As with yesterday, an album with a Tom Phillips connection (he did the cover of Starless and Bible Black). And this one, too, is a kind of repeat of an album that has already been on Music Arcades — albeit in a version that shares nothing beyond the title, and score, with the other.
It was almost certainly while writing about AMM's Irma that I became intrigued about the earlier version that Tom Phillips describes as "inauthentic". Here's the relevant passage from his sleeve notes to the 1988 version
A complete version was recorded for Brian Eno's Obscure Records label in 1977. The realisation here was by Gavin Bryars with a libretto, which, for all that it completely consisted of quotations from A Humument, claimed to be by Fred Orton. Although there are some haunting moments in the performance the music seems to have lost some of its character, smoothed out as it is to fit the Bryars aesthetic. The slightly patronising tone of the sleeve note and the fact that Bryars billed himself (in defiance of the normal practice in modern music performance) as 'the composer', did not help me to avoid the impression that this Irma, alone, was somehow 'inauthentic'. Since it followed the general rules of the score this recording (for all that I participated in it and despite its featuring musicians as distinguished as Howard Skempton) led me to the regretful conclusion that, among the infinitude of feasible Irmas, versions might occur which were simultaneously correct and unfaithful.
So I saved a search on eBay — the record was deleted decades ago and never issued on CD — and just three weeks ago I won this copy (£16, which was as high as I was prepared to go, but it's in very good condition for its age, and other copies I've found for sale have been dearer). However, Wikipedia explains that my record is not the original edition (1978, Polydor) but the 1980 re-issue on EG. Good old Wikipedia! I now have five and a half of the ten releases on Brian Eno's Obscure label. The half is my copy of The Pavilion of Dreams, which is the 1981 reissue on EG, with a different cover from the original 1978 Obscure release. If there's anything worse than an obsessive trainspotter personality type, it's surely someone who tends towards that type but is so half-baked that they only get 55% of the way there.
I've read a lot of Phillips' writing, and I think the passage above is the closest to a critical attack that I've come across. It's puzzling how Bryars' self-billing as composer was allowed to stand if Phillips objected to it, since the record was produced by Eno, a former student and long-time friend of Phillips. The label of the record has an MCPS credit for Bryars, Orton and Phillips, and surely such credits cannot be lodged with a collecting society unless all parties agree?
Authentic or not, the smooth Bryars aesthetic is indeed smooth, and not unpleasant to these ears.
|
Buy from Musicstack.com Buy from eil.com |
Discogs entry for this album Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album |
Comments