A rare old interview with Lyn Dobson from "Melody Maker".

It has never been frequent to read interviews with Lyn Dobson in the past for a few reasons: first, for the fact that he has always been a session man and studio turner, having played with many bands, including Manfred Mann and the Soft Machine; also, in spite of his histrionic nature on stage, he has always preferred to respond to words with music. 

Devoted to John Coltrane's saxophone, passionate about the I King and meditation, a good draughtsman, involved in volunteer organizations (including as a bus driver for transporting the disabled), I knew him as a shy, thoughtful person, anything but egotistical - except when he took the stage, transforming himself into an outstanding performer!
In this fine interview with Richard Williams, published by "Melody Maker" on January 31, 1970, he shows all his intelligence and sensitivity as a young musician with a philosophical reflection on the power of music...

 no©2022 LucaChinoFerrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first.

If you want to hear the magic music...

Few days ago someone wrote on Facebook:

"If you want to hear the music of the spheres and listen to the vibrations of the planets, you must do it with the third ear or with silence. This is a "unique" piece... test pressing and cover proof and there is no other copy."

Right. 

But also this one is a unique piece of that record: a non-plasticized cover proof with white inner sleeve  made by MASO just before the official pressing...

MASO gave one copy each to the musicians and one to me. On the front cover of mine, the Thirds left their signs. 

Lyn Dobson wrote: "Gracie per tutti Luca." Neil Black: "To Luca, the fifth Man." 

Photographed by Annette Jarve, at the time with Lucia Baldini the main graphic at MASO, this is a controversial cover. Glen didn't like it, even if all of us was conscious Annette tried to get a different, not stereotypical picture of Stonehenge. Nevertheless, anyway, the final result was not too satisfying.

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

Two unrealised live recordings of the TEB in Rome re-emerged!

In 1990 and 1991 Italian photographer Luca Fiaccavento (http://www.lucafiaccavento.net/) recorded two full gigs of the Third Ear Band in Rome, the line-up consisting of Sweeney, Carter, Dobson and Black.

The first concert was recorded at Classico on February 4th, 1990, it was the first time ever the band played in Rome. The year after, on December 28th, 1991, Third Ear Band played live at the famous Piazza Navona, one of the most beautiful square in Italy.

Just a few days ago he contacted Ghettoraga Archive to send me the full recordings of the two concerts!

The recordings was made with a Walkman  professional Sony WM-D6C (the gig at Classico) and a Casio DAT DA-7 (the gig at piazza Navona) and the quality of sound is really good, so I will try to convince Cherry Red Records or Gonzo Multimedia to make some CDs from them... 

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

New book on Glen Sweeney almost ready!

Since the last October I'm editing with Carolyn Looker the book on Glen Sweeney's poems, lyrics, interviews, aphorisms, drawings, photos and the work is almost finished...A specific section wil have memories of Glen by some of his old friends and/or musicians who played with him as Dave Tomlin, Pete Brown, Paul Buckmaster, Lyn Dobson...

Carolyn has sent me lot of rare photos of Glen, taken in different moments of his life. One of them, in particular, shot in 1970, shows him and Carolyn with their close friend Celia Humphris, at the time singer of the fabulous Trees and wife of radio DJ Pete Drummond. 

Glen in Greece, 1978.

I'm very proud of this book, also because I've tried to collect all the main things written by (or about) Glen and it seems a very good tribute to his long unique career.

Also, I'm very glad the book will be printed by Gonzo Multimedia and all the design will be done by talent Martin Cook!

 no©2017 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)     

The new TEB's CD will be realised in February 2016.

The next TEB's record produced by Gonzo Multimedia (edited by Luca Ferrari) will be ready at the first months of next year, likely on February 2016.

Titled "EXORCISMS", it will show recordings from the 1988-1989 period, when the musicians involved was Glen Sweeney, Mick Carter, Ursula Smith, Lyn Dobson and Allen Samuel.

The art cover (as for the first two CDs) is by the great Martin Cook. Here below you can see a cover proof of the record based on a Cambodian devil mask...
  

 
no©2015 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)          

New Third Ear Band CD by Gonzo Multimedia out until the end of this year.

Gonzo Multimedia and Luca Ferrari are working on a  new TEB CD planned to be published until the end of 2015. 

It will be titled "EXORCISMS" and it will show recordings from the 1988-1989 period, when the musicians involved was Glen Sweeney, Mick Carter, Ursula Smith, Lyn Dobson and Allen Samuel.

(First hands) Sleeve notes by Luca and art cover (as for the first two CDs) by the great 'pictures wizard' Martin Cook.
no©2015 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first)          

Lyn Dobson's Four Elements.

Lyn Dobson, the last winds player of the TEB, among his countless projects, in July 2005 recorded his personal vision of the four archetipal elements - musical landscapes inspired by his eccentric  theatrical vocalist jazzy/folky/ethnic soul.

He asked me to help him to get a deal in Italy, but I had bad luck and nothing happened (but if someone's interested please contact me...).

Lyn and Ursula Smith playing on stage at Genova's Psycho Club (January 1990)

So you have now the chance to listen to three of these very fascinanting tunes and have an idea of Lyn's soundscape ideas of it. Not just the TEB's 1970 legendary four elements, of course, but a sort  of catching ragamelodic thing...

TITLE: "The Elements"

TRACKLIST:

"Air" (9:41)

"Fire" (10:29)

"Earth" (10:25)

"Water" (10:21)

Recorded in Crete on July 7th, 2005

Lyn Dobson: vocals, sitar, flutes, sax, keyboards, programming

Download it at:  
 https://soundcloud.com/teb-archive/lyn-dobsons-elements-fire
("Fire") 25.50 MB

https://rapidshare.com/files/3941370084/Lyn_Dobson_s_Elements_-_Earth.mp3 ("Earth") 25.10 MB
https://rapidshare.com/files/3360194560/Lyn_Dobson_s_Elements_-_Water.mp3 ("Water") 26.15 MB

Some recent videos with Lyn (interviewed by Mike Collins) on You Tube at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyYTlvGj3U8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceOVMjgPlfs

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

A review of "Hymn to the Sphynx" from "Prog Archives" Web site.

This recent quite interesting review of "Hymn to the Sphynx", written by "Sean Trane",  has been published by "Prog Archives" Web site 
(http://www.progarchives.com/Review.asp?id=743932): it'd be good if some TEB fans would like to review records, facts, things for this archive too!

"The present double-disc collection is a weird throw-it-all-together compilation, mixing some already-released first-era TEB material and some studio and live second-era recordings. The main interest of HTTS is the band's history in the booklet. A fairly ugly artwork disgraces this confusing compilation album as well, and while the music is mostly about the second-era, the pictures in the booklet are solely about the first-era, which kind of induces (willingly?) in error.

I'll first spend a few lines over the Abelard & Heloise suite, which had received a few months before its own release, and it represents quite well the TEB's first line-up. If you want to know more about A&H, read my review on that album's page. Of course, you'll find much more info about the piece and its background in the booklet of the present collection. To be honest, I'd have preferred the A&H suite to be released with the BBC sessions (are they still available?), rather than the second-era stuff present on HTTS.

Coming to that second TEB life, the studio tracks (recorded in 90, as part of the Magic Music album) on the first disc present relatively lengthy (5 to 9 minutes) ragas, that while being interesting, are mostly diluted via the electronic violin gear of Neil Back, while Dobson's saxes are in the line of what Minns did. But drummer Sweeney is the only remaining original member on this session. The trafficked violin gear was able to produce some electronic loops, sometimes approaching the future techno music stuff, even developing a slightly industrial feel, especially on the session-closing Midnight On Mars. The booklet tells us not to confuse the music of this session with the Materiali Sonori album of the same name, but you'd have to be a real TEB expert to tell a difference. To be honest, it's quite a relief when the A&H suite comes around.

As for the live recordings of the same year (featured on the second disc), it features the same line-up as the studio session; but they don't sound as "electronic" or "industrial" as those studio tracks, although the extended raga gives it a family resemblance. The set features a couple of tracks from their future album (most notably the very Indian-sounding Sun Ra Raga), one from the previous Live Ghosts, and more important their first-era compositions of Egyptian Book Of The Dead and Pyramid Song (both from their debut, the latter featuring some Dobson-scat vocals), which is an interesting exercise in comparison between the two eras - quite different versions, and the original being superior, but these are not without charm. It's unclear to me whether these live tracks are the ones that came out on the Voiceprint label's 96 release TEB Live, in which case this would render the present compilation almost utterly useless. Not sure the Mooncrest label did you a favour to you by releasing this one, because even parts of the liner notes seem to be paraphrasing Joynson's Tapestry Of  Delight book TEB entry. I'm rounding this up to the upper third star".

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