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THIRD EAR BAND-MACBETH-'72 UK EXPERIMENTAL Roman Polanski OST-NEW LP
Third Ear Band – Music From Macbeth
Label:
Munster Records – MR 410
Format:
Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue
Country:
Spain
Released:
2020
Genre:
Electronic, Classical, Folk, World, & Country, Stage & Screen
Style:
Soundtrack, Neo-Classical, Experimental, Folk
Commissioned by the acclaimed film director Roman Polanski, the English cult band Third Ear Band faced the challenge in order to insert a hell of imagination and creativity to his very own, author cinematographic version of Macbeth, a play by William Shakespeare. The resulting 44 minutes of imaginative sounds, divided in 16 outstanding pieces, is an astonishing example of an archaic, twisted, abstract psychedelia, rooted on medieval and classical textures. A Monster-Munster gem!
As a luxurious aperitif for the future release of the Elements album (including its extra sauces), Munster Records bring us Macbeth, the staggering soundtrack by the English band Third Era Band for a Roman Polanski's film, recorded and produced in 1971. A magical invitation urging the listener to dive into unsuspected regions of boldness, unpredictability, and an intimate abstract-folkster-experimentalism. According to the founding member Glenn Sweeney, the music was called alchemical because it was produced by repetition. However, mind it, such repetition doesn't follow the same musical structures of, let's say, Terry Rilley, Steve Reich or Philip Glass due to its indefinite nature of internal-twisted and tormented passages of a peculiar poetic enchantment. The band, formed in Canterbury, started in 1967 playing an oriental hypnotic-free-form-folk. Signed to the prosperous cult label Harvest, they debuted in 1969 with Alchemy, an instrumental jazzy-psych improvisational album. A fully formed masterpiece came in 1970 on the already aforementioned self-titled opus, also known as Elements. For Macbeth, their third one, just the main chief Glenn Sweeney (assorted percussion) and Richard Coff (viola and violin) remained from the original four-piece line-up. It was recorded when half of the quartet - Richard Coff (viola and violin) and Ursula Smith cello) – had already departed, and they were about to record a third album entitled The Dragon Wakes, which had promised to be an electric album with rock influences. Aside from a few sessions, this album was never completed. The themes presented on the film were composed in an improvised manner while watching black and white excerpts of the oeuvre. The music, recorded in six weeks at George Martin's Air Studios, in July 1971, has the same unconventional and quite unique dimension as the film itself. It is an auteur music for an auteur film. The music seems to fit perfectly the deliriously idiosyncratic free narrative of the story adapted by Polanski, even if it was used sparingly or remixed in a debatable form for a purist music fan. Glenn Sweeney summarized his creation better than any critics attempted: Third Ear Band music is a reflection of the universe as magic play illusion simply because it could not possibly be anything else. Words cannot describe this ecstatic dance of sound, or explain the alchemical repetition seeking and sometimes finding archetypal forms, elements and rhythms... There is an arty-medieval atmosphere overall, and it's folkishly ludic in tracks like 'Overture', 'Iverness', 'Court Dance' and 'Fleance', where the experimental interjections function as colorful devices. 'Fleance' – with the guest singer Keith Chegwin - is a scintillating highlight. The poetic assaults of concrete music are present in themes like 'The Beach', 'Ambush', 'Prophesies', as if every drumming fractures, singing seagulls or sharp whistles where conducting us to waves of fear into the unknown. There are other lost beauties in its official 44 minutes like the minimal oboe melody of 'Lady Macbeth' floating as a centipede of dreams or the lyrical guitar chords of 'The Banquet' punctuating a climax of sheer mystery. And, by the way, that is the song played during a banquet at the castle when the band appears for a few precious seconds on the film. Taking in consideration the uniqueness of the film, we have in here a sublime soundtrack for it. A music that makes us feel the unfathomable and the unpredictable, sometimes going softly as a solid mystery piece. Close your eyes and enjoy an adventure in this kaleidoscopical carpet of unexpected possibilities of the imagination.
Tracklist
A1 Overture
A2 The Beach
A3 Lady Macbeth
A4 Inverness: Macbeth's Return / The Preparation / Fanfare / Duncan's Arrival
A5 The Banquet
A6 Dagger And Death
A7 At The Well / The Princes' Escape / Coronation / Come Sealing Night
A8 Court Dance
B1 Fleance
B2 Groom's Dance
B3 Bear Baiting
B4 Ambush / Banquo's Ghost
B5 Going To Bed / Blind Man's Buff / Requiescant / Sere And Yellow Leaf
B6 The Cauldron
B7 Prophesies
B8 Wicca Way
Companies, etc.
Recorded At – Air Studios
Produced For – Blackhill Enterprises Ltd.
Licensed From – Cherry Red Records Ltd.
Manufactured For – Distrolux SL
Marketed By – Distrolux SL
Pressed By – GZ Media – 210192E
Credits
Arranged By – Third Ear Band
Cover – Roger Dean (4)
Engineer – Dave Harries
Liner Notes – Fernando Naporano
Musician [Third Ear Band], Cello, Bass Guitar – Paul Buckmaster
Musician [Third Ear Band], Drums – Glen Sweeney
Musician [Third Ear Band], Guitar [Guitars] – Denim Bridges
Musician [Third Ear Band], Oboe, Recorder – Paul Minns
Musician [Third Ear Band], Violin, Synthesizer [V.C.S. 3] – Simon House
Producer – Andrew King (3), Third Ear Band
Written By – Bridges / Sweeney / Minns / Buckmaster
Written-By – Bridges*, Sweeney*, Buckmaster*, Minns*
Notes
Licensed courtesy of Cherry Red Records Ltd
Includes a 12" square insert & a hype sticker on front shrink with barcode
Barcode and Other Identifiers
Barcode: 8435008841010
8435008841010 MR 410 LP THIRD EAR BAND MACBETH