FRED VAN HOVE/WOLFGANG DAUNER-REQUIEM FOR CHE GUEVARA.../PSALMUS SPEI FOR CHOIR AND JAZZ GROUP, LP, BELGIUM/GERMANY, 1969

A electrifying document of Europe's answer to the searching transcendence of New York's fire music/loft jazz scene, this astonishing split LP, one of Wolfgang Dauner's rarest, deserves your immediate attention. Though the front cover seems to indicate that Van Hove's Requiem comes first, it's legendary jazz keyboardist turned krautrock avatar (and NWW list artist) Dauner that leads things off here with a genuinely stunning recording that features the rhythm section of Eberhard Weber and Fred Braceful (both members of Dauner's later krautrock-oriented unit Et Cetera) abetted by Manfred Schoof on trumpet, Gerd Dudek on tenor sax, Jurgen Karg on bass and a full choir; the fusion of outwardly bound jazz ensemble and choir here affording the proceedings an abstruse and unsettling air of almost Igor Wakhevitch-like menace. Van Hove's Requiem (featuring the remarkable line-up of Van Hove on organ, Peter Kowald and Han Bennink holding down the rhythm section and a three-part sax section of Willem Breuker, Cel Overberghe and Kris Wanders) navigates a path through the sweet mournfulness of Ayler-esque funeral marching band stylizations with explosive depth charges of free action, thematically reconstituting itself before all parties involved run screaming toward a cathartic group action blast.

NOTE: blogger's formatting tools only allow titles of posts to be just so long, so I couldn't fit the full title of this LP in the header, which is as follows: FRED VAN HOVE/WOLFGANG DAUNER-REQUIEM FOR CHE GUEVARA, MARTIN LUTHER KING, JOHN F. AND ROBERT KENNEDY, MALCOLM X/PSALMUS SPEI FOR CHOIR AND JAZZ GROUP, LP, BELGIUM/GERMANY, 1969

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