Label: ADN

オリジナルLP入荷!!イタリアADN系列Auf Dem Nilが89年に残した隠れ面白物件のデッドストック。LAFMS系ファンにはお馴染みMedicineのBrad Lanerや、どこかの無名？アンサンブル、ラオス、カンボジアのミュージシャンまでが参加した、James Grigsby指揮による西海岸発の不定形集団The Motor Totemist Guildの廃盤LP[Omaggio A Futi]。民族音楽にジャズ、クラシック、ロックなど、既成ネタを軸にボコボコのコラージュ調に組み立てた意味不明音楽。凄まじいイメージの交錯。





Organized around LAFMS associate James Grigsby, also founding member of the California Outside Music Association (abbreviated COMA) Motor Totemist Guild was formed in Los Angeles in 1980 together with poet/singer Christine Clements. Throughout the 1970’s Grigsby had been involved with the study and performance of electronic music, Renaissance polyphony, progressive rock, post-Webern serialism, Balinese gamelan and punk-jazz. Clements was active in the San Francisco poetry scene.
In 1984, after a move to Los Angeles, they released their first project, Infra Dig, the inaugural LP release on Grigsby’s private label, Rotary Totem Records. Augmented by a large group of musical guests, featuring Brad Laner (ex Savage Republic) among the other, the album, along with weird songs, free play confusion, chamber prog, electronic, modern classic and complex improvisations ( not far from Henry Cow orthe Art Bears) is centered around the endless collage-suite "Omaggio a Futi". It is complex piece with various sounds and noises, various vocal interludes, choir singing, scraps of speech, tape games, short text recitations, electronic sounds, angular solos on flute, cello and piano and short excerpts from performances by the USC Contempory Chamber Ensemble and two gamelan ensembles from Cambodia and Laos

"... a proven mastermind ... Grigsby’s music while demanding and complex is also liable to become light-hearted or whimsical...Grigsby’s shrewd and at times roguish compositional style is strikingly impressive; hence, his somewhat legendary status in the so-called progressive music industry."
Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz

"It is always very good to cross borders and create misunderstanding in music."
Louis Andriessen