Showing posts with label Ralph Towner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ralph Towner. Show all posts

Sunday, August 27, 2023

Ralph Towner - Blue Sun (1983)

 


Related:

Still can't prioritize this blog at the moment, but I wanted to quickly drop some Sunday listening on you. Like Towner's Diary, Blue Sun is a completely solo endeavor, which means that he wrote and performed every piece of it -- guitars, piano, cornet, synthesizers, some light percussion. Very easy on the ears kinda stuff.

Track listing:
1. Blue Sun
2. The Prince and the Sage
3. C.T. Kangaroo
4. Mevlana Etude
5. Wedding of the Streams
6. Shadow Fountain
7. Rumours of Rain


Also listen to:

Friday, April 12, 2019

Kenny Wheeler - Deer Wan (1978)


Previously on OPIUM HUM:
John Taylor, Norma Winston, & Kenny Wheeler - Azimuth (1977)

Laid-back but sprawling, stream-of-consciousness pieces, helmed by Canadian trumpeter/flugelhorn-player Kenny Wheeler, and featuring a band of ECM heavyweights -- check the tags.

Track listing:
1. Peace for Five
2. 3/4 in the Afternoon
3. Sumother Song
4. Deer Wan

Follow down

You'd also enjoy:
Barre Phillips -
Mountainscapes (1976)
Paul Motian Trio -
Le Voyage (1979)

Thursday, May 1, 2014

Ralph Towner - Solstice (1974)


More ECM excellence, this time from a four-piece group of ECM heavyweights -- saxophonist Jan Garbarek, keyboardist Eberhard Weber, drummer Jon Christensen, and guitarist/bandleader Ralph Towner. While much of Towner's work is placid and sparse, with Solstice, the full-band sound lends a welcome sense of dissonance and unrest to his compositions, leading to one of his most diverse, dynamic, and memorable outings.

Track listing:
1. Oceanus
2. Visitation
3. Drifting Petals
4. Nimbus
5. Winter Solstice
6. Piscean Dreams
7. Red and Black
8. Sand

Distant hills

Friday, March 21, 2014

Ralph Towner - Diary (1973)


First fully solo album from American guitarist Ralph Towner. Tranquil but buoyant compositions for piano, twelve-string and classical guitar, performed entirely by Towner alone. I've heard almost all of his albums, and this is probably my favorite.

Track listing:
1. Dark Spirit
2. Entry in a Diary
3. Images Unseen
4. Icarus
5. Mon Enfant
6. Ogden Road
7. Erg
8. The Silence of a Candle

Sipping the past

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Oregon - Music of Another Present Era (1972)


Phenomenal debut album from this innovative group, whose members included, at the time, guitarist Ralph Towner, bassist Glen Moore, oboist Paul McCandless, and multi-instrumentalist Collin Walcott. Their distinct blending of Indian and 'Western' classical folk styles with jazz fusion and psychedelia has never sounded better than it does here.

Track listing:
1. North Star
2. The Rough Places Plain
3. Sail
4. At the Hawk's Well
5. Children of God
6. Opening
7. Naiads
8. Shard / Spring Is Really Coming
9. Bell Spirit
10. Baku the Dream Eater
11. The Silence of a Candle
12. Land of Heart's Desire
13. The Swan
14. Touchstone

Eyes