Wednesday, January 24, 2007

Ovary Lodge-st,LP ,1973 (NWW list!)


Keith Tippett, Piano (Zither on "Tropic of Capricorn")
Roy Babbington, Bass
Frank Perry, Percussion (Piano Interior on "Tropic of Capricorn")
"The sounds are acoustic, no electronics are involved" Robert Fripp
"All music on this album is improvised" Keith Tippet
These two deceptively simple quotes might actually better describe the music on this than any review I could muster up but I'll give it a whirl. This is free jazz as good as it gets, noisy, obnoxious and very experimental. I guess after the Centipede project, Keith Tippett had a yearning for a much smaller unit to work with. Well, what this trio lacks in personnel, it makes up for in the vast array of sounds that it produced. Ovary Lodge...ok you can get the giggling out of the way now...is an album of epic proportions and I'm very surprised I had never heard anything about it before purchasing it. Those who dig Tippett's work on King Crimson's "Cat Food" and the Lizard album will surely want to add this gem to their collection.
The first few moments of "First Born" give you the notion right away that this is going to be an unusual journey. Keith's wild abstract playing combines with Frank Perry's relentless hit-as-many-things-as-you-can-in-one-beat style, add to that Babbington's freaky bowed bass lines and you have a recipe for musical insanity to put it mildly. Things don't let up at all throughout piece either. Hold on folks, this is only the beginning!
The second track, "Mountain Temple in Spring", is a much more laid back excursion with lots of atmospheric percussion noises along with a good deal of experimental grinding, scraping and bowing of things. It may sound like it could be annoying, but the sounds are basically kept to a quiet level. Actually it reminds me of the "Dream" section in "Moonchild" from In the Court of the Crimson King with lots more stuff thrown in. Fripp's quote rings true in that there are some very "electronic" sounds here.
On "Tropic of Capricorn", Frank climbs into the piano and starts banging on things while accompanied by Keith's absolutely dreadful sounding zither. The next two tracks are piano solos. I guess Perry got kicked out of the piano and Keith decided to do a few on his own. "Come On In" and "Nursery Rhyme" are a couple short but very busy pieces of piano absurdity.
The albums closing number "Sylphs in Pisces" shows the trio stretching very far out into that musical nirvana that only occurs very rarely with great improvisation from very skilled players. This is Sun Ra territory guys! I swear Fripp and Crimson got the inspiration for THRaKaTTaK from this one. And many of you know how much I like that one. ;~)
I guess it should go without saying that this should be approached with an open mind.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

this is great stuff!! many never-dreamt of treasures - I thank you for this opportunity

Anonymous said...

Thank you...long searched...but now found!

Anonymous said...

Thank you very much for sharing!!! Awesome stuff!

Anonymous said...

thanx from urkenny