged’s Nigel Cross as captures Sweeney in almost confessional mood. Quite a contrast with those gnomic ‘soundbites’ in the sixth section where he dons the guise of false Messiah. Much the longest section is the seventh, ‘memories and interviews’, carried out over almost a quarter-century and drawing in almost all TEB’s one-time members (except for the elusive violinist Richard Coff). They range from the humorous to the desultory, with several of those featured seemingly intent upon post-priori acts of self-justification, but not oboist Paul Minns – who, writing in December 1996 (months before his untimely death) places the triumphs and failings of TEB in the wider context of post-war Western culture with a precision and pathos that makes it required reading for anyone at all interested in this veritable fable of disillusion.

The eighth section comprises a chronological listing of audio and video releases – worthwhile especially as TEB releases from the late 1960s or early 1970s have been reissued on various occasions in numerous formats, whereas those from the 1980s onwards constitute a minefield of reissues and partial re-couplings which Sweeney must have relished. Hardly less welcome, section nine offers a day-by-day chronology of the band across 53 years and which is, almost inevitably, at its most thought-provoking when the band had all but ceased activity and those associated with it make a (not always fond) adieu – above all, Sweeney himself in 2005. Chris Cutler’s footnotes are a judicious enhancement from one ‘who was there’, while the selection of photos is decently reproduced with several stunning shots of drummer Sweeney in action.

Does it all work?

Yes, despite vagaries of presentation (Section IV is headed ‘VI’ on p28, and where exactly is the Epilogue?) or inconsistent layout. Whether or not the attached CD indeed constitutes The Dragon Wakes, the unreleased third album from 1971, its content is never less than absorbing.

Is it recommended?

Absolutely. Apart from its historical significance, Third Ear Band’s extensive recorded legacy is still of undeniable relevance, with this latest publication a valuable and necessary resource. Whether or not it proves to be the ‘last word’ on TEB rather depends on Luca Ferrari himself.

Orginal Web page at:  https://arcana.fm/2020/08/08/glen-sweeneys-book-of-alchemies/

 

no©2020 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)

Alessandro Monti (Unfolk)'s review on "The Dragon Wakes" CD.

Being attached to my last effort on the Third Ear Band, avantgarde musician Alessandro Monti reviews "The Dragon Wakes" CD. Note that he wrote for Ghettoraga Archive also another very interesting piece about the TEB's remastered CD "Elements 1970-1971" (read at https://ghettoraga.blogspot.com/2018/12/italian-musician-and-composer.html).

 

A midsummer's night dream: unearthing TEB.  

After years of work and disappointments from publishers and labels, Luca's dream became reality at last. Thanks to his never ending research Glen Sweeney's Book Of Alchemies and The Dragon Wakes fabled recordings have now secured their place in history thanks to ReR Megacorp. It would be almost impossible to review the book here: years and years of details about recordings, concerts and real life on the road were collected by Luca using the vast amount of material available on this website, from the beginning to the days when he actually managed the band in the late 80's and beyond; Chris Cutler's explanatory notes for the newcomers are an extra bonus: as he writes on the preface he was there during most of Third Ear Band's history, I think few musicians could add infos about that era with better knowledge and open mind (I found out in the book that his band Henry Cow even played on the same program with TEB in some occasions). 

The unreleased music on the attached compact disc is of great historical importance and succeeds in putting those musical pioneers in better focus, plus it finally completes the rare studio sessions collected on the "Elements 1970-1971" remaster of the second album (released by Esoteric), bringing that epic story full circle. Few pieces are missing from the puzzle now! I wondered to myself: how could I listen to the music to get an organic idea of Third Ear Band's method of work? The best solution seemed to compile a special folder including all the unreleased music recorded between 1970 and the late 1971 and listen to it non-stop in a sort of alchemical flux. Needless to say that the result was so instructive and rewarding that I suggest this full-immersion to everyone to fully appreciate the new electric direction taken by TEB during those months of continuous change. They were actually working on a radically different sound during the making of the fabled third album, a project then replaced by the ambitious soundtrack of Roman Polanski's Macbeth. All that music laid forgotten for years, but it's definitely among the most interesting documents of the progressive era. Here's a possible and fascinating sequence:

Mammatus (Electric Air)
Sulis Stirs
Druid One
Hexagonal Wheel
Tellus, the Earth
The Rising Seed
(All included on the CD attached and perhaps the most finished pieces.)

Very Fine...Far Away
The Dragon Wakes
Sunrise
Mistress To The Sun
Evening Awakening
In D

(The above tracks being part of the 2nd & 3rd CDs on the Esoteric remaster.) 

Raga No.1
(Surfaced on the incredible "Necromancers Of The Drifting West" compiled by Luca for Gonzo Multimedia, it dates from the same sessions as Mammatus & Druid One (February 1971): an adventurous piece of free form jazzrock performed by the quartet Sweeney, Minns, Buckmaster & Bridges, an electric jam without a violin.)

Hyde Park (audio)

(I added this nice song from the Lost Broadcasts DVD as a bonus to round the compilation: it dates from the earliest days of the new electric phase and it seems that they only performed it in concert, so it's the only version available.)

I already wrote my short impressions of the "Elements 1970-1971" set, so lets focus on the first 6 tracks this time, the newly discovered gems from Denim Bridges' archive: “The Dragon Wakes”. The nice yellow artwork with a modern red dragon has everything written on it: you can visually picture that transformation from acoustic to electric. TEB quickly developed their new sound approach merely in the space of weeks and the opening piece on the CD is their new version of “Air”, a track fom the last album. Glen plays trap drums instead of hand drums, giving the track a strong rhythm edge; the original piece on the second album had the peculiar sound of a rhythm loop, here the drum set is closer to Nick Mason's famous section in Pink Floyd's “A Saucerful Of Secrets”. The sound effects are the perfect link to the classic version. This and track n. 3, “Druid One” are mono recordings and they probably survived some loss in sound through the years; they use some familiar themes from the official recordings to great effect, while exploring electricity and pre-dating the other stereo pieces of a few months. Richard Coff seems to play on these, looking forward to a still uncertain direction. Track n. 2, “Sulis Stirs” is a welcome surprise: a rockin' TEB! Perhaps the only true rock piece ever played by the band is something of an oddity in their catalogue. Denim Bridges' distorted sound takes the music in some other dimension; towards the end of the piece I can hear a brass sound, a trumpet or a trombone? I may be wrong but this will probably be another mystery to solve. The next piece “Hexagonal Wheel”, is a beautiful variation on the new electric area with an interesting pop-rock feel by the whole band. Finally on “Tellus, The Earth”, the famous bass riff by Paul Buckmaster has its definitive version. The notes, a simpler sequence than the one used by Miles Davis on “Bitches Brew” (see the Paul Buckmaster interview in this website), are so perfectly chosen that could literally go on for hours. The track has Paul simultaneously playing his electric cello, while Denim Bridges' double tracked guitar is more convincing and focused here than on both live versions available (BBC in concert and Beat Club): they seemed rather in progress and unfinished in comparison. Paul Minns' jazzy oboe here reminds me of Karl Jenkins' use of that instruments in some alien context (Nucleus and Soft Machine) or the late great Lindsay Cooper (Henry Cow), even if TEB arrangement seems on a unique wavelength of controlled freedom. The last track on “The Dragon Wakes” CD has a beautiful and meditative intro, morphing itself into an exact anticipaton of the “Music From Macbeth” soundtrack. No VCS3 synth here but Glen Sweeney is back to familiar hand drums, supported by great harmonies on bass by Paul Buckmaster and dynamic violins: it seems to me that the style could be Simon House's.

We can only be grateful that, after almost 50 years this music is now available: it's a confirmation that so many hours of recording sessions were poorly documented on the original releases; we should say a huge thank you to the following people who made this edition possible:

Denim Bridges for keeping all recordings and cleaning up the sound in time for the digital age;
Chris Cutler for believing in the project with such enthusiasm and competence;
Luca Chino Ferrari (the éminence grise): the hidden man behind all this music, words and images. 

Footnote:
I wrote the above review without reading the actual credits on the cd; it seems that the violinist on the mono tracks (1&3) is Simon House, so perhaps I got it wrong! Nevermind... enjoy the music anyway!

Alessandro Monti :: Unfolk 

 no©2020 Luca Chino Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)