Vinyl Finds: Gumpert-Malfatti-Oxley – Ach Was!? (FMP 1981)

The proliferation of good music blogs continues to stagger the mind.  Vinyl hoarders the world over are ripping and posting their collections and it's simply impossible to keep up, unless you're spending 100% of your time at the computer—even then you're bound to miss out on a lot.

Records that previously lurked only in the dark corners of my memory, my personal collection and/or the WFMU library are turning up on music blogs all over the Web.  For example, when impLOG's Holland Tunnel Dive e.p. showed up about a year ago on Mutant Sounds, I had what has now become a familiar "haven't thought about that one in years" reaction.

It's also become harder, from a blogger's viewpoint, to excavate recordings that haven't already been celebrated and offered for download elsewhere online, though I believe I may have one here.

This rarely seen FMP release turned up in the used vinyl new arrivals at Amoeba Music's San Francisco store when I was working there in 1999.  For the sheer gloat potential, I probably should have left the price tag on, which I think was $1.99.  With my employee discount, this record cost me, well—less than that—an obscene bargain to be sure.

While this LP finds drummer/electronic musician Tony Oxley at the more experimental end of his tether (i.e., not playing in a straight or out jazz combo), both sides have a warmth and delicacy that may make this record appealing to those typically wary of free-improvised music (though things do get a little wilder during the latter half of side 2.)  Personally, I have a real affection for the primordial plink-plonk of sessions like this one.

Pianist Ulrich Gumpert is a well-known figure in European jazz and a respected interpreter of Erik Satie's music, with a career that also includes compositions for film and TV.  Austrian Trombonist Radu Malfatti is another giant of European jazz, having collaborated with a veritable who's who of improvisers, but since 1981 has focused more and more on composition (perhaps this record blew his wad!)  All three players on Ach Was!? have lengthy discographies, including other recordings for FMP.

Tony Oxley continues to dazzle the world with his brilliant, intuitive playing, adding to his impressive catalog most recently with The Advocate on Tzadik.  Oxley's first releases as a bandleader, The Baptised Traveller and Four Compositions for Sextet (from '69 and '70 respectively) are personal favorites.  As an added bonus, here's a link to a download of Oxley's ultra-rare Ichnos from 1971.

Ach Was!?:
A1 - Luft Gebacken
A2 - Ach Was!?
B - Kookin' at Charly's

Comments

[Scott M.]

Wow, great post! I love Oxley, a man born with drumsticks for arms.

[Margot]

Thank you for linking my blog (under "good")

I've really appreciated! Keep on the great work!!!

Margot

http://moonmusick.blogspot.com/

[Acapulco]

Thanks for this, Wm! A great find, indeed. It's true that there's a huge lacuna in Malfatti's discography beginning in 1981, but he resurfaced in the mid- to late- nineties and took part in some amazing performances with various members of the lower-case improv community, incl. the excellent Polwechsel.

In the past few years Malfatti has issued a CD on Erstwhile as well as quite a few CD-Rs' worth of improv, and collaborated with a younger generation of improvisers, including Mattin, with whom he issued two excellent CDs, White Noise (w.m.o/r) and Going Fragile (Formed).

His exquisite 2006 duet with Klaus Filip at Houndstooth was quite literally breathtaking.

[David (aka former coworker wage slave at Slide Design)]

Fantastic! Thanks for that. I really like the album art.

BTW, How might one get in touch with Mr. Wm. Berger?

[Hyena Sparerib]

the blog page with the cover of "Holland Tunnel Drive" is now in the vertical file for the Holland Tunnel in the Jersey City library's local history room. Oh, the power I wield to shape the future...

[gebers]

Check out the original!
FMP
http://www.fmp-label.de