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)

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)