I was checking my collection of Actuel rereleases today and was wondering how many of them have been released now on Fuel and Sunspots and whatever other configurations Charly invented. I have the first Braxton, the first Silva, the two Art Ensemble's, Sun Ra, Don Cherry, the two Archie Shepps, Sunny Murray, and Sonny Sharrock, as well as the box set. How many others have been released? Where is the cheapest place to get them? What are your favorites? I badly want the David Burrell, but preferably for less than 20 bucks. Thanks. -- No one wants to be the first to arrive at a party, right? Well there's no danger of being the first to join the 'Big Noise' petition to make trade fair - Archbishop Desmond Tutu just became the one millionth person to demand fairer trade rules by signing up. You can join the petition now by visiting the Make Trade Fair website at: http://www.maketradefair.com/go/join/?p=ome1
Bill: I compiled this last year for a discussion board to which I post, and just did a quick update. This includes every BYG-related CD release I've seen so far, from Charly, Fuel 2000 and Sunspots. I've bought about half of them, and the sound quality is generally acceptable to very good; the Charly and Fuel 2000 transfers in general are better than the Sunspots, but the latter features the nice mini-CD packaging. It appears (and someone correct me if I'm wrong) that Charly and Fuel 2000 have released these with new, (mostly) serial "Actuel" numbers (the digit in the square on the front cover), with one glaring error -- number 6 was used twice -- while Sunspots is using the original numbers from the LPs. Here's a list of everything I'm aware of, in Actuel-numerical order and with the reissue catalog number in parentheses. All are single discs except as indicated. As for availability, the Fuel 2000 releases are probably cheapest at a mass-market retailer like Amazon (since Fuel 2000 is a branch of Varese Sarabande, distributed by Universal); the Sunspots issues are available for $17 at Forced Exposure and might be a bit less at DMG. Steve Smith ssmith36@sprynet.com NP - :zoviet*france:, "Reson Deaw Gwalch," 'Loh Land' (Staaltape) === CHARLY 0 - Various Artists - JazzActuel (Charly SNAJ 707, 3CD) CHARLY / FUEL 2000 1 - Don Cherry - "Mu," First and Second Parts (Charly SNAP 067; also Fuel 2000 302-061-147-2) 2 - Archie Shepp - Blase/Live at the Pan-African Festival (Charly SNAF 819, 2CD; also Fuel 2000 302-061-156-2) 3 - Art Ensemble of Chicago - A Jackson in Your House/Message to Our Folks (Charly SNAP 066; also Fuel 2000 302-061-146-2) 4 - Sun Ra - The Solar-Myth Approach, Vol. 1 & 2 (Charly SNAF 818, 2CD; also Fuel 2000 302-061-159-2) FUEL 2000 5 - Dewey Redman - Tarik (Fuel 2000 302-061-175-2) 6 - Gato Barbieri/Dollar Brand - Hamba Khale! (Fuel 2000 302-061-187-2) 6 - Anthony Braxton - [diagram title] (Fuel 2000 302-061-212-2) 7 - Sunny Murray - Sunshine & An Even Break (Never Give a Sucker) (Fuel 2000 302-061-215-2) 8 - Art Ensemble of Chicago - Reese and the Smooth Ones (Fuel 2000 302-061-247-2) 9 - Archie Shepp and the Full Moon Ensemble - Live in Antibes, Volumes 1 & 2 (Fuel 2000 302-061-255-2) SUNSPOTS 1 - Don Cherry - "Mu," First Part (Sunspots SPOT 515) 4 - Archie Shepp - Yasmina, A Black Woman (Sunspots SPOT 519) 12 - Alan Silva and the Celestial Communication Orchestra - Luna Surface (Sunspots SPOT 539) 13 - Paul Bley - Ramblin' (Sunspots SPOT 528) 19 - Jacques Coursil - Way Ahead (Sunspots SPOT 535) 20 - Dave Burrell - Echo (Sunspots SPOT 525) 29 - Art Ensemble of Chicago - Reese and the Smooth Ones (Sunspots SPOT 510) 32 - Sunny Murray - An Even Break (Sunspots SPOT 540) 37 - Sonny Sharrock - Monkey-Pockie-Boo (Sunspots SPOT 504) 38 - Archie Shepp and the Full Moon Ensemble - Live in Antibes, Vol. 1 (Sunspots SPOT 534) 39 - Archie Shepp and the Full Moon Ensemble - Live in Antibes, Vol. 2 (Sunspots SPOT 538) 40 - Sun Ra - The Solar-Myth Approach, Vol. 1 (Sunspots SPOT 509) 41 - Sun Ra - The Solar-Myth Approach, Vol. 2 (Sunspots SPOT 520) 42-43-44 - Alan Silva - And the Celestial Communication Orchestra [a.k.a. Seasons] (Sunspots SPOT 505, 2CD) 47 - Anthony Braxton- This Time (Sunspots SPOT 533) 48 - Sunny Murray - Sunshine (Sunspots SPOT 530) 52 - Steve Lacy - Moon (Sunspots SPOT 529)
Here are a few others from Forced Exposure released by Spalax. How are the Musica Elettronica Viva recordings? Artist: MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA Title: Leave The City Label: SPALAX (FRANCE) Format: CD Price: $16.00 Catalog #: SPA 14968 Spalax have created a subsidiary label (Spalax2) which will be dedicated to the Actuel collection of music, as originally issued by the BYG label out of France. "Musica Elettronica Viva or MEV as they're sometimes called, were founded by Ivan Coaquette (pre-Spacecraft), and also included his wife, Patricia and Birgit Knabe, as well as various other collaborators along the way. The music we find here is an extremely experimental form of electronic jazz which is not a million miles away from the styles of early German Krautrock bands such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream. Originally issued in 1970." This was the second of 2 MEV albums to released by BYG in 1970, following The Sound Pool (which featured Alvin Curran, Richard Teitelbaum & Frederic Rzewsi amongst others). It features floating, droning free music freakouts of the finest cosmic quality and this reissue is a major event by any sensible standard. A note of explanation from Frederic Rzewski about the various incarnations of MEV: "In 1968/69 MEV experimented with audience participation and took on a number of new younger people, many of whom were not musicians. We wanted to see how far we could extend the idea of free improvisation, surrounding the core group with people who happened to be around. The group expanded and spawned separate communities. In the early 70's there were three MEV's: one in Rome, led by Alvin Curran; one in New York, where Richard Teitelbaum & I were based; and one in Paris, which was organized by the Coaquettes. Birgit nd Nona were members of the Living Theatre, with whom we also hung out a ot, and Stefano was one of the younger acolytes. The record you are talking about was a kind of hippie child who chose MEV as its identity. Nobody ever found out really who was in MEV. At that time, it was part of a movement, and that part of it that was a part of the movement lived and died with that movement." Artist: MUSICA ELETTRONICA VIVA Title: The Sound Pool Label: SPALAX (FRANCE) Format: CD Price: $16.00 Catalog #: SPA 14969 Reissue of the other MEV album on BYG, their first for the label, originally issued in France in1969 and a very desirable item for quite some time. A live recording from May of 1969 featuring a free-form ensemble of: Constance Abernathy, Michel Asso, Bert, Michael Blake, Barbara Bryant, Carius, Franco Cataldi, Ivan & Patricia Coaquette, Alvin Curran, Chaia Gerstein, Jeff Levine, Jean-Marie Poiret, Frédéric & Nicole Rzewski, Richard Teitelbaum, and the audience. A screaming maelstrom of freedom blare, raw and relentless. Rattled percussion, reed blattage all over the place and total sonic pandemonium are just some of the features on this historic avant-noise document. [The sleeve incorrectly lists just 2 tracks with a lenght of about 12 minutes; it's really 4 tracks at about 41 minutes.] Artist: GONG Title: Magick Brother Label: SPALAX (FRANCE) Format: CD Price: $16.00 Catalog #: SPA 14812 Recorded in 1969 and originally released on the legendary French BYG label, this CD reissue beautifully replicates the original's artwork on a nice fold-out digipak and thankfully rescues this work into public visibility. Led by Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth, Gong's debut album presented their spiked vision of "The Kingdom of the Pothead Pixies" into truly illustrious fashion. The spiritual heirs to the fractured throne of Syd's Pink Floyd, this is space-whisper genius from the peak days of the psychedelic dream Artist: AME SON Title: Catalyse Label: SPALAX (FRANCE) Format: CD Price: $16.00 Catalog #: SPA 14823 Reissue of the original 1970 album on the BYG label (one of the label's few entries in the rock field), and a classic period piece, like Gong at their heaviest. "Ame Son is the pioneer group of French Underground born at the end of the 60s. The band is made up to two former members of Banana Moon, Daevid Allen's band on his arrival in France in 1967. Their music was harsh and scathing with vocals in both French & English, sometime with an outside layer of 'formal beauty', rapidly devastated by strident, unnerving guitar distortions and enraged flute sounds." Artist: FREEDOM Title: Freedom At Last Label: SPALAX (FRANCE) Format: CD Price: $16.00 Catalog #: SPA 14927 1969 bluesy hard rock guitar trio, originally issued on BYG (one of the few "rock" albums in the original Actuel series). Rather bland. I was also rather intrigued by this one. Any comments: Artist: VA Title: 1968-1998: 30 Years of Musical Insurrection in France Label: SPALAX (FRANCE) Format: 3CD Price: $50.00 Catalog #: SPA 14711 A three CD box with excellent 56 page booklet dedicated to the music of France that was initially fueled by the Revolt of '68, with one CD dedicated to each decade since. Some material is commonly available, much of it is not; the first CD covers the seventies (1969-77) and features some pretty mind-blowing stuff from the peak years of free-rock cacophony. The 1st CD features the following (an * indicates previously unreleased material, or least unavailable on CD): Jacques Dudon (*, classic freak out guitar mania from '69), Red Noise, Ame Son(*), Gong, Dashiell Hedayat, Catharsis, Contrepoint (*, primitive free jazz), Lard Free, Dagon(*, great progressive psych from 1972 by this undocumented & legendary group), Fille Qui Mousse (*, live track from 72!), Mahogany Brain, Majhun(*), Jac Berrocal & Musik Ensemble (*, brilliant space-improv alternate take from his debut album for Futura in 1973), Schizo (*, pre-Heldon group featuring Richard Pinhas, doing an early 7"-only version of 'Le Voyageur' -- historic psychedelic rock with spoken text by Gilles Deleuze), Oedipe (*, undocumented Canterbury style from '76)& Metal Urbain. The 2nd CD covers the eighties (1977-90) and a significant New Wave cadence starts to abound, featuring: Camizole (*, pretty wild associated of Etron Fou), Heldon(*, live from '78), Le Grand Nébuleux et ses Laveurs de Consciences (*, crazy electric jazz fusion from '78), Etron Fou, At et Technique (*), Jean-Marc Foussat (*, strange improv from '81), Vidéo Aventures, Kas Product, Fall of Saigon (*, YMG-ish synth pop pleasure from '81), Les I (*), Tanit (*), Pascal Comelade (*), Clair Obscure, Dazibao(*), Alto Bruit (*), Cosmic Wurst & Catalogue (*, live from '90). The third CD covers the nineties (1991-97) -- some okay stuff and some rather dire industrial rock material as well -- and features: Urban Sax, Jacques Dudon, M.K.B., Corman et Tuscadu, Francois Robert Lloyd, Vox Populi (*), Ulan Bator, Prime Time Victim Show, Alpes Patrice Moullet, Atta Sexden, Cape Fear, Ashtray Hearts, Viellistic Orchestra, Nicrik, Jean-Francoise Pauvros(*), Osaka Bondage (*) & Sun Plexus (*).
Bill et. al: Speaking of David Burrell, IMHO the best of his earlier sessions is High Won-High Two, in a trio (plus Pharoach Sanders on tambournine [!]) session, with tunes ranging from gospelly blues to a West Side Story [!!] medley. Considerinbg when last seen Black Lion had deleted it and it was going dirt cheap, everyone should get a copy. Ken Waxman --- Bill Ashline <williamashline@yonsei.ac.kr> wrote:
I was checking my collection of Actuel rereleases today I badly want the David Burrell, but preferably for less than 20 bucks
===== Ken Waxman mingusaum@yahoo.ca www.jazzword.com - Jazz/improv news, CD reviews and photos ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
Speaking of David Burrell, IMHO the best of his earlier sessions is High Won-High Two, in a trio (plus Pharoach Sanders on tambournine [!]) session, with tunes ranging from gospelly blues to a West Side Story [!!] medley.
Considerinbg when last seen Black Lion had deleted it and it was going dirt cheap, everyone should get a copy.
I second that, but rate all his stuff highly. The solo stuff on Denon, and the 3 duos with David Murray on Black Saint, Victo, and Gazell are essential. Most people like the hat art album - I enjoy it but it doesn't excite me in the same way. regards, Billy --
participants (4)
-
Bill Ashline -
Ken Waxman -
Sibree/Wilkes -
Steve Smith