VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR

here it is, the last podcast of 2022.  going with a personal favorite with WOLFGANG DAUNERS ET CETERA from 1971. this past year we went live in 51 countries with double our listenership. THANK YOU.  next year a new project deeply exploring some more wonderful art.  SMK

London 1971: With the revolution bungled, the snow raging and the sky losing height, paranoia and nasty tales abound. A new dark age has dawned and music from the underground takes on a cold and ominous flavour. The band Sandoz, a subterranean sensory assault, capture the prevailing consciousness as eloquently as any, also managing to draw a wry smile and the wink of an eye from the day-glo patchouli-scented corpse of the sixties as it is finally whisked off on an icy cosmic breeze... Named after the Swiss laboratories where LSD was first synthesized by Dr. Albert Hoffman, Sandoz barely surfaced for air, their only official appearance being a Sunday afternoon Greasy Truckers' bash at Group 64 in Putney. They were essentially rehearsal hermits, experimenting with, and whisking up, all manner of esoteric psychedelic ingredients into a dark mind-bending electric miasma of their own. Totally unhinged and eccentric, Sandoz acknowledge the influence of the good Captain and his mighty Magic Band (vocals through the Broughton filter!) the ultimate power trios of Hendrix and Cream, Amon Duul 1 1 (hallucinogens personified) and Miles Davis' trailblazing Bitches Brew. The three remarkable recordings presented here for the very first time (each of which clocks in at over eight minutes) is evidence of the fact that Sandoz were at least one step beyond most of their contemporaries, their musical hedonism, jammed with all manned of complex time-changes, intricate ensemble passages, blistering instrumental workouts, and polytonal counter-rhythmic weirdness, suddenly zooming off onto spectacular tangential trips..."

Formed in 1968 by Yutaka Higashi. Other founder members included Itsuroh Shimoda, Noriyoshi Saito, Noboru Mine, Yoko Kaji, and Yukiko Kobayashi. The group disbanded following Higashi's death in 2000.

The MUFFINS are Canterbury influenced quartet founded by Dave NEWHOUSE (keyboards, reeds), Billy SWAN (bass) and Michael ZENTNER (guitar, violin). The new group remains nameless until one day, while the trio are discussing upon potential names, a friend of there's enters the house and shouts "The muffins are here!" and conveying a tray of blueberry muffins, thus the band is born! A number of drummers are recruited off and on during the next few months. In the fall of 1974, reediest, Tom Scot joins The MUFFINS, moves in with band, starts to rehearse and Dave starts to compose new material. In the fall of 1975, drummer Stewart Abramowitz joins and the band starts recording demos in the studio and at home that would end up on the album released under Cuneiform label: "Chronometers". In the summer of 1976 after a few gigs, Michael and Stewart leave the band, leaving the group to become a trio. While they are a trio, they tour as in improvising group. In the fall of 1976, they met drummer Paul Sears at a gig. Paul was satisfied of what he heard and joined immediately, thus the setting of The MUFFINS popular era.

One of our earliest and more sought out episodes, the Oracle is a student of the KJ game and we get to chatting about this great piece of work.

Giannis Klearchou Xenakis (also spelled for professional purposes as Yannis or Iannis Xenakis; Greek: Γιάννης "Ιάννης" Κλέαρχου Ξενάκης, pronounced [ˈʝanis kseˈnacis]; 29 May 1922 – 4 February 2001) was a Romanian-born Greek-French avant-garde composer, music theorist, architect, performance director and engineer. After 1947, he fled Greece, becoming a naturalised citizen of France eighteen years later.[1] Xenakis pioneered the use of mathematical models in music such as applications of set theory, stochastic processes and game theory and was also an important influence on the development of electronic and computer music. He integrated music with architecture, designing music for pre-existing spaces, and designing spaces to be integrated with specific music compositions and performances.

SMK discussing the best in hard to find prog classics.

A team favorite from the SMK archives.

Winter Songs is the second album by English avant-rock group Art Bears. It was recorded at Sunrise Studio in Kirchberg, Switzerland between 22 November and 5 December 1978, and was released in 1979. It was Art Bears' first album to be recorded on their own, the bulk of their first album, Hopes and Fears (1978) having been recorded as Henry Cow.

Fort Yawuh is a jazz album by American pianist and composer Keith Jarrett. Originally released in 1973 by Impulse! Records, it marks the beginning of the label’s relationship with Jarrett.  Artist: Keith Jarrett Release date: 1973 Label: Impulse! Records Genre: Jazz