KEITH TIPPETT'S ARK ‎— Frames (Music for an Imaginary Film) (1978-1996) RM | 2CD | FLAC (tracks+.cue), lossless

A tour-de-force project with Ark Big Band, strings, horns, and vocals. Michael G. Nastos
Tracklist :
1-1    Frames Part 1    20:07
1-2    Frames Part 2    19:06
2-1    Frames Part 3    23:52
2-2    Frames Part 4    20:37
Credits :
Alto Saxophone, Saxello – Elton Dean
Alto Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone – Trevor Watts
Bass – Harry Miller
Bass, Tuba – Peter Kowald
Cello – Alexandra Robinson, Tim Kramer
Drums – Louis Moholo
Lyrics By – Julie Tippetts
Percussion – Frank Perry
Piano – Stan Tracey
Piano, Harmonium, Composed By, Arranged By, Directed By – Keith Tippett
Soprano Saxophone, Tenor Saxophone, Alto Flute – Brian Smith
Tenor Saxophone, Flute – Larry Stabbins
Trombone – Dave Amis, Nick Evans
Trumpet – Henry Lowther
Trumpet, Trumpet [Small Trumpet], Tenor Horn, Thumb Piano [Kenyan Thumb Piano] – Marc Charig
Violin – Geoffry Wharton, Rod Skeaping, Steve Levine
Violin, Electric Violin – Phil Wachsmann
Voice – Julie Tippetts, Maggie Nicols

KING CRIMSON — Lizard (1970) Two Version (1988, Virgin Japan, VJD-28019 | Serie Big Artist Collection) + (2009, UK, Discipline Global Mobile, KCSP3 | RM | King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

Released in December 1970, King Crimson's third studio album, Lizard, is often viewed as an outlier in the pioneering British prog outfit's nearly half-century discography. It's not easily grouped with 1969's stunning In the Court of the Crimson King debut and 1970 follow-up In the Wake of Poseidon, and along with 1971's Islands it's considered a transitional release on the band's path toward the relative stability of the Larks' Tongues in Aspic (1973), Starless and Bible Black (1974), and Red (1974) trilogy. Plus, the Lizard sessions were difficult and the core group lineup acrimoniously collapsed immediately afterward, as bandleader/guitarist Robert Fripp, with lyricist Peter Sinfield, continued brave efforts to save King Crimson from disintegrating as the group's lengthy history was just getting underway. Even Fripp himself wasn't a big Lizard fan until he reportedly "heard the Music in the music" when listening to Steven Wilson's 2009 40th anniversary remix. Yet there are plenty of Crimson followers who place Lizard at the very apex of the group's recorded legacy -- and with good reason. Seamlessly blending rock, jazz, and classical in a way that few albums have successfully achieved, Lizard is epic, intimate, cacophonic, and subtle by turn -- and infused with the dark moods first heard when "21st Century Schizoid Man" and "Epitaph" reached listeners' ears the previous year.

Opener "Cirkus" is a cavalcade of menace, with vocalist Gordon Haskell intoning or declaiming Sinfield's phantasmagorical words over a kaleidoscopic musical backdrop, the song's ripping buzzsaw refrain alternating with warped funhouse jazz prominently featuring keyboardist Keith Tippett and saxophonist Mel Collins. "Indoor Games" is comparatively whimsical, with Collins' blurty sax almost comically up-front in the mix and crisp ensemble interplay in the middle section, while the singsongy "Happy Family" finds Sinfield's lyrics obliquely addressing the Beatles' breakup and "Lady of the Dancing Water" revisits the gentle terrain of "I Talk to the Wind" and "Cadence and Cascade." But the side-long multi-part title suite astounds the most. Guest Jon Anderson's choirboy vocals open "Lizard" with a feint toward the light and airy, but Haskell's brassy chorus suggests ritualistic precursors to dark goings-on. The suite then enters its "Bolero" movement, marked by Robin Miller's beautiful oboe and Fripp's swelling Mellotron, with a jazz interlude showcasing Collins, cornetist Mark Charig, trombonist Nick Evans, and a jagged and explosive Tippett, collectively free and even ebullient in their interplay but never fully breaking away from drummer Andy McCulloch's background rat-a-tat snare that foreshadows the howling maelstrom of "The Battle of Glass Tears." After the smoke clears, Fripp's sustained guitar notes cut through the funereal aftermath, dissolving into silence before the swirling "Big Top" coda brings the album full circle, suggesting Lizard's dark journey on an endless loop accelerating into the future. In 2016, lineup changes made it possible to include selections from this album in King Crimson's career-spanning live concerts, and with all the spectacular music on display, more than one audience member could be heard saying, "I came for Lizard." Dave Lynch
Tracklist :
1    Cirkus (Including Entry Of The Chameleons)    6:29
2    Indoor Games    5:40
3    Happy Family    4:24
4    Lady Of The Dancing Water    2:44
    Lizard    (23:23)
5.a    Prince Rupert Awakes
Vocals – Jon Anderson
5.b    Bolero - The Peacock's Tale    
5.c    The Battle Of Glass Tears (Including Dawn Song, Last Skirmish, Prince Rupert's Lament)    
5.d    Big Top    
Credits :
Bass Guitar, Vocals – Gordon Haskell
Cornet – Mark Charig
Drums – Andy McCulloch
Flute, Saxophone [Saxes] – Mel Collins
Guitar, Mellotron, Keyboards [Electric], Electronics [Devices] – Robert Fripp
Oboe, English Horn [Cor Anglais] – Robin Miller
Piano, Electric Piano – Keith Tippet
Producer, Written-By – Peter Sinfield, Robert Fripp
Trombone – Nick Evans
Artwork [Sleeve Conception], Written-By [Words And Pictures] – Peter Sinfield

KING CRIMSON — Islands (1971) Two Version (1988, Virgin Japan – VJD-28020 | Serie Big Artist Collection) + (2010, RM | King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

The weakest Crimson studio album from their first era is only a real disappointment in relation to the extraordinarily high quality of the group's earlier efforts. The songs are somewhat uneven and draw from three years of inspiration. "The Letter" is an adaptation of "Drop In," a group composition that was featured in the early set of the original Crimson lineup from 1969, while "Song of the Gulls" goes back to the pre-King Crimson trio of Giles, Giles & Fripp for its source ("Suite No. 1"). There are also a few surprises, such as the Beatles-like harmonies on the raunchy "Ladies of the Road" and the extraordinary interweaving of electric guitar and Mellotron by Robert Fripp on "A Sailor's Tale, which is one of the highlights of the early- to mid-period group's output. Some of the music overstays its welcome -- several of the six tracks are extended too far, out of the need to fill up an LP -- but the virtuosity of the band picks up most of the slack on the composition side: Collins' saxes and Wallace's drums keep things much more than interesting in tandem with Fripp's guitar and Mellotron, and guest vocalist Paulina Lucas' keening accompaniment carries parts of "Formentera Lady" that might otherwise have dragged. Bruce Eder
Tracklist :
1. Formentera Lady (10:14)
2. Sailor's Tale (7:21)
3. The Letters (4:26)
4. Ladies Of The Road (5:28)
5. Prelude: Song Of The Gulls (4:14)
6. Islands (11:51)
Credits :
Robert Fripp - Gguitar, Mellotron, Peter's Pedal Harmonium
and sundry implements
Mel Collins - Flute, Bass flute, Saxes and Vocals
Boz Burrell - Bass Guitar, Lead Vocals and Choreography
Ian Wallace - Drums, Percussion and Vocals
Peter Sinfield - Words, Sounds and Visions
With :
Keith Tippet - Piano, Paulina Lucas - Soprano, Robin Miller - Oboe, Mark Charig - Cornet, Harry Miller - String Bass

KING CRIMSON — Red (1981) Four Version (1987, Japan EMI-Toshiba, 32VD-1086) + (1988, Serie Big Artist Collection | Japan, Virgin, VJD-28021) + (1990, RM | Serie The Definitive Edition | Japan, Virgin, VJCP-2307) + (2013, USA | RM | 2CD | Serie King Crimson 40th Anniversary Series) FLAC (image+.cue), lossless

King Crimson fell apart once more, seemingly for the last time, as David Cross walked away during the making of this album. It became Robert Fripp's last thoughts on this version of the band, a bit noiser overall but with some surprising sounds featured, mostly out of the group's past – Mel Collins' and Ian McDonald's saxes, Marc Charig's cornet, and Robin Miller's oboe, thus providing a glimpse of what the 1972-era King Crimson might've sounded like handling the later group's repertory (which nearly happened). Indeed, Charig's cornet gets just about the best showcase it ever had on a King Crimson album, and the truth is that few intact groups could have gotten an album as good as Red together. The fact that it was put together by a band in its death throes makes it all the more impressive an achievement. Indeed, Red does improve in some respects on certain aspects of the previous album – including "Starless," a cousin to the prior album's title track – and only the lower quality of the vocal compositions keeps this from being as strongly recommended as its two predecessors. Bruce Eder
Tracklist :
1. Red (6:17)
2. Fallen Angel (6:03)
3. One More Red Nightmare (7:10)
4. Providence (8:10)
5. Starless (12:17)
Credits :
Alto Saxophone – Ian McDonald
Bass, Vocals – John Wetton
Cornet – Marc Charig
Guitar, Mellotron – Robert Fripp
Oboe – Robin Miller
Percussion [Percussives] – William Bruford
Soprano Saxophone – Mel Collins
Violin – David Cross

BARRY GUY | ANTHONY BRAXTON & THE LONDON JAZZ COMPOSER'S ORCHESTRA — Zurich Concerts (1988-1995) 2CD | FLAC (tracks), lossless

This double-CD outing of Barry Guy's London Jazz Composers' Orchestra features two compositions, one by Guy, which takes up disc one -- he also conducts and plays bass on it. The other disc is taken up with four works by Anthony Braxton with sundry others from his book augmenting them, as is his wont. Braxton directs but does not play on his own pieces. First up is the nearly 40-minute work by Guy, beginning with Steve Wick's tuba calling out a melodic frame for the rest of the band -- which includes but is not limited to Evan Parker, Trevor Watts, Phil Wachsman, Barre Phillips, Dave Holland, Paul Lytton, Tony Oxley, Radu Malfatti, Jon Corbett, and Paul Dunmall. There are 19 players in all. What is most notable about Guy's "Polyhymnia" is its insistence on the ostinato and elongation of tonal sequences that often move far beyond the duration of modes and intervals. These tonal sequences can be comprised of any number of instruments at a given time, and are charted only to follow the director's feeling for dynamic and duration. Their dramatalurgical and linguistic individuations are free for the manipulation by the given player. There are certainly crescendos over this long stretch, but more importantly there are silences that equate one instrument with another tonally -- especially microtonally -- rather than pit them against each other. Give a listen to the way the basses engage the tuba and the violin in intricate patterns of exchange and elucidation and you'll get the heart of the entire piece. And it has considerable heart. On Braxton's works, dynamic and drama are the order of the day. As is usual with a large group, he begins very quietly, establishing the tonal color palette at his disposal, and for the edification of the audience. He moves through the band in sections, directing them to utterance in small, parsed phrases before opening up the entire orchestra to a wellspring of sonic inquiry. The questioning happens on the level of linguistic possibility: How much can a group of instruments speak in unified freedom to one another without falling off into the abyss of ego and riffing? For nearly an hour, Braxton examines inside and outside the context of group interplay, how micro and polytonal universes examine and explain one another in the context of a musician's attack and phrasing as well as his improvisational ideas. In this sense, this is among Braxton's most fascinating larger-ensemble works, and will hopefully be one of his most enduring. Indeed, the attendees at these Zurich concerts were treated to the most intimate and prophetic of expressions in these two evenings. They were also given evidence of the very ground on which free improvisation and new composition stand linked to one another.
-> This comment is posted on Allmusic by Thom Jurek, follower of our blog 'O Púbis da Rosa' <-
Tracklist :
1-1    Polyhymnia 37:30
Composed By, Directed By [Director] – Barry Guy
2-1    Compositions 135 (+41,63,96), 136 (+96), 108B (+86,96),135 (+96) 56:47
Composed By, Directed By [Director] – Anthony Braxton
Credits :
Bass – Barre Phillips (pistas: 1-1), Barry Guy, Dave Holland (pistas: 2-1)
Cornet – Marc Charig
Drums – Paul Lytton, Tony Oxley (pistas: 2-1)
Piano – Howard Riley
Reeds – Evan Parker, Paul Dunmall, Peter McPhail, Simon Picard, Trevor Watts
Trombone – Alan Tomlinson, Paul Rutherford, Radu Malfatti
Trumpet – Henry Lowther, Jon Corbett
Tuba – Steve Wick
Violin, Electronics – Phil Wachsmann