MOONDOG "ELPMAS"

MOONDOG "ELPMAS"

Some late period Moondog here - Elpmas was recorded in 1991 while the composer was in his late seventies. The disc assembles a number of compositions protesting America's "treatment of Aboriginese [sic] people, against our treatment of nature, plants and animals, also against the idea that we discovered the 'New World'". Consequently, these compositions have a sense distinctly East-meets-West flavour to them, featuring migratorially-themed field recordings of convoys in motion, plus 'exotic' instrumentation, particularly with regards to the percussion, which features heavy use of the marimba. There's something very literal about the way Moondog arranges his pieces too: when he calls something 'Seascape Of The Whales' you can expect to hear some sort of reproduction of whale song in there. Similarly, 'Bird Of Paradise' features mellifluous repeating woodwinds replicating birdcalls. The final two pieces on the disc enter into more esoteric climes, with 'Introduction And Overtone Continuum' taking on a kind of ambient, droning quality before the twenty-four minute 'Cosmic Meditation' fully embraces the tranquil, ambiguous intervals we associate with modern ambient music.

1. WIND RIVER POWWOW (7:11)
Arapa - host
Arapa - home
Arapa - hope
2. WESTWARD HO! (6:00)
Ship at Sea
Prairie Schooners On The Oregon Trial
3. SUITE EQUESTRIA (Trail versus Road and Rail) (7:14)
The Horse
The Wheel
The Motor
4. MARIMBA MONDO 1 - THE RAIN FOREST (5:33)
5. FUJIYAMA 1 (4:43)
(instr.)
6. MARIMBA MONDO 2 - SEASCAPE OF THE WHALES (5:51)
(Quintet; featuring the Weiner-Sabinsky Duo) 5/4
7. FUJIYAMA 2 (5:01)
(Lovesong) 5/4
8. BIRD OF PARADISE (2:40)
9. THE MESSAGE (1:01)
(a capella male chorus)
10. INTRODUCTION and OVERTONE CONTINUUM (2:25)
11. COSMIC MEDITATION (24:10)

try PART 1
try PART 2