Search - Bill Nelson :: Sounding the Ritual

One of the rarer albums

Anthony D Ravenscroft | Santa Fe, NM United States | 11/23/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Of the five "black box" CDs, this took me the longest to track down. Nelson's description of its genesis (see below) makes it sound unpromising, but the quirks add to the charm, & don't distract from the usual deft Nelsonian experimentation.



liner note:



"'Sounding the ritual Echo' was recorded in the privacy of my own home on broken or faulty tape machines and speakers, each track possessing its own technological deformity. For this I offer no apology as the music owes its existence to a very personal and selfish obsession. As a result, some pieces will require a little patience.



"This album, originally released as a limited edition in 1981, was the first in a series of purely instrumental albums issued by Cocteau Records from the archives of the Echo Observatory. Subsequent releases in this series have been as follows: Das Kabinett (The cabinet of Dr. Caligari), La Belle et la Bette (Beauty and the Beast) and Trial by Intimacy (The Book of Splendours). Further releases of this nature are planned for the near future.""