Aran
‘‘Aran’’ and ‘‘McCrimmon Will Never Return’’ date from the period 1970-72, and were written for the Promenade Theatre Orchestra, a group started by White, consisting of 4 performers; White, Hobbs, Hugh Shrapnel and Alec Hill.
‘‘Aran’’was written at a time when the PTO was beginning to combine the sounds of reed organs and toy pianos, the original instruments of the group, with some newly-acquired percussion instruments. The note-to-note procedure of the piece was determined by random means, in the hope of producing a gentle unpredictability in the final result. It was hoped that the whole would be grittily resonant. This recorded version, for 12 performers, is generally more soft-centred than the original.

American Standard
Although the instrumentation of the piece is not specified, an ideal group would be similar to that which performed this version, recorded at the first performance of the piece in March 1973. It is played by the New Music Ensemble of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, directed by John Adams, the composer, and the instruments used here are:
Flute, clarinet, clarinet (doubling bass-clarinet), clarinet (doubling bass-drum), tuba, percussion (trap set), violin, 2 violas, cello, double-bass, and harp. A conductor is not necessary for performance, since the arrangement and distribution of parts depends on what instruments are available, and ensemble problems that arise are ‘‘to be worked out in standard American fashion: proposal, debate and vote’’. Extra materials, that anyone making a version considers appropriate, may be used in performance in various forms whether film, tape, video, speech, mime, dance etc. Each section of this performance has at least one example of the use of ‘‘extra materials’’.
The piece is in 3 parts, each separately performable, and separately titled:
1. John Philip Sousa
The use of a steady, insistent pulse makes the title’s derivation quite clear; the pulse is given by a bass drum and other instruments have constant pitches which are departed from and returned to. As with all 3 pieces, the dynamics are restrained and undramatic, with the exception of the ‘‘extra material’’ – a crisp snare-drum roll that both sets the tone and gives a dramatic touch that is not present anywhere else. This is not in the score.
2. Christian Zeal and Activity
The main body of the music consists of a series of long held notes, very consonant, in 4 parts which are occasionally synchronised to give unified chords. The instruments are divided into 4 groups according to their pitch ranges, with at least one sustaining instrument in a group, each group having a leader who cues movement from one note to the next. During this piece, the ‘‘extra material’’ consists of a tape-recording of a radio talk-show.
3. Sentimentals
This is the most melodic piece of the 3 and the one which involves the greatest range of variation, quoting extensively from Duke Ellington’s ‘‘Sophisticated Lady’’.The gentle swing of the trap set, that is added during the piece, is again not included in the score, and its presence gives the sound a distinctively Californian feel, close to that of the Beach Boys, or Hollywood studio bands.The curious ending is an ironic affirmation of the maudlin chromaticism of the Ellington piece which generates the music.

McCrimmon Will Never Return
‘‘McCrimmon Will Never Return’’ stems from a temporary interest in Piobaireachd (Pibroch), the most highly developed form of Scottish bagpipe music. The melody of the title has several variants, which are played simultaneously on 4 reed organs. The tempo is sufficiently slow that the characteristic skirls or flourishes in the music become audible as individual notes.

A1 - Christopher Hobbs - Aran
A2(i) - John Adams - American Standard (i)
A2(ii) - John Adams - American Standard (ii)
A2(iii) - John Adams - American Standard (iii)
B1 - Christopher Hobbs - Mc Crimmon Will Never Return
B2 - Gavin Bryars - "1,2 1-2-3-4"

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Long coveted by diggers, connoisseurs and beat makers, here we have the first-ever reissue of Amedeo Tommasi's "Industria 2000", released in 1974 via RCA's "Original Cast" series under his Jarrell alias. These 12 sonic experiments - totally devoted to synthesizers - offer tense tonalities, dissonant ambiences, complex textures, white noise rides and muted rhythms that can easily be seen as cornerstones of what would become later known as Industrial Music, also anticipating the sonic landscapes found in some of the early Warp Records releases.

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"Equinox", Gianni Marchetti's 1977 twin album of "Solstitium", released in a handful of promo copies by RCA in their renowned "Original Cast" series, takes us on a journey through the author's groovier and wilder temperament, feeling as fresh and surprising today as the day it was made, offering immediate understanding of the reasons why it has remained one of his most sought after - and virtually impossible to find - titles over the decades.

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The first-ever reissue of Gianni Marchetti's 1978 LP "Solstitium", released as part of RCA's venerable "Original Cast" series in a handful of promo copies only, sits among the most rare and enigmatic artifacts of Italian library music, it is heralded by collectors as one of the greatest free-standing gestures in the entire genre.

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First time officially reissue, sourced from the original master tapes in a new edition, the Milan based imprint Dialogo, returns with this compilation published in Italy by RCA Victor in 1962 - a precious historical document of some important international jazz and pop artists who came to Italy and left their marks, influencing the generations of those golden years.
It contains
***Chet Baker with Ennio Morricone's Orchestra, with "Il Mio Domani" (My Tomorrow) and "So Che Ti Perderò" (I Know That I'll Loose You) two recordings of works composed and sung for the first time in Italian by one of the most important worldwide trumpet “Golden Trumpet” and singer “Voice Of Angel” jazz artist. ***Helen Merrill with “Estate” (Summer) and “Nessuno Al Mondo” (Noboby In The World), two recordings sung for the first time in Italian. She agreed to record two 'light' songs because the Orchestra that performed them was conducted by Armando Trovajoli, a qualified exponent of Italian jazz and an extreme modernist. ***Paul Anka with Ray Ellis Orchestra, Perez Prado and His Orchestra, Neil Sedaka and Stan Applebaum Orchestra

A1 - Perez Prado e la sua Orchestra - Arrivederci Roma – Chunga
A2 - Helen Merrill with Armando Trovajoli e la sua Orchestra - Nessuno al Mondo
A3 - Paul Anka with Orchestra diretta da Ray Ellis - Ogni Giorno
A4 - Chet Baker with Ennio Morricone e la sua Orchestra - Il Mio Domani
A5 - Neil Sedaka with Stan Applebaum Orchestra - Esagerata (Little Devil)
A6 - Antonio Prieto with His Orchestra - Papà
B1 - Paul Anka with Orchestra diretta da Ray Ellis - Voglio Sapere (I’d Like To Know)
B2 - Antonio Prieto with His Orchestra - Baciami
B3 - Neil Sedaka with Stan Applebaum Orchestra - Un Giorno Inutile (I Must Be Dreaming)
B4 - Helen Merrill with Armando Trovajoli e la sua Orchestra - Estate
B5 - Chet Baker with Ennio Morricone e la sua Orchestra - So Che Ti Perderò
B6 - Perez Prado e la sua Orchestra - Guaglione

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TRACKLIST:
A1. L'Uomo e la Città
A2. Città Amica
A3. Città' Frenetica
A4. Quartieri Alti
A5. Viadotti
A6. Piazza Di Siena
B1. L'Uomo e la Città
B2. Rete Urbana
B3. Centrali Termiche
B4. Centrali Termiche
B5. Città Amica
B6. L'Uomo e la Città
B7 Suoni Della Città

In the intricate panorama of Italian library music, the themes of city, factories, metropolis, work,
urbanization and technology have always been among the most fascinating (and used), relying on dozens of
fundamental records by composers such as Alessandro Alessandroni, Farlocco, Gerardo Iacoucci, A.R.
Luciani, Narassa and many others. The attempt to provide a plausible soundtrack to a continuously and
rapidly ever-changing world, especially in the hectic seventies, has often produced masterpieces that
combined avant-garde techniques with sounds, risky experimentation with easy-listening songs, the traffic
chaos and assembly lines with the silence of the night, the end of the work shift with Sunday’s rest.
Piero Umiliani’s L’Uomo e la Città perfectly fits into this rich and varied field, an album where our Man is
accompanied by a jazz musicians sublime parade that includes celebrities like Bruno Tommaso, Oscar
Valdambrini, Dino Piana and Nino Rapicavoli, here delivering the most of a sound that is highly based on the
richness of the wind instruments and on the rhythm of the Umiliani-led ensemble.
L’Uomo e la Città is a less risky effort when compared to other releases by Piero Umiliani, but that’s in
favor of an extraordinary jazz tightness (Rete Urbana, Quartieri Alti, Città Frenetica), but the wish to amaze
appears when least expected in the two excellent renditions of Centrale Termica and Suoni della Città, among
the best tracks of the album.

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Released in 1975, "Continente Nero" is the perfect flip side of "Africa" (1972), an album that significantly expanded Piero Umiliani's music perspectives, incorporating partially explored rhythmic variations already used in "Percussioni ed Effetti Speciali" and "To-Day's Sound". It does so by taking inspiration from a tradition that starts from the divine Fela Kuti and reaches the amateur and field recordings by musicologists such as David Toop, but also from the Afro- American jazz history of Art Ensemble of Chicago, John Coltrane, Max Roach and hundreds of others

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Piero Umiliani's Africa was released in January 1972, a years-ahead record that includes the prog-tinged black rhythm of "Africa To-Day", the 'fourth world' inspiration coming from Jon Hassell's "Green Dawn", the 'exotic' references in Martin Denny's style ("Lonely Village", "Echos"), the electronic new wave (hearing is believing!) of "Sortilège", the folk music ("Rite", "Folk-Tune"). An incredible album summarizes sounds and styles that will make the fortune of much more celebrated and popular musicians and artists.

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ITALIAN JAZZ-ROCK HIDDEN GEM - 1ST REISSUE EVER ON VINYL! Spirale were an Italian quintet from Rome who released a single eponymous album in 1974, a jazz-rock effort consisting of just four tracks, most of which taken by the 13-minute long "Cabral, Anno 1" and the marvellous 17-minute "Peperoncino (Cose vecchie, cose nuove)". "Spirale" is an incredibly balanced and flowing record that sounds still fresh and inspired even today, characterized by that particular Mediterranean flavour that only Italian musicians were able to obtain. "Spirale" is now finally reissued on Dialogo record label in a faithful restored version that will finally satisfy any collectors who have waited for years for this beauty to see the light again!

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