ponedjeljak, 6. svibnja 2013.

Michael Ranta/Mike Lewis/Conny Plank - Mu (2011/1970)


Remekdjelo krautrock improvizacije, po mišljenju Stevena Stapletona (Nurse With Wound).

Minijatura

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XmuICXp8CM

"Previously unreleased studio material from 1970 recorded a few months after the legendary 'Wired' session. Hardboard linen CD box contains 2 CD's and a 28 page booklet with biography text and notes (in Dutch, German and English) from Michael Ranta. Edition of 500 copies. The only time this ensemble got together before was for the singular and legendary 'Wired' session recorded in 1970 and published on the Deutsche Grammophon box set 'Free Improvisation' in 1974. The Wired session also included Karl-Heinz Böttner while this release of 'Mu' just has the trio of Ranta, Lewis and Plank. Mu got recorded a few months after the 'Wired' session, in Plank's studio, but got never released strangely enough. Yet it's a true hidden treasure of marvellous minimal psychedelic improvisations with an oriental touch controlled and mixed by 'Diabolis in Musica' Conny Plank. Although the intense recording session ended early in the morning the mixdown was still done straight afterwards of which this is the direct result for Mu1, Mu2, and Mu4. For Mu3 Michael Ranta added live percussion to the original tape mix and dedicated it to Mike Lewis. Due to circumstances and moving to different continents they never had the chance to meet again. Michael Ranta : percussion, guitars and prepared thundersheet. Mike Lewis : keyboards, wind instruments and percussion. Conny Plank : live electronics, sound control, recording supervision, mix. What a stunning surprise discovery of this obscure ensemble with Michael Ranta, Mike Lewis and krautrock master Conny Plank. As on the legendary 'Wired' LP on the 'Free Improvisation' box set (Deutsche Grammophon 1974) they created an amazing free form abstraction, a floating resonant and timeless music, similar in many ways to the early experiments of Tangerine Dream but in a world of its own, in all their twisted exotic and melancholy beauty To be filed under classic krautrock, a masterpiece! (Steven Stapleton)" [label info] www.metaphon.be"Two great designed boxes for Belgium's Metaphon label, which once again delve the archives for some historically important music. The first one is a double CD recorded in 1970 by Michael Ranta, who plays here percussion, guitars and prepared thunder sheet, Mike Lewis on keyboards and Conny Plank on live electronics, sound recording and recording. This meeting was the last between the three, late December 1970, as all three were going in different directions. They recorded four pieces on magnetic tape, as a matter of improvisation and did straight after that a mix down. One piece, 'Mu III' was used in 1982 by Ranta for an extended performance, the other three pieces are presented as they were mixed in 1970. Ranta is a classically trained percussion player, who worked with Stockhausen among others, Lewis studied with Jozef Dvorak and Plank is of course best known as the man who recorded the first Kluster albums, but also Killing Joke, Ultravox and Eurythmics, and who sadly died in 1987.
Historically important music, surely. Excellent improvised music, totally free, but not wild or jazz like. Its more like being part of some kind of sound ritual, with great obscured sounds. Apart from the third part which has more obvious percussion parts by Ranta, the other pieces are more like clouds of sound, slow rumbling dark thunder that pass over your head. The earth is boiling, bubbling, slowly peacefully (deceivingly of course), like an earthquake to happen anytime soon. An excellent release." [FdW/Vital Weekly

Hailed as "a masterpiece" by Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton, 'Mu' was recorded at Conny Plank's studio only a few months after the legendary Wired session which ended up on Deutsche Grammofon's Free Improvisation boxset in 1974. Over the course of one night with Diabolis in Musica Conny Plank (Legendary Kraftwerk producer and notable electronic musician in his own right) at the desk, Michael Ranta, the noted percussionist and engineer for Harry Partch (and longtime collaborator of Jean Claude Eloy) sat down with Mike Lewis, a percussionist who studied under Josef Dvorak, to create a freeform sonic abstraction of sublimely minimal psychedelic improvisation. Limited only by the length of the tapes, they created the four sections of 'Mu' and mixed the whole album down the following morning, with Ranta later adding percussion to 'Mu III'. Their music is suspended in a timeless, spiritually resonant space, connecting threads and fragments of purely esoteric sonics into an organic matrix of otherworldly shapes and aural apparations, Plank using the studio as an instrument to the very extremes of possibility, imagination, and his own unquestionable talent. The results are genuinely breathtaking, delivering one of the most visceral, abstract and engrossing Krautrock experiences imaginable. Hugely recommended - an essential purchase. - boomkat

Wired:

Minijatura

Wired - Wired was the German third of the Free Improvisation boxed set (Deutsche Grammophon couldn't very well exclude their own countrymen) - a quartet comprising Harry Partch disciple Mike Ranta on percussion, guitarist Karl-Heinz Böttner on saiteninstrumente (stringed instruments), Mike Lewis on Hammond organ, and the aforementioned Conny Plank on klangregie (sound direction; this indicates the importance of the mixing desk in the session.)

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