Sunday, January 21, 2007

Association P.C.-Erna Morena, LP 1973(Live recorded in 1972,NWW list!)





Association P. C. recorded the five albums , yet remain virtually unknown. The fact is that there was never much prospect of hearing the milkman whistling a cheery little number by Association P. C., given that they set out expressly to "transcend the boundaries of traditional forms" of music. This they did with considerable accomplishment, involving the talents at various times of some of Europe's best new jazz musicians:
drummer Pierre Courbois
bassists Siggi Busch and Peter Krijnen
guitarist Toto Blanke
keyboard players Joachim Kühn and Jasper van 't Hof
saxman Karl-Heinz Wiberny
and last, but by no stretch of the imagination least flautist sans pareil Jeremy Steig,
while coming up with an unexpected treat late in the 1990sin the company of veteran saxophonist Lol Coxhill.

"Erna Morena" is one of the two live recordings released by the band, and that was very much in keeping with what they were doing. I was fortunate enough to catch them at a gig at Brighton College of Art on England's south coast. My memory tells me that this would have been around the time when "Erna Morena" was recorded in Freiburg - April 25, 1972. Unfortunately for what it says about my memory, they were joined on the occasion of my attendance by a young flute player, Jeremy Steig, who was already building a reputation as one of his generation's shining stars and has since become a leading and widely- recorded jazz improviser. Officially, Steig and the band came together rather later than that, so this period is still a little hazy for me. I know, that's what they all say...
From the liner notes: "The term "free"", in the context of "freeform music", "after being used in the 60s mainly to mean "beyond tonality, melody and metre"...now stands for an entirely new quality of musical freedom in the music of Association P.C....it signifies really sovereign mastery over all musical areas." Judging by what I saw, I have no grounds to dispute that statement.
Toto Blanke (guitar)
Jasper van 't Hof (electric piano, organ)
Siggi Busch (bass, electric bass)
Pierre Courbois (drums)
Karl-Heinz Wiberny (guest) (alto clarinet, alto and tenor saxophones)

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Always grateful for more NWW. How about the elusive "Sun Rotation." Great site; it is now bookmarked as check daily.

mutantsounds said...

sun rotation comes tomorroe ...along with many others from NWW list

Beathoven said...

Hi

Stumbling trough the Internet landscape and wandering beside the information highway I came past your blog.And what a blog it is?
Every single post is a gem.I especially cherished the post of an album I've been looking for for ages.
"Dancing did" is the one I'm reffering to.Also the "Unzipping the abstract"-album got my attention because of a track by God's Gift.
You would make my toes curl if you have the Minimal Man albums.
Do you??
Anyway, great blog.
Greetz from Belgium.

mutantsounds said...

i will but requests are so many that you have to wait about 3 or for days...

SOTISE said...

i too would like to submit, a request,for the 'unexpected treat from the 90's, mentioned in your post which features lol coxhill he and pierre courbois ,were old friends who had recorded several times.
association pc ,have been quite a revelation,thanks for this and many other realms that you guys have exposed us to, all the french stuff especialy has been a real treat, i cant stop listening to axolotl as fine a free improv disc,as any thing , yet so little known.

Anonymous said...

http://www.promising-music.com/ is now re-releasing some of their albums.
You can wish which albums from the entire MPS catalogue you would like to see again on CD.

Anonymous said...

Hi there.
Thank you very much for this one.
Can you post please, Rock around the
cock?
Greetings from Greece.

Konstantinos

vdoandsound said...

konstantinos-it's already posted here:

http://mps-love.blogspot.com/2008/06/15399-association-pc-rock-around-clock.html

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the Association PC/'Erna Morena' album. Had almost forgotten of its existence. A blast from the past.

Roddus said...

Just listening to track one of this as I type and this is excellent jazz, very funky too. I am looking forward to checking out much more of the NWW list posts you have here.
Thank you.

jim said...

I know I'm way late but I was wondering if you have any plans in regards to reposting ERNA MORENA. If not I would like to make a request PLEASE & THANK YOU! Did you ever post ROTATING SUN I don't see it. Anyway thanks for all the music. Jim