The core of it. Some personal autosuggestions of postfolk-shaman Sedayne about the Third Ear Band.

An artist is an artist - an artist, an artist, an artist - as George Sand would tell today about Sedayne (Sean Breadin), the English postfolk shaman devoted to strong fieldworks on traditional soundscapes.

These are some inspired suggestions by him to get us ready for the Autumn-Winter season...

"A visitor to my house recently looked through my CD shelf and was surprised to see more than the three old Third Ear Band albums they were aware of. They hadn't known of the Hydrogen Jukebox, nor yet the re-union era Italian albums, much less Abelard and Heloise and The Magus; they hadn't known of all the rarities that have emerged in recent years from The National Balkan Ensemble to the session material (ancient & modern) or the German DVD and the French TV footage.

Time was, I was well content with my three Third Ear Band albums - old habits die hard: on cold Autumn mornings I always play Macbeth. Alchemy is special beyond measure - I only play it when it snows! Elements I play on stormy elemental evenings remembering the friends I never saw again after I first played it to them - Gong they could cope with, but the Third Ear Band was going too far.

These days - God knows. I often find myself playing Brainwaves when I'm cooking. It's nothing special in the way the other albums are, but it is Glen - the heart and soul of the Tertius Auris; Shaman, Trickster and catalyst for some of the finest music I've ever heard. Hell, even The Magus has its moments of utter transcendence, and Druid Grocking on the German footage is one of the most astonishing things I've heard in my entire life. 

The core remains the pure Alchemy of the four elementals though, as revealed on the French film: Richard is Fire - he burns & blazes, relentless, hungrily consuming the silences whilst lighting the very dark & warming the bitter cold; Paul is Air - he blows as the rushing wind that moves the waves & sets the very trees a dancing; Glen is the Earth - the stone circle dragon-alignments that set pulse and pattern to both enrich and 

 reveal the very chaos of nature; and Ursula is Water - she flows, she sparkles and she thunders in the depths of the unfathomable abyss. At least that's how I see it anyway.

Oh, and I forgot to mention New Forecasts, featuring Ursula on Sybilic Violin by way of pure Revelation, as the best of it remains, eternally...".

Follow Sedayne at:

http://ploughmyth.blogspot.com/ 
http://soundcloud.com/rapunzel-and-sedayne
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Rapunzel-and-Sedayne/217002238319466

                                                        Sedayne - "Mr. Fox's Equinox" (March 2012)
no©2012 Luca Ferrari (unless you intend to make a profit. In which case, ask first) 

Who knows the Extremities?

Alan Freeman (synths, keys, guitar, voice, loops, effects, whistle, percussion), Steve Freeman (bass, synths, loops, samples, turntable, voice, harmonica), Jim Tetlow (synths, loops, guitar, voice, percussion, toys, gadgets, pipes) and Dave Powell (hurdy gurdy, effects) are The Extremities.

They are an experimental/post-KrautRock/avantgarde/industrial band from Leicester (Midlands, UK) - born when Dave Powell joined-in the Endgame - with nine albums (on CD-R format) and a DVD recorded (http://www.myspace.com/extremitiesimprov).

About two tracks of their vaste repertoire they state they have been "definitely inspired by the Third Ear Band".
Listen to them and decide if they're right ...

                                  The Extremities - "Bite me" (2007)

                           The Extremities - "Balkan Ninja" (2002-2003)

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

TEB French broadcast: the unseen cuts.

Here's a sequence of cuts from the broadcast that INAMediaPro hasn't included on the TEB concert available at INAfr.

The musicians (Kevin Ayers & the Whole World, Bridget St. John, the TEB and Edgar Broughton Band) come into the concert hall at the inn of Olympia Theatre in Paris (France).

                                                                         Paul Minns and Ursula Smith

                                                   Glen Sweeney, Bridget St. John and Richard Coff

                              Richard Coff and Edgar Broughton

                                                                                       Paul Minns on left

                                        Glen Sweeney on right

                                                               Bridget St. John and Richard Coff

                                                                         Kevin Ayers' concert starts

Inside the TV programme, after the Beatles playing "Let it Be" (from the original movie) and an excerpt from the Kevin Ayers' set on stage, just before TEB's "Hyde Park Raga", there's a short sequence in the backstage with the bands relaxing and smoking together...

                                                         Coff explaining Glen how to roll a cigarette (?!)

 

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

At last here's the wonderful, tremendous 1970 TEB TV broadcast!

As announced in the last days, here's the link at INAfr to watch the best TEB broadcast existing!

Thanks Gérard Sayag ("It was a pleasure to modestly contribute to bring this musical piece to the ears of all the fans", he writes me...) all the TEB fans can watch now the Band at the zenith of its playing, with a wonderful Paul Minns on oboe and the strings players (Richard Coff on violin and Ursula Smith on cello) using all the ways to play their instruments (pizzicato, bow, arpeggio...).
Two tracks only ("Hyde Park Raga" and a not-so-easy-track to identify - maybe a rendition of "Mosaic" or a part of "Abelard & Heloise", the band would have recorded two months later in Germany...) but very intense and exemplar of the rare, magic interplay of the four musicians.

Richard Coff introducing "Hyde Park Raga".

The Band on stage at Olympia.

A visual masterpiece, totally unexpected!

The concrete proof that there are probably other recordings somewhere around from the golden era of the group...

Just some clarifications: the TEB broadcast is around 17:30 long, not the 31:27 as cut by Ina fr (infact after the band you'll see the great Bridget St. John play her acoustic guitar...). 
Then, contrary to what I've understood, INAfr asks you to buy  the video on DVD format (at around € 12,00) or download (at € 2.99).

Anyway enjoy this extraordinary TV broadcast at:
http://www.ina.fr/recherche/recherche?search=third+ear+band&vue=Video
Any comments on this gem, especially in review format, will be welcomed here!

Glen Sweeney smoking in the dressing-room just after the concert.

no©2012 Luca 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)     

A new sensational retrieval: second part of the story of a rare 1970 TEB TV French broadcast hidden on the Web!!!

(Here's the second part of this new archaeological Web adventure  concerning the incredible retrival of a TEB rare broadcast - read the first part at http://ghettoraga.blogspot.it/2012/08/a-new-sensational-retrieval-story-in.html)

Miracle of the Net, Gérard Sayag of Inafr is the kind man that has helped me to reach the goal.

It's been him, approving my reasons to make the TEB video available "for the sake of the culture", to let me register at InaMediaPro and let me search the TEB broadcast discovering that... actually a broadcast exist!

Presented as "The THIRD EAR BAND interprets a piece of music "not Westerner" (vaguely oriental) with violin and oriental wind instrument", it's a 17:30 recording of the TEB in the legendary fabulous quartet (Sweeney, Minns, Coff and Smith) playing on May 1970 at the inn of Olympia (Paris) instrumental tracks "Hyde Park Raga" (7:01) and (I think - because, you know, sometimes it's not so easy to recognize the TEB tunes...) "Mosaic" (8:00).

An extraordinary sequence of  digitized images of the four musicians playing on stage at the apice of their interplay.

You can see below some shots I've excerpted from the broadcast, aired on May 28th, 1970 in "Pop Deux" French TV programme with the title of "Club evolution":

Unfortunately the broadcast is not available for downloading or for buying, but Gérard Sayag has promised me that very soon it will be available for free to everyone at the Inafr site (http://www.ina.fr/): as soon as possible I'll publish the right link here.

As you will certify, it is the best video performance known of the TEB, an essential document for the right comprehension of its exclusive parable. 

Thank you very much to Spirito Bono for having picked up the existence of this rare broadcast and, above all, Inafr/InaMediaPro staff (expecially Gérard Sayag) for having made possible this unexpected dream!

So, dear inveterate TEB fans, stay tuned here at the Ghetto Raga Archive!

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

A new sensational retrieval: story (in two parts) of a rare 1970 TEB TV French broadcast hidden on the Web!!!

Few days ago TEB fan and reader of this Archive Spirito Bono has written me about an important discover he made surfin' on the Web:

"TEB seems to have been featured on the french tv show Pop Deux on May, 28 1970 as stated here :

Descriptive Information
Ina Number: CPF86653646
Programme Title: KEVIN AYERS
Collection Title: POP DEUX
Credits: Blanc Francard, Patrice; Ayers, Kevin; Third Ear Band; Grumbach, Rémy; Dumay, Maurice
First broadcast Date: 28/05/1970
Running-time: 002930
Summary: Patrice BLANC FRANCARD presents this third edition (publishing) of the POP program (emission) 2.
- The BEATLES sings let it be (purchase).
- Clips (extracts) of Kevin AYERS's concert given to the Inn of the Olympia.
- Service (performance) scènique of THIRD EAR BAND.
Category Information
Type of Archive: non theme-based archive
Type of Collection: Production
Type of Documentary Note: Isolated note
Genre: Magazine
Themes: Variety shows
Production Information
Type of Production: Production propre
Broadcasting Information
First broadcast Date: 28/05/1970
Time of First Broadcast: 225200
Channel: 2nd channel
Channel Name: Office Radio Télévision France
Technical Information
Status of Equipment: digitised

Unfortunately, it is not available on INA.fr.

But maybe there's a way to ask for it if duly authorised :
"The service is intended for audiovisual professionals working on projects that incorporate Ina documents, and potential buyers or prescribers of operating rights. These professionals include: researchers, producers, journalists, authors, directors, broadcasters, programmers, and exhibition designers..."

See: http://www.inamediapro.com/".

So I have contacted the Inamedia site trying to register me with the aim to get the video, but they answered me this: 

"Dear Luca Ferrari, We are sorry to inform you that we cannot register you to use Inamediapro, as the website is reserved for professionals working in the audiovisual sector.
You may, however, register on our website designed for public use: www.ina.fr.
If you are a student, a researcher or teacher working on French radio and audiovisual heritage, and can show that your research project requires you to consult documents under French legal radio and television deposit, we would suggest you get in touch with Inathèque.
Best regards.
The Ina team "

Thus I've jumped to the ina.fr site (http://www.ina.fr/) to register me and verify if that programme is available, but unfortunately it's not. Probably it's non available anymore or it's never been available...

Could I give up to it and risk to leave this treasure buried there?

Keep in touch and you'll see it in the second part of this new Web adventure...

(end of part one - to be continued)

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

Again available for free download Roger Bunn's solo album!

Again available in the Net for free download (in the teeth of F.B.I.!) the great Roger Bunn's solo record "Piece of Mind" recorded in 1969 (Major Minor SMLP70, UK 1970). "A wonderful album", as famous DJ Pete Drummond said. "It's too musical and intelligent to succeed".

As everyone knows, Roger Bunn (1942-2005) was one of the three Giant Sun Trolley in 1966-1967, with founder Dave Tomlin and Glen Sweeney, but - as well documented at http://www.mensch.net/rogerbunn/ - he was much more: an intellectual, an agitator, a creative, original mind.

We like here to remember him.

                                                              One of the last photo of Roger Bunn.

You can download his record (in the good CD edition pubblished by Roller Coaster Records in 2005 with some bonus tracks) at the kaleidoscopic web site Plixid.com at:

http://plixid.com/2012/08/21/roger-bunn-piece-of-mind-19692005-mp3/

Anyway, you can buy a copy of the CD at:

https://www.rollercoasterrecords.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=2093&osCsid=dck5mo42fe5ti1tq0622i6ojn5 

                                                          Davey Graham and Roger Bunn live in 2000.

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