“The Machines”, which date from the period 1967-1972 represent a departure from the more traditionally narrative nature of the rest of my pieces. I use the word Machine to define a consistent process governing a series of musical actions within a particular sound world and, by extension, the listener’s perception thereof. One might thus regard the Welsh Rarebit as a Machine in which a process is applied to the conditioning and perception of the world of bread and cheese.

“Autumn Countdown Machine” presents the guaranteed dis-simultaneity of six pairs of bass melody instruments, each conducted by a percussionist playing in time with, and making minor adjustments to the setting of a bell-metronome.

“Son of Gothic Chord” presents four keyboard players’ mobilisation of a sequential chord progression rising through the span of an octave.
“Jews Harp Machine” presents various permutations of the articulations ‘Ging, Gang, Gong,Gung, Ho!’

“Drinking and Hooting Machine” presents some observations on the world of bottles and their non-percussive musical potential. The effect of this piece has been compared to that of a large aviary full of owls all practising very slow descending scales. - John White, March 1976

“The Squirrel And The Ricketty Racketty Bridge”, for one player of two guitars, was written at the request of Derek Bailey, the jazz guitarist, in 1971. I had worked closely with Bailey from 1963-6 in and around Sheffield as a member of a group which included Tony Oxley on drums and myself on double-bass. Since that time, I have lost all interest in jazz, and in improvisation, and since Bailey was involved in both I wrote a piece which uses a technique which Bailey would be unlikely to have evolved in his playing. The two guitars are played simultaneously, each one lying flat on its back, and they are arranged side by side so that the two fingerboards can be played with the fingers hammering down on them, like two keyboards. In addition, the score contains a number of ironic references to jazz and to its critical literature - short texts added to the ‘musical’ notations, somewhat in the spirit of Erik Satie, involving the performer in a hypothetical dialogue with the composer using fragments culled from particularly banal pieces of jazz criticism eg. ‘there is an area up here’, holding his hand above his head, palm down, where musical categories do not exist. The left hand of the player moves at an even pulse, like the walking jazz bass, at a tempo ‘between Lady is a Tramp’ as a medium bounce, and Cherokee as an embarrassment to lesser, and more intrepid, musicians, while the right hand punctuates this with short notes, like a highly selective, or extremely lazy, trumpet soloist. The title involves an oblique pun to do with the nut of the guitar, the guitar’s bridge, the faint noise of the music in between – that each attack gives two pitches rather than one – and an English children’s song about Billy Goat Gruff.
Derek Bailey recorded the piece on Incus Records in 1971, and this new version is a multiple one, four players on eight guitars, in which each player uses a pair of guitars which are characteristically different from those used by the others. -Gavin Bryars (1971)

TRACK LISTING

Autumn Countdown Machine
Son Of Gothic Chord
Jew's Harp Machine
Drinking And Hooting Machine
The Squirrel And The Ricketty Racketty Bridge

“Aran” and “McCrimmon Will Never Return” date from the period 1970-72, and were written for the Promenade Theatre Orchestra, a group started by White, consisting of 4 performers; White, Hobbs, Hugh Shrapnel and Alec Hill.
“Aran” was written at a time when the PTO was beginning to combine the sounds of reed organs and toy pianos, the original instruments of the group, with some newly-acquired percussion instruments. The note-to-note procedure of the piece was determined by random means, in the hope of producing a gentle unpredictability in the final result. It was hoped that the whole would be grittily resonant. This recorded version, for 12 performers, is generally more soft-centred than the original.

“American Standard”
Although the instrumentation of the piece is not specified, an ideal group would be similar to that which performed this version, recorded at the first performance of the piece in March 1973. It is played by the New Music Ensemble of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, directed by John Adams, the composer, and the instruments used here are: flute, clarinet, clarinet (doubling bass-clarinet), clarinet (doubling bass-drum), tuba, percussion (trap set), violin, 2 violas, cello, double-bass, and harp. A conductor is not necessary for performance, since the arrangement and distribution of parts depends on what instruments are available, and ensemble problems that arise are ‘‘to be worked out in standard American fashion: proposal, debate and vote’’. Extra materials, that anyone making a version considers appropriate, may be used in performance in various forms whether film, tape, video, speech, mime, dance etc. Each section of this performance has at least one example of the use of ‘‘extra materials’’.
The piece is in 3 parts, each separately performable, and separately titled:
1. John Philip Sousa
The use of a steady, insistent pulse makes the title’s derivation quite clear; the pulse is given by a bass drum and other instruments have constant pitches which are departed from and returned to. As with all 3 pieces, the dynamics are restrained and undramatic, with the exception of the ‘‘extra material’’ – a crisp snare-drum roll that both sets the tone and gives a dramatic touch that is not present anywhere else. This is not in the score.
2. Christian Zeal and Activity
The main body of the music consists of a series of long held notes, very consonant, in 4 parts which are occasionally synchronised to give unified chords. The instruments are divided into 4 groups according to their pitch ranges, with at least one sustaining instrument in a group, each group having a leader who cues movement from one note to the next. During this piece, the ‘‘extra material’’ consists of a tape-recording of a radio talk-show.
3. Sentimentals
This is the most melodic piece of the 3 and the one which involves the greatest range of variation, quoting extensively from Duke Ellington’s “Sophisticated Lady”. The gentle swing of the trap set, that is added during the piece, is again not included in the score, and its presence gives the sound a distinctively Californian feel, close to that of the Beach Boys, or Hollywood studio bands.The curious ending is an ironic affirmation of the maudlin chromaticism of the Ellington piece which generates the music.

“McCrimmon Will Never Return” stems from a temporary interest in Piobaireachd (Pibroch), the most highly developed form of Scottish bagpipe music. The melody of the title has several variants, which are played simultaneously on 4 reed organs. The tempo is sufficiently slow that the characteristic skirls or flourishes in the music become audible as individual notes.

TRACK LISTING

A1Christopher Hobbs - Aran
A2(i)John Adams - American Standard (i)
A2(ii)John Adams - American Standard (ii)
A2(iii)John Adams - American Standard (iii)
B1Christopher Hobbs - Mc Crimmon Will Never Return
B2Gavin Bryars - 1,2 1-2-3-4

In February and March of 1977, for Brian Eno’s Obscure Records, I made a version of ‘Irma’. The following notes on the piece arise out of that involvement and try to show how the piece can be made into a performance state.
‘Irma’ is a curious score – it is printed on a single sheet 50cms x 50cms. The notation consists of fragments from Tom’s continuing treatment of the Victorian novel by W. H. Mallock, which he calls A Humument, and utilises those short verbal fragments that refer to either ‘‘libretto’’, ‘‘decor and mise-en-scène’’ or ‘‘sounds’’. These 3 categories are arranged in separate sections on the square sheet with, at the bottom, a line of stave notation. At first sight it looks like a piece of indeterminate music – clearly there has to be some preparatory work done before it is performable and no-one would venture to perform directly from the score - but if it is approached in this spirit, like realising a piece by John Cage or Morton Feldman written during the 1950’s, the sounding results are either largely of a documentary interest, or rely entirely on the gifted performer to make into a coherent sounding whole. True, one could say the same thing for a piece by Cage, such as ‘Variations I’, but there the performer is given a number of precise parameters of sound within which he should work, whereas ‘Irma’ needs to be re-composed rather than realised.
If the distinction between ‘‘composing’’ and ‘‘realising’’ is overlooked, and if only the materials present in the notation are used, then the result is likely to be impoverished and it is clear that, looked at in isolation as a self-contained work, the score is notationally very thin. So one either produces an impoverished piece of sounding music, or one takes the responsibility to look further. Tom does not say explicitly that one must go beyond Irma into the rest of his work, but he does say that one has to go outside the piece. On the score he writes: ‘‘Perhaps to treat the indications here given as if they were the only surviving fragments of an ancient opera, or fragments of eye and ear witnesses’ accounts of such, and given no knowledge of performance tradition of the time, to reconstruct a hypothetical whole which would accommodate them economically, would be an appropriate basis of approach to a production.’’ So, try to put it back together and try to fill in all the gaps between these fragments. This approach, which, incidentally coincides with an interest in such procedures within my own work, seems to be the most suitable. If the ‘‘composer’’ uses the sorts of methods that Tom evidently uses in producing pictures, in making A Humument (of which Irma is a part), and if he uses the notations of Irma as clues to lead him into whatever area seems likely to yield rich results, then a much more satisfactory outcome is likely – satisfactory both in terms of the quality of the sounding material and in terms of consistency with the rest of Tom’s oeuvre.

STAFF COMMENTS

Matt says: Hard to pick a favourite from all this week's Dialogo releases. Absolutely bonkers avant minimalism / jazz / music concrete set.

TRACK LISTING

Side 1
1.Introduction
2.Overture & Aria
3.Aria - I Tell You That's Irma Herself
4. First (Interlude)

Side 2
1.Aria - Irma You Will Be Mine
2.Second (interlude)
3.Love Is Help Mate (Chorus)
4.Postlude

"Equinox", Gianni Marchetti's 1977 twin album of "Solstitium", released in a handful of promo copies by RCA in their renowned "Original Cast" series, takes us on a journey through the author's groovier and wilder temperament, feeling as fresh and surprising today as the day it was made, offering immediate understanding of the reasons why it has remained one of his most sought after - and virtually impossible to find - titles over the decades.

RIYL: Piero Umiliani, Sandro Brugnolini, Stefano Torossi

The limited release as part of RCA's "Original Cast" series only increased its mystique, making it a coveted piece among collectors and connoisseurs. The album's distinctive character lies in its spontaneous, freewheeling approach, which contrasts with the more polished productions of the era. It's a perfect example of Marchetti's unique vision, where each track seems to evolve organically, offering both intricate musicianship and a sense of unrestrained creativity.

TRACK LISTING

A1.Mexico Border
A2.Walking In The Sunrise
A3.Over
A4.Listen
A5.Maria Magdalena

B1.No Parking
B2.Chukeba Bay
B3.Jelly Beans
B4.Part-Y-Time
B5.Equinox

The first-ever reissue of Gianni Marchetti's 1978 LP "Solstitium", released as part of RCA's venerable "Original Cast" series in a handful of promo copies only, sits among the most rare and enigmatic artifacts of Italian library music, it is heralded by collectors as one of the greatest free-standing gestures in the entire genre.

RIYL: Piero Umiliani, Egisto Macchi, Stefano Torossi

Gianni Marchetti's Solstitium, originally released in 1978 as part of RCA's prestigious Original Cast series, stands as one of the most elusive and iconic records within the realm of Italian library music. Its first-ever reissue brings this long-sought gem back into circulation, offering an opportunity for modern listeners to experience its raw, innovative energy and immersive soundscapes. Originally released in only a handful of promo copies, Solstitium quickly became a holy grail for collectors, its rarity only adding to its mystique and allure.
The album embodies a free-spirited, avant-garde approach to composition, blending elements of jazz, progressive rock, and experimental electronic music. Marchetti’s use of unconventional instrumentation and studio techniques marks Solstitium as an audacious departure from the more conventional library music of the era.
‘Solstitium’ remains a fascinating listening experience, revealing new layers with every listen, and it is not surprising that it has earned its place as one of Marchetti's most revered works, continuing to fascinate old fans and new listeners alike.

TRACK LISTING

A1. June
A2. July
A3. August
A4. September

B1. December
B2. January
B3. February
B4. March