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
Gamelan Pacifica did a gamelan version of "In a Landscape" in 1994.
Posted by: Kim Scarborough | November 17, 2008 at 01:21 AM
I've been looking for this for years. Thanks for the post.
Posted by: Billy | November 17, 2008 at 03:26 PM
This is fantastic! Every song sounds like "Nancy Sings".
Posted by: Michael | November 18, 2008 at 02:15 AM
thanks, I love this record...
Posted by: mark s | November 18, 2008 at 09:13 AM
hello! thanks a lot fot this one.
Posted by: thiago | November 18, 2008 at 09:52 AM
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!
Posted by: Hans Keller | November 18, 2008 at 07:13 PM
thank you, thank you, thank you
Posted by: bartleby | November 22, 2008 at 08:29 PM
The first few Cage tracks seem like another 'imitation' of his Cheap Imitation tribute to Satie's SOCRATE...
Posted by: Alex | November 23, 2008 at 05:25 PM
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.
Posted by: Jan Steele | May 12, 2009 at 07:58 AM
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!
Posted by: Maria Roges | June 27, 2009 at 05:32 PM
Does anybody know where to get the scores for the Jan Steele pieces?
Posted by: John Smith | June 03, 2010 at 07:46 AM
Hi John, email me at jan[at]jazzandsalsa.co.uk (replacing @ in for [at]) and you can have them for free! Jan Steele
Posted by: Jan Steele | June 17, 2010 at 04:11 AM