Sunleif Rasmussen, Karsten Vogel, Jóhannus Á Rógvu Joensen, Aage Tanggaard in 1984

This is the last album in Karsten the bird of beauty's discography I was curious to hear and it comes in the year 1984, just after the remarkable Signature album.  Unfortunately in the credits you can see he wasn't involved as composer, despite the fact the music sounds like a more acoustic and stripped down version of his own works.  Specifically the composers are Johannus Á Rógvu Joensen (tracks: B1, B3) and Sunleif Rasmussen (tracks: A1, A2, B2).

Here's the first track:






Later on side b some very advanced music, almost atonal, appears on the part of Rasmussen on electric organ, with the album closing out in a very melancholy manner, not so surprisingly.

Back to Karsten Vogel with a rare album from 1980 (Hans Christian Andersen)

I've tried to complete his discography in these pages because he made so much beautiful music, first of course with Secret Oyster, later on with his own solo stuff under the "Birds of Beauty" designation.  In this album he plays music with his band whilst Hans Christian Andersen is read.  The notes from the LP state, specifically:  Frits Helmuth reading the fairy tale "Vinden fortæller om Valdemar Daae og hans Døttre (The Wind Tells about Valdemar Daae and His Daughters)" by Hans Christian Andersen accompanied by the music of Karsten Vogel.

Thomas Clausen we knew from before, and he's on keys.

As usual, the lush and gorgeous, slightly melancholy music that was a hallmark of his in Secret Oyster and the other albums I've posted from him in the past reappear on this 1980 LP.  You may find the talking a little distracting as I did, but the music is amazing.

Just check out the Prelude:





Equally beautiful is his gentle and tender epilogue, you shall see.

Whilst you might observe that the most Secret Oysterish tune here is the B2 no-talk track on Alchemy:





Alchemy indeed: auditory transmutations from gold, right?
The one disappointment is that the music isn't louder in the mix.  Anyone have a program to remove talk and leave only music?
I could really use that here at home-- no, I don't mean because I'm married......

Apologies for being a little careless with the song starts and stops here & there.  The problem is the tracks all run into each other throughout.

Birds of Beauty's [Karsten Vogel] Pelican from 1978

Many thanks to our friends for help with these posts, as always...

Oddly enough this album is totally different from the 1976 album of the same name under his soloist credit, despite the expectation that it would be an English 'translation' of the original Danish.  First of all recall he was in the supreme and unparalleled fusion band Secret Oyster.  And I posted his 1983 album, which was quite impressive indeed, in December 2014.

You can check the band lineups here, note they are different for each track.  Compositions by Karsten, obviously.  The gorgeous ECM-like Little Wren:





The Hungry Mother track, with its classic fusion minor seconds, opposite of what the back depicts of course (from Shakespeare we all know the old mythical belief the mother tore open her breast to feed her young, which logically raises the question why does her beak have a large pouch often full of fish):





What's interesting to me here is you can tell from the trademark musical sounds where he contributed to Secret Oyster, for example the Fender playing an upgoing chord progression (Butterfly Blossom), the abrupt change from a minor beginning to a purely major chord progression (same), the 'birdlike' soprano sax tweeting (Gong-Gong), the melancholy, sombre mood of the slow pieces (the above Wren), etc.  Unfortunately, we have to admit it's a slightly uneven album with here and there some Secret Oysters of shiny brilliance but a lot of tedious late-70s fuzak too.

And again many thanks to the generosity of my occasional contributors, wherever you are in the world, always at far-flung destinations from whoever might be reading this...

Secret Oyster's Karsten Vogel in 1983's Signature [by request!]

Karsten Vogel ex-Birds Of Beauty, Burnin Red Ivanhoe, Secret Oyster, Taylor's Free Universe...
Danish composer, conductor, saxophonist and music teacher, born 11 January 1943 [and now 71]...

As briefly mentioned with regards to bandmate Knudsen from Secret Oyster (SO), he made quite a few interesting jazz-rock-folk albums after SO, in the late 70s early 80s.  Too bad these are still relatively secret themselves, but beautiful like pure pearls in oysters.

In this particular album you'll notice shades of SO's beautifully thoughtful side as in the track "Mind Symbol," and like me, it will break your heart when you think of how gorgeous SO could be at its height in its stay in the Krankenhaus or the inimitable, incomparably beautiful Astarte:




At the same time there is a curious dichotomy where half the songs are gospel-like simplistic progressions, with sax raining down from above, reminding me of those Keith Jarrett-like tendencies to play rollicky gospel that to me really detracted from his advanced compositional capabilities.  But overall, from this record, we can here get a sense of just how much of SO was Karsten's creation, such as the piano obliggatos in minor keys over which his sax flies and weaves its aerial beauty, so I ask you please, Karsten, to fly high like the beautiful bird that you are, for us....  

And have a listen to the other two records before this one too if you get a chance... they're well worth hearing.