“Alchemy” remastered edition: a critical review.

 

Just a few words for analyzing the remastered and expanded edition of the TEB’s first album.

The title
As for the second album, I suggested Esoteric Recordings to title “Alchemy” as “Alchemies 1968-1969” suggesting the idea of a project consisting in an audio excursus of the band’s first stage. They preferred the original “Alchemy”, not so coherent with the spirit of these reissues.

The packaging

I really like too much the choice to have this 2CDs digipack edition with great reproductions of the front and back cover, the original Glen’s liner note, the Ray Stevenson’s original b/w picture taken at Kensal Green Cemetery, the discs with alchemical iconography on… So, a great visual impact! 

 

The booklet and the liner note

As for the first two remastered albums, Esoteric asked me to write the notes with a historical approach to the TEB’s experience. For some reasons, Esoteric cut off some parts of my text, especially the one about the symbolic/esoteric meanings of the cover Chief druid David Loxley told me in an interview. A controversial decision, because I think the meanings of the "Alchemy" cover are very important for understanding the full project...

Also, I don’t like the way they assembled the original posters and having published the Ray Stevenson’ original contact sleeve with folk singer Bridget St. John on is nonsense… 

Also, as for “Elements 1970-1971”, the notes don’t include all the line-ups involved but only the one who recorded “Alchemy”. Even if the listener can easily deduce them from the booklet, it would be better to print them on the cover.

The music

As I wrote somewhere on this Archive (read here), for myself this is an esoteric album for initiates. Even if recorded just in a weekend, this music sounds very cohesive and coherent, fully related to some underground Sixties beliefs of the age (i.e. "Gandalf's Garden" and "Albion"), a unique piece of art where music, symbols (images) and meanings are wonderfully integrated.

No words, just sounds. 

Sounds coming from the Western deep consciousness of a drifted World, so alien from the surrounding music of the post-psychedelic rock scene...

The original masters sound brilliant and sometimes it's a very emotional discover to listen again to some tracks with "new ears", i.e. this astonishing "Dragon Lines"! 

Also, considering the unrealised tracks included in this edition ("Unity", "Hyde Park Raga"...), we have the clear proof of a very mature band exploring new territories of acoustics, a fluid place where classical meets folk, avant-garde and minimalism in a dynamic of rigid structures (English folk, Indian Raga) and modal improvisation.

A big surprise for me was to listen to "The Sea", a.k.a. "Water", maybe the first attempt to record in the studio the following album: in my opinion, this track is the key to deconstructing the first structured compositions and imagine a more open form of music. Also, the rendition of "Druid" recorded on September 12th, 1969 by the new line-up is a clear example of the path our band took for creating the second album.

A little final curiosity
Rightly, Esoteric Recordings leaves on the cover the original dedication by the band: 

""Ghetto Raga" is for Pete, Sumi, John, Steve, all the cats in the Grove and elsewhere who gave us the energy and created the karma that put it all together".

Apart from the jazz slang word "cats" to indicate all the friends of the band (a typical Glen saying), the most living in the Grove (the area around Ladbroke Grove W10); Pete was the manager/producer Peter Jenner, Sumi was his wife, John was cult DJ/producer, John Peel, and Steve was Steve Pank, first TEB manager and roadie, promoter and writer (he run "Albion"...).
 

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

An interview with Muz Murray, the first mystic 'gardener'.

Muz Murray has been a real protagonist of London underground scene, founder of the famous "Gandalf's Garden", a psychedelic mystic magazine edited in 1968 and 1969 (six issues printed) and thought, as he says, for "offering hope and a positive lifestyle to the lost and lonely".

Later, become Ramana Baba, he has been tripping all around the world, painting, writing books, recording music, making conferences about Mantra Yoga, Mystical Awakening, Massage and Meditation.

He has got a very intriguing Web site at http://www.mantra-yoga.com/index.htm full of  infos and stuffs (as the complete collection of "Gandalf's Garden" issues on CD-R format). 
I've contacted him for having an interview about his memories on the Third Ear Band (but, as he writes, "I will do my best, but I am not sure I can add much to what you already know..."), a band he loved and  interviewed in 1968 for his magazine (read at http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~pardos/GGThird.html), writing probably the very first review of "Alchemy" on "Gandalf's Garden" # 5.

Why did you decide to dedicate an interview (one of the first ever...) to the Third Ear Band?

"I wanted express what was the feeling of the non-commercial music on the Scene at the time. And as soon as I saw the name ‘The Third Ear Band’ I knew this was something that would fit nicely in "Gandalf’s Garden" magazine. So I got in touch with Glen right away and we got on very well together. After hearing the music I wasn't disappointed and we became firm friends".

What kind of relations you had with the band and the Ladbroke Grove scene?

"We had a good rapport with the group also. They came and played freely at our Magical Sunday Benefit Concert at Middle Earth in Covent Garden [May 19th, 1968], London, in order to help us to bring out the second issue of "Gandalf’s Garden", together with other up-and-coming unknowns like Marc Bolan and David Bowie.
I used to live in Pembroke Villas next to Ladbroke Grove, so Notting Hill Gate and Portobello Road and market was my scene".

Have you ever watch/listen to the TEB in a live concert? Any memories about it?

"As mentioned, they came and played for us. And we saw them in concert and were with them in private sessions too. It was a great pleasure because their music put us into a state of dreamlike meditation without any effort. And they also seemed to go into a trance as they played. It was not like that they played, but the music came through them".

What kind of mood do you think people 'breathed' at their concerts?

"I’m sure it had the same effect that it had on us. I saw that audiences went off into pleasant dreams and did not like to spoil it by clapping afterwards".

What do you think about their music and more at large about their peculiar cultural/artistic project?
"It was not so much ‘music’ as such but more of an artistic expression of deep 'feeling'. It was exactly what was needed to counteract some of the popular rubbish played at the time. And it catered for more of the mystically inclined supporters that we were cultivating through "Gandalf's Garden" magazine and our mystical Centre down along the scruffy end of King’s Road".

Do you think they was authentic or, someone thinks nowadays, Glen Sweeney was a sort of mystic trickster?

"Then someone thinks wrong. Glen and the other musicians were totally sincere as far as I am concerned. They had to be, in order to play the kind of non-commercial music that was not going to earn them a fortune on "Top of the Pops". Glen often came to mediate with us at the Garden".

 The Gardeners meditating with Glen Sweeney (with hat) an Carolyn Looker on far right  (© Gandalf's Garden).

Have you got in your archive (if you have one) some stuffs of the band (photos, music, video...) for the Ghetto Raga archive?
"Alas, we could not afford a camera in those days, and video did not exist. I don’t think I have anything other than the photo attached. If I can find anything else I will send it to you".

                                                                              Muz Murray today

This is the original Muz Murray's review of "Alchemy" published on "Gandalf's Gardens" # 5 (note the beautiful EMI-Harvest promo ad below):

 

no©2012 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)