Monday, January 26, 2009

CASSIX-LIVE-19.10.83 + WORKSHOP 18.10.83, UNRELEASED, 1983, VAR.




Fascinating and, 'til now largely unavailable (save for a small portion of this material showing up on one side of a Re Records Quarterly), this R.I.O. supergroup comprised the entirety of Cassiber (ex-Henry Cow/Art Bears drummer Chris Cutler, ex-Toto Lotto NDW vocalist Christoph Anders plus German improv eccentrics Heiner Goebbels and Alfred Harth) alongside three members of Italian folk-prog-into-R.I.O. movers Stormy Six and proposed a sound with a distinct akin to the work Cutler would latterly get up to about 10 years on alongside fellow Italian R.I.O-er's La 1919. Iterating the particulars of this project and it's subsequent realization is however a task that I will leave in Cutler's able hands. Quote:

"I was in Henry Cow when we met Stormy Six and joined their co-operative 'L'Orchestra' in 1975. They became one of the 5 original RIO members in 1978. Soon after, Stormy Six were playing at the Festival of Political Songs in East Berlin where they met the Goebbels/Harth duo (who were presenting their Eisler programme there at the Academy of Art). In 1982, Cassiber was formed (comprising Heiner Geobbels, Alfred Harth, Christoph Anders and myself). And two years later, Franco Fabbri invited three of us (Heiner, Alfred and myself) to join three of Stormy Six (Umberto Fiori, Pino Martini and himself) to present a public workshop and recording project as part of Hans Werner Henze's 1984 Montepulciano Cantiere Internazionale D'Arte (the following year, as a direct result of this project, I was invited back to co-ordinate a young musicians project there). The idea was that the six musicians would divide into all possible pairs (15) and each duo would prepare or improvise a 3 or 4 minute piece which would then be recorded to 8 track tape. These recordings were subsequently to be treated as raw material for the whole ensemble to work on, using overdubs, editing, composing and processing, the goal being to produce from each beginning a fully fashioned recorded composition. On the last day, we had to perform these compositions, and others, in the town square. The workshop took place in the open courtyard of an old Castello where we worked for a week on the fifteen pieces. The process and the final pieces were all recorded for subsequent broadcast by RAI 3, Italian Radio. 7 of the pieces later appeared on the Re Records Quarterly Vol No.3. and 5 were reissued on the ReR Quarterly Collection, Volume 1 CD collection (ReR QCD1). "

Many thanks to an anonymous blog friend for contributing these...


Get Cassix-Live - 19.10.83 pt. 1 via Sharebee Here

Get Cassix-Live - 19.10.83 pt. 2 via Sharebee Here

Get Cassix-Live - 19.10.83 via Rapidshare Here

Get Workshop 18.10.83 pt. 1 via Sharebee Here

Get Workshop 18.10.83 pt. 2 via Sharebee Here

Get Workshop 18.10.83 via Rapidshare Here

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I hope you didn't receive these at 320 bitrate (or any other bitrate) and then transcode them down (or up) to 256 bitrate in iTunes.

Doing any of the above would degrade the original quality (even if the originals are a mere 128 bitrate).

The only way one can manipulate the sound of these successfully (without degrading the originals) is if the originals are Lossless.

Bottom line:

Turning FLAC to MP3 = good.
Turning an MP3 into a different bitrate of an already existing MP3 = bad.

Peace out!

baioso said...

Congratulations on an excellent and original recording.
Infinite thanks.
Ciao

wightdj said...

Nice find. Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Great stuff, of course.

I hope you could get any of the Cassiber live boots. There should be a few of these.

Saw some on a blog a time ago, but the dwnld links were dead and the blog was dysfunct.

Anonymous said...

I can never thank you enough for this one. A dream come true ! The complete Cassix concert is too good to be true. Didn't know it only existed.

Keep the good work. Your blog is one of the best.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the great work. You should be interested on this compilation that has been posted here :

http://www.guitars101.com/forums/f90/henry-cow-with-friends-and-family-1974-1999-a-78770.html

It features also some Cassix tracks, and many other...

Anonymous said...

After listening to this, and reading the notes, 2 questions come :

1) Is Christoph Anders (from Cassiber) singing on the live side ? There are clearly 2 voices. On the other hand, it would be strange for him participating to the concert and not to the workshop... Can someone confirm ?

2) The year of the project ? 1983 is the date we find on the ReR releases. But Cutler also writes "in 1982 Cassiber was formed... Two years later Franco Fabbri invited us..." (that would be 1984 ?) "...to present a project as part of Henze's 1984 Montepulciano Cantiere" !! Moreover, they play live many tracks that Cassiber did record on "Beauty and the beast" in April 1984...
So, was it 1983 or 1984 ?

Richard said...

Many thanks for this exceptional post.

praticaradical said...

Thanks a million for this Cassix, and after read the C.Cutler's briefing, I looking for the same answer for question of Anonimous, "was it 1983 or 1984?"

Congratulations for this amazing blog!

:)