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Instant Composers Pool

Groupcomposing (LP)

Label: Our Swimmer

Format: LP

Genre: Jazz

Out of stock

* Limited LP reissue, and the first time the album has been in print on vinyl since its initial release* Our swimmer presents a reissue of Misha Mengelberg's Groupcomposing, recorded in 1970 and originally released in 1978. Comprised of a one-time international free music supergroup, and originally released as the sixth production on pianist Mengelberg and drummer Han Bennink's ICP label, Groupcomposing has been largely absent from the history books. This is the case because the record has been so unavailable, certainly not as a comment on the magnitude and magnificence of the music. With its Bennink cover (take that Andy Warhol!) and its two side-long tracks, it is an improvised music aficionado's treasure. Mengelberg and Bennink are joined by Bennink's brother, Peter Bennink, on alto saxophone and bagpipes(!), with an incredible reed section of Evan Parker and Peter Brötzmann, Paul Rutherford on trombone, and Derek Bailey on guitar. Moving from peaks of intensity to droning deescalation, totally improvised live in concert in 1970, the first side, "Groupcomposing, Part 1" is a nearly all-out assault with the reeds trio and Rutherford's trombone blasting nigh-continuously for the album's first side, culminating in a blistering Peter Bennink bagpipes solo. "Part 2" acts at first as the comedown, beginning with a playful piano and percussion back-and-forth before meandering a dark, brooding, path of trill horns to the album's eventual, tense conclusion. Recorded just a few years into the ICP's long tenure, it is hard to think of a release more representative of the label's musical principles – or, more broadly, of the power of free group improvisation – than the aptly-named Groupcomposing. This limited reissue marks the first time the album has been in print on vinyl in over forty years.

Details
File under: European free jazz
Cat. number: WELLE120
Year: 2021