Victo CD 015

Home , Alfred 23 Harth, Art Bears, Chris Cutler, Lindsay Cooper, Mike Westbrook, Oh Moscow

Oh Moscow was conceived by Lindsay Cooper and Sally Potter in 1987, when superpower confrontation seemed ever lasting; walls had already fallen when this performance was recorded at the Victoriaville (Quebec) Festival in 1989. But separation and reconciliation are transcendent themes for any song cycle and Potter’s direct verses consider the wider issue of European postwar divisions. There is outrage at the wealth squandered on military confrontation while the lessons of 'mother Russia’ are neglected in favour of more appealing American cultural imports. She sings her texts with moving commit ment and is joined by the inimitable Phil Minton, who in The Allies' parodies the entire voice of America from Elvis to ' Donald Duck. Lindsay Cooper’s musical sensibility borrows from Weill, Westbrook and the Trio Bulgarka to avoid American accents; her own playing on bassoon and saxes is resolutely Eastern. But the impact of this music would have been more incisive without so many rhetorical interludes for the instrumentalists. Pianist Elvira Plenar’s interlude of Tayloresque Tartary is impressive but, like Alfred 23 Harth’s screaming sax, too

predictable in this context. Marilyn Mazur's drum solo in 'Liberty Bonds' is, conversely, a model of economy and caps the best music of the cycle. Chris Clark Lindsay Cooper FOR BASSOON ANDA FILM page 20 The comic, but also mollifying 'West Side Story' that David Thomas tells/sings on the flexidisc in last month's V IN Y L has an un expected intermezzo on bassoon. It is played by Lindsay Cooper, who accompanied Tho mas on his tour in Holland. Lindsay Cooper?Henry Cow? Indeed. But she can, in the meanwhile, be associated with a lot more. Such as film. And with im provised music of Fig. Fig?

Initially Lindsay Cooper is well-known as a member of the group Henry Cow. She played on four records of this English group, which has in the meanwhile become almost legen dary with insiders. That was between ‘74 and ‘76. Few would know that Lindsay was a part of the nearly famous Comus at the be ginning of the 70’s. After the period with Henry Cow she played on the Ip’s of Slapp Happy and Art Bears. Whoever feels themselves almost at home with pop music, but prefers jazz and improvised music, can recall an entirely different musi cal history of Lindsay Cooper. Because she played, for example, together with the Dutch bassist Maarten van Regteren Altena in his octet and was a part of the avant-garde jazz ‘bigband’, The Mike Westbrook Orchestra Finally Lindsay Cooper is a member since the founding in 1977 - of the Feminist Im provising Group (FIG). As the name would imply, this gremp is comprised only of women 7 with a nucleus of Ir&ne Schweizer, Georgie Born, Maggie Nichols, Sally Potter and Corine Liensol. Besides the propagandizing of femi nism, FIG also has another objective: to strip improvised music of it’s exclusive image and open it to a broader public, amongst others through a different presentation. Singing is slmost a taboo in improvised music, whilst now there is not only singing, but dan cing as well. Lindsay says that, in the first place, she learned from FIG what an unpre dictable happening a performance actually can be. Although there are still incidental performan ces, FIG doesn’t actually exist anymore. A few members still work together in small combinations on new projects. That applies for example, to the film that Lindsay is busy with at the moment, as she is also active in that area. —Why do you feel attracted to writing film music? — “Music has a definite possibility of application with film. You can work concretely on a clear- cut aim, without it becoming impartial. My first experience with making films and film- music was ‘The Song of the Shirt’ in 1979, a historical film about women textile workers in 19th century England. My contribution at that time went a lot further than writing so me atmosphere music for the soundtrack. 1 researched the function of music in the mid dle of the 19th century -for both the upper- classes as well as the workers- and set authen tic lyrics to music.” Lindsay released the soundtrack lp ‘Rags’ her self. On it can be heard, besides Lindsay; Fred Frith, Chris Cutler and a few members of FIG. Besides that she has also>vritten soundtracks for a number of BBC documentaries. At the moment a big film project is claiming most of her time. The as yet untitled film must be ready in February ’83. It is a co-pro duction of Sally Potter (producer), Rose English (director) and Lindsay Cooper. They wrote the scfipt together. The story takes pla ce around the enforced career of a filmstar. One of the two lead roles is played by Julie Christie. Lindsay Cooper sees herself mainly as an im- provisational musician and composer of film- music. Not a classical musician (“I only did that at the conservatory” .), not a jazz musi cian (“I’m not good at difficult rhythms and wierd chords, and my technique is not advan ced enough”), and not a pop musician (“That is too long ago”). Nevertheless she finds it fun to tour with David Thomas. It is a nice chance to again come into contact with the pop circuit. “David ended up with me through Rough Trade. He needed a brass instrument, but sax didn’t seem suitable. The Bassoon seemed to fit much better with his voice. It was very ex citing playing with him. I have always been fascinated in the tension field between struc tured music (with for example written parts) and unstructured music (freely improvised). And this was again a new variation on that tension field: most of the lyrics and act are fixed, and yet in places I had to improvise on it.” Mart Roegholt. LINDSAY COORER • V i - "Music for Other Occasions" Sync Pulse

Di Lindsay Cooper amiamo senza reticenze I'impegno e I'abili- ta con cui si muove nel contesto di una creativity riletta al femmi nile. Nell'album di famiglia della musica rock-progressiva europea la sua foto appare nelle diverse stagioni, mai fuori luogo. Alla base di un'arte cosi sfaccettata c'e senz'altro una questione di coerenza e totale dedizione; una coerenza estrema che ha persino rischiato di decontestualizzare una genia di musicisti assillata dal sogno politico di una musica/real- ta. Lindsay Cooper, rispetto ad altri protagonist) del free-rock, si 6 messa in salvo da certi pericoli, eludendone le marcate asperita, in virtu di un progetto che non ha negato possibility agli stimoli delle molte esperienze affrontate. A tutte si e dedicata con eguale intensity. Ma veniamo al disco in questione. ~~ "Music for Other Occasions", gtfsi come suggerisce il titolo, e dedicato a quelle altre occasioni che vedono la Cooper in quality di artiste dagli interessi multimediali, impegnata cioe a porre in rapporto dialettico musica e immagi- ne, musica e teatralizzazione. II materiale raccolto e per certi aspetti eteroge- neo - temi da film, musiche per danza e per il teatro - anche se nell'insieme prospetta un sjgnificativo contributo alia conoscenza del personaggio Cooper nella peculiarer dimensione compositiva. I sedici frammenti compilati nelle due pagine ammettono comunque una soprendente omogeneita sia~pur neira polivalente ispirazione di un'artista dalle larghe vedute e dalla mente liberata. In "Music for Other Occasions" si avvertono distintamente i riferimenti all'esperienza di Henry Cow ("Speed of Light"), alle indagini tra jazz e musica popolare acutamcnte intentatc Mike Westbrook, alia canzony 'colta' Holla prima meta del secolo. Ma il tutto y rifuso in un canovaccio espressivo forte- mente caratterizzato, a segno delle molte ipfluenze perfettamente assimilate e di una vena compositiva che fa dell'jntelligente .rilettura un efficace mezzo di emancipazione stilistica. In questi brandelli d'illuminata creativity femminile affiorano i ricordi di Kurt Weill e Nino Rota, le crudezze del libero-rock, i barbagli grotteschi di una brass-band, il canto fermo e trasversale di donne impegnate. Accahtc a Lindsay un Chris Cutler di alta poesia percussiva ed un bel collettivo di militanza femminile: Sally Potter, Dagmar Krause, Maggie Nicpls, Kate West brook ed altre ancora.

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