Jan Steele / John Cage (MP3s)

Brian Eno's Obscure Records label released only 10 albums during its existence from 1975 through 1978. Some of these have been reissued on CD (among them Eno's own 1975 masterpiece Discreet Music), but for some reason the album Voices and Instruments (Obscure No. 5, 1976) only exists on out-of-print vinyl. It is a very quiet and beautiful record, featuring three compositions by Jan Steele on one side, and five compositions by John Cage on the other side. Lyrics are by James Joyce and E. E. Cummings, performers include Jan Steele, Richard Bernas, Steve Beresford, Fred Frith, Robert Wyatt, and Carla Bley. It is not just mellow, it is avant-mellow...

Side A:
1 Jan Steele - All Day [ lyrics by James Joyce, vocals by Janet Sherbourne ]
2 Jan Steele - Distant Saxophones
3 Jan Steele - Rhapsody Spaniel

Side B:
4 John Cage - Experiences No. 1
5 John Cage - Experiences No. 2 [ lyrics by E. E. Cummings, vocals by Robert Wyatt ]
6 John Cage - The Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs [ lyrics by James Joyce, vocals by Robert Wyatt ]
7 John Cage - Forever and Sunsmell [ lyrics by E. E. Cummings, vocals by Carla Bley ]
8 John Cage - In A Landscape

Comments

[Kim Scarborough]

Gamelan Pacifica did a gamelan version of "In a Landscape" in 1994.

[Billy]

I've been looking for this for years. Thanks for the post.

[Michael]

This is fantastic! Every song sounds like "Nancy Sings".

[mark s]

thanks, I love this record...

[thiago]

hello! thanks a lot fot this one.

[Hans Keller]

I read somewhere that outtakes from these sessions were released on a CD with an old issue of "Ptolemaic Terrascope" back in the early '90s. I don't know how true that is. As a Robert Wyatt fanatic (he didn't do a lot of work between '75 and '80) I've had his tracks off this for a while, and they're great!

[bartleby]

thank you, thank you, thank you

[Alex]

The first few Cage tracks seem like another 'imitation' of his Cheap Imitation tribute to Satie's SOCRATE...

[Jan Steele]

All Day.... will soon be re-released here www.community-library.net. The new album will be called "Distant Saxophones". There will be a new - much better version of Distant Saxophones itself, plus a new recording of Rhapsody Spaniel, plus 10 other compositions from the same era by Jan Steele and Janet Sherbourne, some never previously recorded, and some only available on very hard to get vinyl.

[Maria Roges]

I have been looking for an online version of this for over 10 years!

I had the vinyl at one time and lost track of it somehow... most beautiful.Robert Wyatt singing Experiences #2 and Wonderful Widow of 28 springs is sublime.

A thousand thanks!