The soundtrack for an imaginary film, combining ancient influences from African cultures with elements of avantgarde, harmonising electronics and a vocal language based on traditional Persian music, plus some linguistic leprosy.
44-minute mix with works by Aktuala, Lady June, Muslimgauze, Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz, and others – realized between 1972 and 2020.
Featured cover art: Kramer – Music For Films Edited By Moths
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Kramer – Stars Will Die Tonight
Without needing references, New York City-based producer Kramer creates a soundtrack for a film that only existed in his head, embracing what he encounters on the way. (2020, Shimmy Disc)
Aktuala – Chitarra E Piffero
Founded in Milan in 1972, Aktuala combined ancient and ethnic influences from Eastern and African cultures with elements of rock and avantgarde. For a time, the members of the project also lived together in a commune and chose venues such as asylums and wharfs for performing. The band moved to Morocco to record the album Tappeto Volante that includes the track Chitarra E Piffero. (1976, Bla Bla)
Sussan Deyhim & Richard Horowitz – Desert Equations (For Brion Gysin)
The artist couple, consisting of Iranian singer Sussan Deyhim and American composer Richard Horowitz, met in the early 1980s in New York’s avantgarde music and theatre scene. Their fusion of modern electronics and a vocal language based on traditional Persian music led Paul Bowles to suspect that it might have been influenced by the Moroccan cannabis edible majoun. (1986, Crammed Discs)
Biosphere – When I Leave (Version)
Living in Tromsø in northern Norway, it is not surprising that Biosphere’s style seems somewhat ‘Arctic’ and sometimes lost, like a cosmonaut drifting aimlessly through space. (1997, Beatservice Records / RE: Biophon Records)
Muslimgauze – Kirghiz
With an abundance of releases, Manchester-based producer Bryn Jones, alias Muslimgauze, addressed conflicts and history in the Muslim world. The track ‘Kirghiz’ obviously refers to the Turkic-speaking ethnic group from Central Asia. It appeared on the CD Intifaxa, which was labelled Verse of Allah Compact Disc on the cover. (1990, Extreme / RE: Other Voices Records)
Lady June – Tunion
British experimental artist and poet June Campbell Cramer meets Brian Eno and Kevin Ayers, founding member of Soft Machine, in his living room in Maida Vale, London, and the result is the album Lady June’s Linguistic Leprosy, featuring exquisite psychedelic music. (1974, Caroline Records / RE: Mental Experience)
Pharoah Sanders – Memories Of J. W. Coltrane
At The East, a concert hall, educational and arts centre with a focus on black nationalism in Brooklyn, New York, jazz tenor saxophonist Pharoah Sanders pays tribute to John Coltrane. The legendary jazz composer’s life, music and attitude became increasingly spiritual as he approached his early death from liver cancer at the age of 40. (1972, Impulse!)