Evan Parker / Paul Lytton - Live at the Unity Temple

blawless · July-25th-2003, 01:32 PM

Evan Parker, Paul Lytton, Live at the Unity Temple (Psi)

Just got this and am very pleased. I've only started my explorations into early Parker, and the contrast between his playing here (from 1975) and his more recent stuff--where his unabated soprano curlicues can sometimes dominate--is striking. He seems so... fierce here, jabbing this way and that to shake every noise he can out of his horn and then send you scurrying after them. There's an odd moment on the first cut of the album where he happens on a little four-note figure, and then plays it again, and then again, and then wrings it out once again--it's odd because this just doesn't seem like the standard Parker improvising strategy so well codified now; it's both much more insistent and tentative, and hints a lot more directly at his jazz tastes and thinking, than what I, at least, have found later in his oeuvre. Against Parker's exhortations Lytton is wildly knocking and bashing about, always destabilizing the proceedings, but staying balanced, too. Paradoxical! And did I forget to mention that there is some proto-eai material on the album, where our guys incorporate tapes of past performances and electronics in the mix, along with made-up instruments like the "lyttonophone"? It doesn't sound at all hokey, nor even much dated, at least not to my not-yet-eai-jaded ears. So I'll probably listen to it again--and, darn it, in this day and age, isn't that more than enough to ask for?

shrugs · July-25th-2003, 09:23 PM

sounds interesting. Have you heard the Ogun lp's with John Stevens?

Nate Dorward · July-25th-2003, 09:24 PM

A quick question for you or other Parker/Lytton fans--how does the disc compare with the other released material from the 1970s by this duet (Emanem has put out a few discs)? I haven't heard any of this material, & probably should.

Dan G · July-25th-2003, 10:51 PM

I have the two Parker/Lytton discs on Emanem, and the two new reissues on Psi. For some reason, the two Emanems have never blown me away - I gave them a couple of listens when I got them, and went back to them occassionally, but not pulled them off the shelf in maybe three years.

Then I get these two, and am dazzled by them. Whether the music is that much better, or something about me has changed which is possible (though I wasn't new to Parker when I got them - I thik I first heard him about 1990). But hearing Unity Temple and Collective Calls recently has me eager for my holidays next month so I have time for some serious reevaluation of 2 Octobers and Three Other Stories.

These discs, as well as the recently reissued Death is Our Eternal Friend, by Lytton, Lovens, and Kondo, have also helped me make a bit more sense of the Lytton/Lovens records on PoTorch. I think having only previously heard Lytton in the Parker trio, where he is very much a "drummer" left me a bit confused with those records.

As for a comparison to the duoes with John Stevens on Ogun - I've only heard the one available on CD, Corner to Corner, and they are not at all alike. Lytton isn't really a "drummer" on these, in the way that Stevens usually was, but more using the drums and other things as sound generators.

shrugs · July-25th-2003, 10:55 PM

thanks for the insight on that!

Have you heard the Schlipp/Lovens on Po torch?
Stranger Than Love

Dan G · July-25th-2003, 11:06 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shrugs
thanks for the insight on that!

Have you heard the Schlipp/Lovens on Po torch?
Stranger Than Love

Yeah, but only once or twice (of course, I don't get a chance to listen to much more than that). I liked it, but it didn't blow me away like some other Schlippenbach. But overall I don't think Schlippenbach can do anything wrong - I'd put him near the top of my favorite list.

shrugs · July-25th-2003, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Dan G
Yeah, but only once or twice (of course, I don't get a chance to listen to much more than that). I liked it, but it didn't blow me away like some other Schlippenbach. But overall I don't think Schlippenbach can do anything wrong - I'd put him near the top of my favorite list.

It's a sit down with a glass of whatever pleases you type of lp. A little rough on the senses........////......./////.................

frankpop1 · July-26th-2003, 02:08 PM

i havent heard 'unity' or the emanems, tho i have the moers cd 'ra' and i am rather intrigued with this recording. this pairing seems to demonstrate a clear break from new music on the otherside of the pond and is a fresh sounding as ever and covers a plethora of sound.

at the end of the recording, parker realizes an '... unabated soprano curlicues can sometimes dominate--is striking.' in this instance lytton softens & underscores his retort. however, the cd opens with lytton scrambling around into a percussive cacophony with a smidgeon of electronics, while parker remains sparce. the tone appears established for the evening of spontaneous explosions similar to what blawless describes. again, parker responds with an intense upper registar circular breathing that lytton punctuates with electronic bird sounds. the exchange is on.

my favorite part soon follows with voice that may be a recording of a deep lower register throat singer or manipulation of a voice by some means. the 2nd cut gets funnier and frolics off to bashing percussive exchange.

Martin · July-27th-2003, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by frankpop1
i havent heard 'unity' or the emanems, tho i have the moers cd 'ra' and i am rather intrigued with this recording.

frankpop1,

"Ra" is out on CD??? Please provide some details. Have Moers Music themselves re-released their LP in CD format? As far as I thought to know, Moers Music ain't active as a record label anymore, but I may have been wrong.

frankpop1 · July-27th-2003, 10:56 AM

my copy was on an old LP, sorry, bad habit. i just wasnt clear. altho i think another company released it on cd called, ring records, tho it may be oop.

Dan G · July-27th-2003, 02:09 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by frankpop1
my copy was on an old LP, sorry, bad habit. i just wasnt clear. altho i think another company released it on cd called, ring records, tho it may be oop.

Ring released it on LP, probably simultaneously with Moers, but I don't think it has ever come out on CD. I haven't heard of any CDs on Ring, though Moers seems to have done quite a few.

I've yet to figure out the relationship between the two labels. My vinyl copy of the Braxton Creative Orchestra 2 LP set from 1972 has a Ring logo on the box and the labels of one disc, while the other discs are Moers labels. Not sure if a previous owner did a mix and match or what happened.

Martin · July-27th-2003, 05:52 PM

Ring and Moers Music are the same label. Sometime in the 1970s, they were banned to use the name "Ring" any longer, since another already existing Ring label vetoed against Burkhard Hennen using the name for his label.

Dan, you seemingly are talking about the Creative Orchestra 3 (not 2) LP set. My LP collection comprises two more examples: On the Braxton Quartet's "Live At Moers Festival", it is Ring on the cover and Moers Music on the labels. On "Ra", it is the other way round. No one else than the Moers folks themselves mixed up things according to availability of covers and vinyl copies.

MRS · July-29th-2003, 10:46 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by shrugs
It's a sit down with a glass of whatever pleases you type of lp. A little rough on the senses........////......./////.................

. . .exactly why "Digger's Harvest" is one of my favorite recordings in the idiom.

baksheesh · November-11th-2009, 05:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dan G

But overall I don't think Schlippenbach can do anything wrong - I'd put him near the top of my favorite list.

**CLASP**