Kenneth Knudsen: 3 Hats, 1 Cap and 2 Shoes That Were Not Fellows (2015) & Anima (’79 – ’85) [5CD]

Experimental / Avant Jazz
premiera polska: 2015-06-27
kontynent: Europa
kraj: Dania
opakowanie: Box Setowe etui
opis:
Editor's info:
This exceptional collection of new and re-issued recordings features music by nothing less than one of Denmark’s absolutely most important creators of music.

Kenneth Knudsen was born in 1946 and began his career as a jazz pianist in 1961. But since the early 1970’s, when synthesizers appeared on the music scene, he has mainly created and recorded music for and with these instruments. Kenneth Knudsen’s sound is always easily recognizable, as are his abilities as arranger and sound architect. His playing is always inspirational – as can be heard in his recordings with groups like Secret Oyster,
Entrance and Bombay Hotel; in his own group Anima, with the Danish songwriter Sebastian, Palle Mikkelborg and Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen, Miles Davis and many others. In the late 1990’s Knudsen retired from stage performances and withdrew to a life of “research” in his recording studio in Copenhagen. Since then we have had to content ourselves with his relatively few but substantial CD releases. This box set draws a line from Knudsen’s solo project Anima in 1979 (which – as he writes in the liner notes – was inspired by the ideas and practice of Stanislav Grof and by Jung’s reflections on the creative, so-called feminine sides of men) to 3 HATS, 1 CAP AND 2 SHOES THAT WERE NOT FELLOWS (a quotation from Robinson Crusoe), which he finished in 2015. On Anima Knudsen demonstrates his uncompromising approach as well as his talent for writing good tunes (as in Strip Tease). Catchy melodies found their way into Knudsen’s early work, whereas his uncompromising side prevails in his recent work.
Here, no sound or note is what one might have expected, although not necessarily surprising either.
There is reason behind it all, and what we hear at any given moment is a natural consequence of what came before. However, we never know what will come next.
The box set contains all Anima releases. Three consecutive albums from the first half of the ‘80s, when Knudsen formed a band out of the initial Anima project: Kilgore (1980), Songs (1982) and Shanghai Circus (1985). He recounts, I knew Mikkel Nordsø from his group Buki Yamaz and Riel’s and Mikkelborg’s V8. My Mini Moog and I had contributed to the recording of Buki Yamaz’s debut album. I contacted Ole Theill after hearing him at a concert. His confident, supple playing made a great impression on me. Michael Friis had been my favorite bassist for a long time. I had enjoyed listening to him with Culpepper’s Orchard. Thus the band Anima was created, and our first rehearsals confirmed us all. I had many fine experiences with this great band, and I felt that my pleasure and dedication was reciprocated. Anima swiftly made a reputation as a great jazz/rock band. Not only due to their studio recordings, but on the live circuit as well. This is documented remarkably on Kilgore, produced by vocalist Cy Nicklin, who had recently retired his own band Culpepper’s. Although otherwise instrumental, the album includes one song, Circles – after all, they had a fine vocalist at hand. Songs leaned towards rock and intensified the collaboration with Nicklin (what a wonderful singer!), who by now had become a full-fledged member of the group.

For those of us who grew up with jazz/rock in the late ‘70s, and for many others, Anima took on cult status, and we crushed into Jazz Club Montmartre whenever Anima hit Copenhagen. As Knudsen says, … Montmartre was our temple. However, there were other successful concerts in some of Denmark’s large towns and in towns in northern Germany – and especially in Berlin and in Oslo, Norway. But the band never found the necessary support from the music business, which is vital to an international breakthrough. Perhaps our music was simply out of sync with whatever was going on in the heads of A&R men in the early 1980’s. Maybe I/we were too difficult and arrogant to deal with. Shanghai Circus was Anima’s last breath. Originally, the album contained four tracks from Songs, a new recording of the hit Venus/Every Single Second, and three new tunes. In this collection, it includes four “new” tracks as well as a previously unreleased tune, Shining Light, the band’s last recorded work. The energy in the seed that had kept us going since 1979, had died out, and too little fertilizer had come from outside, Knudsen recalls.

muzycy:
Kenneth Knudsen: Minimoog, Roland, Yamaha Grand Piano, Tack Piano, Modulated Rhodes Piano, Synthesizer, Polymoog on tracks: B1 to B9
Kenneth Knudsen: Nordlead on tracks: A1 to A6
Kenneth Knudsen: Yamaha Grand Piano, Fender Rhodes, Minimoog, Roland Jupiter 8 on tracks: D1 to E5
Kenneth Knudsen: Fender Rhodes, Steinway Grand Piano, Moog, Roland on tracks: C1 to C8
plus
Bass – Michael Friis (tracks: C1 to E5)
Double Bass – Morten Ramsbøl (tracks: A1 to A6)
Emil De Waal: Drums on tracks: A1 to A6
Kasper Winding: Drums on tracks: B1 to B9
Ole Theill: Drums on tracks: C1 to E5
Guitar – Oliver Hoiness (tracks: A1 to A6)
Guitar, Guitar Synthesizer – Mikkel Nordsø (tracks: C1 to D9)
Piano [Prepared MIDI Piano] – Peter Kyed (tracks: A1 to A6)
Vocals, Written-By, Mixed By – Cy Nicklin (tracks: C1 to E5)

Choir – Ars Nova Choir (tracks: B1 to B9)
Conductor [Choir] – Ivan Hansen (2) (tracks: B1 to B9)

utwory:
Kenneth Knudsen: 3 HATS, 1 CAP AND TWO SHOES THAT WERE NOT FELLOWS (2015)
1. Chicken Repair Kit
2. Hope Your Head Gets Better
3. Pictufuckingresque This Is
4. But Plastic
5. The Most Handsome Man
6. A Reading Person


Kenneth Knudsen: ANIMA (1979)
1. Evil Evan
2. Title Missing
3. Anima
4. Strip Tease
5. Quo Vadis
6. Trapped
7. Milk & Cream
8. Weekend Dear
9. Direktør


Anima: KILGORE (1980)
1. Windows
2. Untitled
3. Anima
4. Pieces
5. Valse Du Soir
6. Tapes
7. Circles
8. The Rest Of Your Life


Anima: SONGS (1982)
1. Venus
2. Circle Of Light
3. Twins
4. Dining With A Queen
5. Always Flowing
6. Between Two Songs
7. Hard Luck Stories
8. Apricot Valley
9. Tarzan Waltz


Anima: SHANGHAI CIRCUS + 1 (1985)
1. Every Single Second
2. Love’s Gone
3. Shanghai Circus
4. Concrete Dreamer
5. Shining Light


wydano: 2015-04-20
more info: www.sundance.dk