Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard: Big In Europe Vol. 1 (Warsaw 2009) + Vol. 2 (Amsterdam 2009) 2013

KLAUS SCHULZE

                                                                                  

As both a solo artist and member of groups including Tangerine Dream and Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze is acknowledged as one of the founding fathers of contemporary electronic music. His epic,

meditative soundscapes helped pave the way for new age and ambient music, and his sequencer-driven rhythmic explorations anticipated the rise of techno and trance. Making his solo debut with 1972's visionary Irrlicht, recorded using tape machines and an electronic organ, Schulze began using synthesizers soon afterward, producing classics such as 1975's "Timewind" and 1976's "Moondawn". During the '80s, he switched to digital equipment on albums like "Dig It" (1980), as well as several releases under his Richard Wahnfried alias, which contained his most accessible material.
                                                                                       

After flirting with the possibilities of sampling on albums such as 1990's "Beyond Recall", Schulze explored classical music and opera on releases such as "Goes Classic" (1994) and "Dosburg Online" (1997), in addition to ambient techno on the Dark Side of the Moog series with Pete Namlook and Bill Laswell. During the 21st century, he collaborated with Dead Can Dance vocalist Lisa Gerrard on several concerts and recordings, and continued releasing solo works such as 2018's Silhouettes.
                                                         

Born in Berlin on August 4, 1947, Schulze began his performing career during the '60s, playing guitar, bass, and drums in a variety of local bands. By 1969, he was drumming in Tangerine Dream, appearing a year later on their debut LP, Electronic Meditation. The album was Schulze's lone effort with the group, however, as he soon co-founded Ash Ra Tempel with Manuel Gottsching and Harmut Enke, debuting in 1971 with a self-titled record; again, however, the band format appeared to stifle Schulze, and he mounted a solo career a few months later.
                                                                        

After collaborating with Stomu Yamash'ta on 1976's Go, Schulze resurfaced with a flurry of new solo material, including the LP "Moondawn", 1977's "Mirage", and two volumes of the porn soundtrack "Body Love". He remained extraordinarily prolific in the years to follow, with 1979's "Dune", inspired by the Frank Herbert sci-fi classic, becoming his 11th solo record released during the '70s alone.  In

2005, he began re-releasing his earlier works with previously unissued bonus tracks, in addition to giving wider releases to material that was previously only available as part of limited box sets The Ultimate Edition (2000) and Contemporary Works I (2000) and II (2002). In 2007, Schulze released the solo album "Kontinuum". He also began recording and performing concerts with Dead Can Dance singer Lisa Gerrard. The duo released Farscape and the live album Rheingold, both double CDs, in 2008. These were followed in 2009 by Dziękuję Bardzo, also featuring Gerrard, which was released as a triple CD as well as a DVD. Schulze's solo live two-CD/DVD Big in Japan appeared in 2010. The studio album Shadowlands appeared in 2013, as did The Schulze–Schickert Session 1975, a previously unearthed collaboration with Günter Schickert.
                                                              

Schulze announced in 2013 that he would no longer be performing concerts. He still continued to issue live albums, though, with two volumes of Big in Europe (with Gerrard) appearing in 2013 and 2014, and Stars Are Burning, a collection of previously unreleased concert recordings from the late '70s, surfacing in 2014. In 2016, Schulze and Namlook's Dark Side of the Moog work was anthologized as three limited-edition CD box sets, and in 2017, his four-part Ballet series was reissued. Silhouettes, Schulze's first studio album in five years, was released in 2018.
Artist Biography by Jason Ankeny.

Klaus Schulze on Urban Aspirines HERE

LISA GERRARD

                                                                          

Lisa Gerrard is an award-winning singer, composer, and instrumentalist from Australia who rose to

fame as a member of Dead Can Dance during the 1980s, and has remained an in-demand collaborator and soundtrack composer throughout. One of the most otherworldly vocalists of her time, she sings in the dramatic contralto and mezzo-soprano ranges, often in a self-created language.
                                                                          

As with Dead Can Dance's work, Gerrard's own music is virtually unclassifiable, incorporating folk melodies, traditional instruments, electronics, and orchestral arrangements. Among other instruments, she is particularly skilled at playing the yangqin, a Chinese hammered dulcimer. After releasing several albums as part of Dead Can Dance throughout the '80s and early '90s, she made her solo debut in 1995 with the full-length "The Mirror Pool".
                                                                         

By the early 2000s, she'd established herself as a notable film composer; her score for the 2000 film Gladiator, in collaboration with Hans Zimmer, won a Golden Globe and her original score for 2009's

Balibo which received an Aria award. Gerrard has worked on dozens of film and television scores such as A Thousand Roads (2005), Burning Man (2011), Samsara (2014), and Valley Of Shadows (2018) and released several more solo albums including 2009's "The Black Opal", and 2014's "Twilight Kingdom". She has engaged in numerous recorded and live collaborations with Pieter Bourke, Patrick Cassidy, Klaus Schulze, Le Mystère Des Voix Bulgares, among many others. In 2021, she and composer Jules Maxwell (Dead Can Dance's keyboardist) released the collaborative album "Burn".
                                                       

She went on a world tour, marking the first time she had ever toured in her home country. In 2008, Farscape, her collaboration with Klaus Schulze, was released and followed by a tour. Gerrard also worked on film and television soundtracks during the year. In 2009, she began her own Gerrard Records label, and undertook another tour with Schulze.
                                                                   

Composer Jules Maxwell joined Dead Can Dance as a keyboardist for the 2012 reunion world tour. He and Gerrard composed the song "Rising Of The Moon" together. The band eventually performed it as

each evening's final encore. They also collaborated on songs for 2018's BooCheeMish. Their tracks became the seed material for an album-length collaboration. With Maps' James Chapman as a collaborator and producer, they recorded an album across three continents during 2020's COVID-19 quarantine. The finished album was titled "Burn", and released in April 2021.
Artist Biography by Richie Unterberger.

 

Lisa Gerrard on Urban Aspirines HERE

BIG IN EUROPE VOL.1  WARSAW  2009

                     

Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard ‎– Big In Europe Vol. 1 Warsaw
Label: MIG ‎– MIG 01050 2DVD+CD
Format: CD, Album, DVD-Video
Country: Germany
Released: 29 Nov 2013
Genre: Rock
Style: Electronic

TRACKS

01. Voices Of Wielun     07:46
02. Kampania Wrzesniowa     06:03
03. Selbsterkennende Ganzwerdung     27:15
04.  A La Recherche Du Printemps Perdu     06:58
05. The Da Varsaw Code     10:28

MP3 @ 320 Size: 136 MB
Flac  Size: 293 MB

BIG IN EUROPE VOL.2  AMSTERDAM  2009

Klaus Schulze & Lisa Gerrard ‎– Big In Europe Vol. 2 - Amsterdam
Label: MIG ‎– MIG 01060 2CD+2DVD
Format: 2 × CD, Album, 2 × DVD, DVD-Video, NTSC
Country: Germany
Released: 19 Sep 2014
Genre: Rock
Style: Electronic

DISC 1.

01. Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck     8:47
02. Mad Ret Sma     6:39
03. Prinsengracht     18:11
04. The Polish Rider     12:44

MP3 @ 320 Size: 111 MB
Flac  Size: 259 MB

DISC 2.

 

01. Orcus Humanum Est     19:05
02. Leiden     19:40
03. Hieronymus     13:07
04. Le Moulin Deja Vu     13:36

MP3 @ 320 Size: 155 MB
Flac  Size: 372 MB

Current 93: Thunder Perfect Mind 1992 (Remastered 2005)

 
Current 93 are an English experimental music group, working since the early 1980s in folk-based musical forms. The band was founded in 1982 by David Tibet, who has been Current 93's only constant

member. Tibet has been the only constant member in the group, though Steven Stapleton (of Nurse with Wound) has appeared on nearly every Current 93 release. Michael Cashmore has also been a constant contributor since Thunder Perfect Mind. Douglas P. of Death in June has played on well over a dozen Current 93 releases, and Steve Ignorant of Crass (using the name Stephen Intelligent), Boyd Rice, runologist Freya Aswynn, Nick Cave, Björk, Andrew W.K., Anohni, Baby Dee, Will Oldham, Ben Chasny, Rose McDowall, Hank Williams III have also lent their talents over the years.
                                                                                                            

Current 93 have released over twenty albums and many singles as well. Much of Current 93's early work was similar to late 1970s and early 1980s industrial music: abrasive tape loops, droning synthesizer noises and Tibet's distorted, excoriating vocals.
                                                                                             

Tibet's lyrics have been fairly consistent, regardless of delivery: The earlier recordings reflect his

preoccupation with death, Christ, mysticism, Aleister Crowley (Tibet borrowed the term "93 Current" from Crowley – the 93 Current being the current of Thelema or Agape), Tibetan Buddhism, Gnosticism, runes, swastikas, Noddy, The Wicker Man, and a variety of occult notions. The later to present-day period of Current 93's recordings increasingly reflect Tibet's interest in Christian mysticism and apocalypse. Tibet has stated that he identifies as a Christian.
                                                                   

[With a glut of industrial-pop hybrids on the market in the 1980s and '90s, several bands stayed true to the experimental nature of early industrial music. The Psychic TV axis alone spawned many creative artists, including Current 93's David Tibet, who blends Gothic chanting and haunting atmospherics with industrial noisescapes courtesy of tape loops and synthesizers on one hand and genre blurring Gothic

folk on the other. Though Tibet doesn't quite have bandmates, he frequently works with a core of collaborators including ex-Psychic TV compatriot John Balance (more famous for his work with Peter Christopherson in Coil); Fritz Haaman, formerly of 23 Skidoo (like PTV an offshoot of the most influential of the early industrial acts, Throbbing Gristle); Steven Stapleton of Nurse with Wound fame; Rose McDowall of Strawberry Switchblade; and Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, also a former member of Psychic TV. Steven Stapleton is probably the most frequent member, appearing on virtually all Current 93 releases -- a favor which David Tibet returns by working with Stapleton on most projects by Nurse with Wound.
                                                                                     

The trio of Tibet, Balance, and Haaman debuted in 1983 by recording the single "Lashtah" for Laylah

Records. Until the end of the '80s, Tibet -- utilizing the various lineups -- recorded at a frenetic pace, issuing more than two albums per year for both Laylah and the Maldoror label. By the '90s, Tibet's output and style changed slightly: his productivity slowed somewhat, and the sound grew more subdued, encompassing acoustic folk in its most sinister permutations. Productivity picked up in the 2000s with more Current 93 material being recorded and reissued. Tibet also designed a bottle label for the Absinthe liquor company in 2005. 2006 saw the release of both Black Ships Ate the Sky and Sleep Has His House on Durtro Records, followed by Inmost Light in April 2007.
                                                                

A new Tibet side project, Myrninerest was formed with some of Current 93's collaborators including

Blackshaw, and Andrew Liles. Their debut, "Jhonn," Uttered Babylon, was recorded in memory of Jhonn Balance of Coil and released in 2012. In the fall of 2018, the band issued The Light Is Leaving Us All via the Spheres.
Biography by John Bush]
                                                                          

THUNDER PERFECT MIND

                                                                                 

Thunder Perfect Mind is an album by the English experimental group Current 93, released on 28 July 1992. It contains two tracks based on the Gnostic poem The Thunder, Perfect Mind, which also gave the album its name. Thunder Perfect Mind has a companion album by the same name recorded by Nurse With Wound, released at the same time, though the two albums have little in common with each other musically.

The album is one of David Tibet's more personal records, with several songs dedicated to friends, colleagues and people he had met. "All The Stars Are Dead Now" consists of a startling prophecy given to Tibet one night by the Planh of William Blake, while the epic "Hitler As Kalki (SDM)" is dedicated to "my father, who fought Hitler." The liner notes indicate that some believed Hitler was Kalki, the tenth and final incarnation of Vishnu, who would destroy the cosmos upon a white horse at the end of each world cycle.
                                                              

1992's THUNDER PERFECT MIND sees Current 93 leader David Tibet turning toward a self-styled

strain of pagan-Christian gnosticism (the title is from a Gnostic poem), and a fascination with the folk traditions of the British Isles. Every armchair theologist must have her exegesis, and THUNDER PERFECT MIND is the fundamental volume of Current 93's curious catechism. Tibet dissects imagery from Judeo-Christian, occult, Druid, and Eastern dogma, framed by a fragile skein of 12-string guitars, hand drums, harp, strings, and woodwinds.
                                                                         

His distinctively intoned song-poems are a complex framework for C93's Byzantine iconography.

Rose McDowall's wraithlike backing vocals, the presence of Death In June's dour Douglas P., and such apocalyptic pronouncements as "Rosy Star Tears from Heaven," "All the Stars are Dead Now," and "Hitler as Kalki (SDM)," raise the requisite goosebumps. THUNDER PERFECT MIND is singular, magical, and magnificent. It's where The Incredible String Band's bucolic whimsy meets forgotten apocryphal lore and the insinuating sonic sorcery of David Tibet's co-conspirator, Nurse With Wound's Steven Stapleton.

Current 93 ‎– Thunder Perfect Mind
Label: Durtro ‎– DURTRO JNANA 1979CD, Jnana Records ‎– DURTRO JNANA 1979CD
Format: 2 × CD, Album, Reissue, Remastered 2005
Country: US
Released: 1992
Genre: Rock
Style: Neofolk, Experimental

DISC 1. THUNDER PRFECT MIND

                                                                                   

01. A Beginning  (Voice – Shirley Collins)  0:44
02. The Descent Of Long Satan And Babylon   3:00
03. A Sadness Song     4:14
04. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead  (Guitar [Harmonic] – David Kenny)  4:58
05. In The Heart Of The Wood And What I Found There  2:50
06. Mary Waits In Silence  2:56
07. A Silence Song  (Cello – Sarah Bradshaw)  5:27
08. A Lament For My Suzanne  (Guitar [Harmonic] – David Kenny)  4:20
09. Riverdeadbank  (Lead Vocals – Renate Birulf)  3:46
10. All The Stars Are Dead Now  (Backing Vocals – Renate Birulf)  9:06
11. Rosy Star Tears From Heaven  3:05
12. When The May Rain Comes  (Bass – David Kenny, Lyrics By – Unknown Artis, tWritten-By – Sand)  3:24
13. Thunder Perfect Mind I  (Lyrics By – Unknown Artist)  5:05
14. Thunder Perfect Mind II  (Lyrics By – Unknown Artist)  2:21
15. Hitler As Kalki (SDM)  (Bass – Karl Blake, Guitar [Feedback] – David Kenny, Guitar, Dulcimer [Electric] – Nick Saloman [Bevis Frond] - Guitar)  16:28

KALKI

                                                                              

Kalki (a.k.a. Kalkin) is the tenth and final avatar of the Hindu god Vishnu, who will appear at the end of the present Kali Yuga age to punish the wicked, reward the good, and inaugurate the Satya Yuga age of sacrifice and dharma. It is also believed that Kalki will kill the demon Kali.
Kalki is described in the Puranas as the avatar who rejuvenates existence by ending the darkest and destructive period to remove adharma and ushering in the Satya Yuga, while riding a white horse with a fiery sword. The description and details of Kalki are different among various Puranas. Kalki is also found in Buddhist texts: For example the Kalachakra-Tantra of Tibetan Buddhism.

16. A Sadness Song   4:40
17. An Ending     2:21

MP3 @ 320 Size: 188 MB
FLAC  Size: 485 MB

DISC 2. THE THUNDER: PERFECT MIND

                                                                                      

01. Suzanne: She And I In Darkness We Lay And Lie     4:26
02. Red House     0:28
03. Our Lady Of Horsies     6:34
04. Anyway, People Die     1:46
05. Silence As Christine     2:24
06. Maldoror Is Ded Ded Ded  (Backing Vocals [Uncredited] – John Balance)  12:10
07. They Return To Their Earth     6:18
08. In Sadness Sang  (Lead Vocals – Rose McDowall)  4:19
09. ´Khor Ba´i Nyes Dmigs     1:28
10. Lament For Her     3:59
11. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead     6:14
12. They Return To Their Earth (For My Christ Thorn)     6:52
13. A Song For Douglas After He's Dead (Rebirth)     5:43

MP3 @ 320 Size: 153 MB
FLAC  Size: 390 MB

PERSONNEL

                                                                        

David Michael Tibet – vocals
Andria Degens, Simon Norris - Artwork [Statues Of Kalki Supplied By]  
Edward Ka-Spel - Bells  
David Kenny - Engineer  
Douglas P. - Guitar, Percussion [Hand]  
Michael Cashmore - Guitar, Producer  
Steven Stapleton - Guitar, Vocals, Mixed By, Producer  
Nick Saloman [Bevis Frind] – Electric dulcimer, acoustic and electric guitar (track 15)
James Malindaine-Lafayette - Harp  (tracks: 1-4, 1-8, 1-15)
Louis Wain - Illustration [Cat Drawings]
David Tibet - Lyrics  (tracks: 1-1 to 1-11, 1-15 to 2-13)
Denis Blackham - Mastered
Music By – Current 93 (tracks: 1-1 to 1-11, 1-13 to 2-13)
James Mannox - Percussion
Photography By [Cover] – Ruth Bayer
Joolie Wood - Violin, Tin Whistle, Clarinet, Recorder
John Balance - Vocals (tracks: 1-4, 1-8, 1-11, 1-12)

Notes

Thunder Perfect Mind was mixed, engineered and produced at Topic Studios, North London, between September 1990 and February 1992.
The Thunder: Perfect Mind: tracks 1 to 8 recorded during the Thunder Perfect Mind sessions. All these tracks subsequently appeared on the "Emblems" and "Calling For Vanished Faces" compilations, with the exception of "Red House".
Tracks 9 to 13 recorded live in Amiens, La Lune Des Pirates, 15 XII 1990 and was previously released on the album "As The World Disappears...".

THE DISCENT OF LONG SATAN AND BABYLON  LYRICS

                                                       

Long Satan and Babylon are walking
They're talking of fire and of ice
Of the silence that stalks in the forest
And a Christ spun out of the worlds

Long Satan and Babylon are moving
Through a world ripped away from its centre
They shear through the rushes
They follow the night night night night

                                                       

They want want want want want want
Everything
Long Satan and Babylon are rushing
They are hurtling away
From the centre of things
They are running from the inside

The wind cries full and in them
Cuts through their emptiness
Hoof on stone
Claw against sun
Where to look in an unknown

                                               

Where to search in the vast whole
Piggy-back cross oh piggy-black cross
Into the silence thundering
As they only hear the silence

They do not hear the pain
But Christ sees everything
The little children are falling
They'll topple till the end of the world

                                                                                 

Long Satan and Babylon keep running
Through a universe empty of sound
Though the world makes dark shadows
You must look in your heart
In the dark
You must look in your heart

Kevin Ayers: Joy Of A Toy 1969 + Kevin Ayers And The Whole World: Shooting At The Moon 1970

 

Kevin Ayers (16 August 1944 – 18 February 2013) was an English singer-songwriter who was active in

the English psychedelic music movement. Ayers was a founding member of the psychedelic band Soft Machine in the mid-1960s, and was closely associated with the Canterbury scene. He recorded a series of albums as a solo artist and over the years worked with Brian Eno, Syd Barrett, Bridget St John, John Cale, Elton John, Robert Wyatt, Andy Summers, Mike Oldfield, Nico and Ollie Halsall, among others.
                                                                                          

He was quickly drafted into the Wilde Flowers, a band that featured Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper, as well as future members of Caravan. Ayers stated in interviews that the primary reason he was asked to join was that he probably had the longest hair. However, this prompted him to start writing songs and

singing. The Wilde Flowers evolved into Caravan after Ayers and Wyatt left and eventually joined keyboardist Mike Ratledge and guitarist Daevid Allen to form Soft Machine.
Ayers switched to bass (and later both guitar and bass following Allen's departure from that group) and shared vocals with the drummer Robert Wyatt. The group's sound contrasted between Ayers' baritone and Wyatt's tenor singing, plus a mix of rock and jazz. The band often shared stages (particularly at the UFO Club) with Pink Floyd.
                                                                        

[Artist Biography by Richie Unterberger
Kevin Ayers was one of rock's oddest and more likable enigmas, even if he often seemed not to operate

at his highest potential. Perhaps that's because he never seemed to have taken his music too seriously -- one of his essential charms and most aggravating limitations. After the late '60s, he released many albums with a distinctly British sensibility, making ordinary lyrical subjects seem extraordinary with his rich low vocals, inventive wordplay, and bemused, relaxed attitude. Apt to flavor his songs with female backup choruses and exotic island rhythms, the singer/songwriter inspired the image of a sort of progressive rock beach bum, writing about life's absurdities with a celebratory, relaxed detachment. Yet he was also one of progressive rock's more important (and more humane) innovators, helping to launch Soft Machine as their original bassist, and working with noted European progressive musicians like Mike Oldfield, Lol Coxhill, and Steve Hillage.
                                                                                        

KEVIN AYERS - MIKE OLDFIELD AT HYDE PARK

Ayers cultivated a taste for the bohemian lifestyle early, spending much of his childhood in Majorca

before he moved with his mother to Canterbury in the early '60s. There he fell in with the town's fermenting underground scene, which included future members of Soft Machine and Caravan. For a while he sang with the Wilde Flowers, a group that also included future Softs Robert Wyatt and Hugh Hopper. He left in 1965, met fellow freak Daevid Allen in Majorca, and returned to the U.K. in 1966 to found the first Soft Machine lineup with Allen, Wyatt, and Mike Ratledge.
                                                                         

Wyatt is often regarded as the prime mover behind Soft Machine, but Ayers' contributions carried equal

weight in the early days. Besides playing bass, he wrote and sang much of their material. He can be heard on their 1967 demos and their 1968 debut album, but by the end of 1968 he felt burned out and quit. Selling his bass to Mitch Mitchell of the Jimi Hendrix Experience, he began to write songs on guitar, leading to a contract with Harvest in 1969. His relationship with his ex-Soft Machine mates remained amiable; in fact, Wyatt and Ratledge (as well as Ayers' replacement, Hugh Hopper) guested on Ayers' 1969 debut.
                                                             

BRIAN ENO - NICO - KEVIN AYERS - JOHN CALE

Ayers' solo material reflected a folkier, lazier, and gentler bent than Soft Machine. In some respects he was comparable to Syd Barrett, without the madness -- and without the ferocious heights of

Barrett's most innovative work. Ayers was never less than enjoyable and original, though his albums were erratic right from the start, veering from singalong ditties and pleasant, frothy folk ballads to dissonant improvisation. The more ambitious progressive rock elements came to the forefront when he fronted the Whole World in the early '70s. The backing band included a teenage Mike Oldfield on guitar, Lol Coxhill on sax, and David Bedford on piano. But Ayers only released one album with them before they dissolved.
                                                                                      

Ayers continued to release albums in a poppier vein throughout the '70s, at a regular pace. As some critics have noted, this dependable output formed an ironic counterpoint to much of his lyrics, which

often celebrated a life of leisure, or even laziness. That lazy charm was often a dominant feature of his records, although Ayers always kept things interesting with offbeat arrangements, occasionally singing in foreign tongues, and flavoring his production with unusual instruments and world music rhythms. He (or Harvest) never gave up on the singles market, and indeed his best early-'70s efforts in that direction were accessible enough to have been hits with a little more push. Or a little less weirdness. Even Ayers at his most accessible and direct wasn't mainstream, a virtue that endeared him to his loyal cult.
                                                                                   

That cult was limited to the rock underground, and Ayers logically concentrated on the album market throughout the 1970s. Almost always pleasant, eccentric, and catchy, these nonetheless started to sound like a cul-de-sac by the mid-'70s. Ayers pressed on without changing his approach, despite the

dwindling audience for progressive rock and the oncoming train of punk and new wave. He only recorded sporadically after 1980, though he remained active in the early '90s, mostly on the European continent.
After living for many years in Deià, Majorca, he returned to the United Kingdom in the mid-1990s before moving to the south of France. His last album, The Unfairground, was released in 2007. The British rock journalist Nick Kent wrote: "Kevin Ayers and Syd Barrett were the two most important people in British pop music. Everything that came after came from them."
                                                              

Released in 2007, The Unfairground returned Ayers to the recording studio supported by a host of admiring younger musicians (including Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub, Bill Wells, Frank Reader

from Trash Can Sinatras, and Euros Childs from Gorky's Zygotic Mynci) as well as old friends and collaborators (including Phil Manzanera, Robert Wyatt, Hugh Hopper, and Bridget St. John). The album garnered a positive critical response but did not signal a return to the public eye for Ayers, however, and he returned to a reclusive life in the south of France. Ayers died in February 2013 at his home in the village of Montolieu; he was 68 years old.

JOY OF A TOY  1969

                                                                            

Joy of a Toy is the debut solo album of Kevin Ayers, a founding member of Soft Machine. Its whimsical and singular vision provides hints of how Soft Machine might have progressed had Ayers remained in the band. He is accompanied on the LP by pianist and arranger David Bedford as well as his erstwhile Soft Machine colleagues Robert Wyatt and Mike Ratledge, and his eventual replacement Hugh Hopper, who had previously worked with him in the semi-pro band Wilde Flowers. Among the session musicians are cellist and arranger Paul Buckmaster, jazz bassist Jeff Clyne, oboist Paul Minns (of Third Ear Band) and drummer Rob Tait (formerly of Pete Brown and His Battered Ornaments before going on to join Vinegar Joe).
                                                                          

01. Joy Of A Toy Continued     2:53
02. Town Feeling  4:50
03. The Clarietta Rag  3:20    
04. Girl On A Swing  2:49    
05. Song For Insane Times     4:01
06. Stop This Train (Again Doing It)  6:05    
07. Eleanor`s Cake (Which Ate Her)     2:54
08. The Lady Rachel  5:17    
09. Oleh Oleh Bandu Bandong  5:35    
10. All This Crazy Gift Of Time  3:52

BONUS TRACKS
    
11. The Lady Rachel - Extended First Mix  6:44    
12. Clarence in Wonderland (BBC Top Gear Session)  4:52    
13. Stop This Train (Again Doing It)(BBC Top Gear Session)     5:47
14. Why Are We Sleeping (BBC Top Gear Session)  8:52    
15. You Say You Like My Hat (BBC Top Gear Session)     3:12

Musicians

Kevin Ayers – guitars, bass, melodica, harmonica, vocals
Robert Wyatt – drums
David Bedford – piano, mellotron, arranger
Mike Ratledge – organ
Hugh Hopper – bass (1 and 5)
Paul Buckmaster – cello
Jeff Clyne - double bass (2 and 7)
Rob Tait – drums (tracks 6 and 9)
Paul Minns – oboe

STOP THIS TRAIN (AGAIN DOING IT)  LYRICS

                                                                                       

On a railway train to anywhere,
Something happened finally.
The driver said he saw no station
And we were riding aimlessly.

The train was filled with sleeping passengers,
Going nowhere for the ride;
Spoken whispers filled the carriages
No one cared to look outside.

Conversation aimed at anyone
Bouncing questions off the wall;
Except for two excited children.
Burning caterpillars in the hall.

All at once, I got quite frightened.
Standing up, I gave a shout!
"I see a station just in front of me,
Stop this train and let me out!"

The driver smiled and shook his head for me,
"This train don't stop for anyone.
And, if you want to leave this railway line,
You'll have to jump off on your own.

Someone came and gave me sandwiches,
Saying that I looked unwell.
He took my pulse and he gave it back to me,
And then he hit me with his bell.

He made a speech to all the passengers,
He said "i've been a place today;
And anyone who'd care to come with me.
Step outside and walk this way."

Inside the seats were warm and comfortable,
Outside the train was wild and strange.
I said, "yes, sir, I'd like to come with you,
It's really time I made a change."

I left my seat and walked up front with him,
And he began to push the door.
I looked outside, but it nearly blinded me.
I'd never seen such light before.

MP3 @ 320 Size: 167 MB
Flac  Size: 430 MB

KEVIN AYERS AND THE WHOLE WORLD - SHOOTING AT THE MOON  1970

 

Shooting at the Moon is the second solo album of Kevin Ayers, on Harvest Records. David Ross Smith

of AllMusic writes: "A snapshot of the era, the album is saturated with original ideas, experimentation, and lunacy, all powered by the bottled grape."
In early 1970, Ayers assembled a band he called The Whole World to tour his debut LP Joy of a Toy that included a young Mike Oldfield, David Bedford, Lol Coxhill, Mick Fincher, the folk singer Bridget St. John and Robert Wyatt. After a UK tour, Ayers took the Whole World into the studio to cut an LP, produced, like his debut, with Peter Jenner.
                                                    

The line-up produced a heady mixture of ideas and experimentation with two distinctive styles emerging; carefree ballads like "Clarence in Wonderland" and "May I?" abutted the avant-garde experimentation of songs like "Reinhardt and Geraldine" and "Underwater". The album has since become a best seller in Ayers' catalogue.

TRACKS

                                                                        

01. May I?  4:01    
02. Rheinhardt & Geraldine / Colores Para Delores  5:40    
03. Lunatics Lament  4:53    
04. Pisser Dans Un Violon  8:03     
05. The Oyster And The Flying Fish  2:37    
06. Underwater      3:54
07. Clarence In Wonderland  2:06    
08. Red Green And You Blue  3:52    
09. Shooting At The Moon  5:50
    
BONUS TRACKS

10. Gemini Child (BBC Alan Black Session)  3:13    
11. The Lady Rachel (BBC Alan Black Session)  6:20    
12. Shooting At The Moon (BBC Alan Black Session)  3:17    
13. Derby Day (BBC Top Gear Session 9 June 1970)  3:06    
14. Interview (BBC Top Gear Session 9 June 1970)  0:58    
15. We Did It Again / Murder In The Air (BBC Top Gear Session 9 June 1970) 11:37

Musicians

Kevin Ayers – guitar, bass, vocals

The Whole World

David Bedford – organ, piano, accordion, marimbaphone, guitar
Lol Coxhill – saxophone, zoblophone
Mike Oldfield – bass, guitar and vocal
Mick Fincher – drums, percussion, bottles & ashtrays
The Whole World Chorus – backing vocals

Additional musicians

Bridget St. John – vocals ("The Oyster And The Flying Fish")
Robert Wyatt – vocals ("Colores Para Delores")

MP3 @ 320 Size: 163 MB
Flac  Size: 386 MB