Alan Sondheim - 1967 - Ritual-All-7-70

Alan Sondheim
1967
Ritual-All-7-70

 

01. 770
02. 771
03. 772
04. June
05. 774
06. 775
07. 776
08. 777
09. 778
10. 779
11. 780
12. 781
13. 782

Ruth Ann Hutchinson: vocals
Chris Mattheson: bass
Barry Sugarman: bongo, tabla
J.P.: drums
Robert Poholek: cornet, trumpet
Alan Sondheim: xylophone, alto saxophone, sona, classical, electric and hawaiian guitars, English horn, bansari koto, clarinet, suling

Recorded in Providence, RI in January 1967.

Alan Sondheim was born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania; he lives with his partner, Azure Carter, in Providence, RI. He holds a B.A. and M.A. from Brown University. A new-media artist, writer, and theorist, he has exhibited, performed and lectured widely. His band Ritual All 770, whose debut The Songs (Riverboat, 1967) was reissued by the Fire Museum label, was included on the notorious Nurse With Wound list of outsider/avant-garde influences. Sondheim is the first artist from ESP-Disk's 1964-75 heyday to return after its revival in 2005 with an album of new material. Sondheim joined the roster with a 1967 session, Ritual-All-7-70, then followed up with 1968's T'Other Little Tune. (Drumming on the latter was Joel Zabor; now known as Rafi Zabor, he reunited with Sondheim at ESP's 50th anniversary concert in November 2013.) Sondheim got his musical start as a guitarist, but soon moved into a much more original sound utilizing a vast array of instruments from around the world.

Alan Sondheim was the young, exuberant leader of a pack of improvisers living in a communal loft in Providence, Rhode Island. Undaunted by attempts to categorize electronic music as the province of academic tinkerers -- a cold, unfriendly realm, with its own authorities, audiences and mystique -- they plunged fearlessly, joyously and unselfconsciously into the medium, discovering new way to express their ideas.

Press Quotes

"But if there is a concept here, it’s extremely simple: you never heard such sounds in your life." - Clifford Allen, Bagatellen

"sort of like Ornette Coleman for the handicapped, with a somewhat Cagean sense of non-interaction." - Weirdo Records