Anthony Moore harvested many mutant seeds for the fertile ground which was the Kosmische Deutschland of the early 1970s, and brought them home to rainy Britain. Here they would spawn and intermingle with the local species, through the hybrid vehicles of Slapp Happy and Henry Cow, the rest is weird, more or less occult psychedelean history. Before all of this, Moore produced ‘Pieces of the Cloudroom Ballroom’, an underground masterpiece which brings together the intricate and pensive cycles of minimal composition with the directional vectors of German Progressivism.

Take the opening piece, Jamjemjimjomjum- it sounds like Magma operating inside an architecture designed by Mies Van der Rohe rather than Constant Nieuwenhuis- it could be by the Boredoms actually. Or what we are leaving with you today, Abc Gol’fish, a walk through harpsichord heaven that unfolds fractally  in a way that reminds one of Steve Reich or Terry Riley, melodies that you hadn’t even realised were there suddenly coming to the surface like alien dolphins of kaleodoscopic beauty. Sadly, it ends rather suddenly, you run out of the cliff like Coyote chasing roadrunning beauty, gravity beckons, he only way to defeat it is by pressing play again.

Anthony Moore- Abc Gol’fish

Alternatively, you can step forward almost 40 years, when in a new stroke of genius, the good folks at RVNG International decided to bring Anthony together with Alexis Georgopoulos from Arp, an admirer of Pieces of the Cloudroom Canyon. This is part of the FRKWYS project, where RVNG are engineering collaborations that one only dare dream of, and publishing them in a lovely format for caring collectors.

The outcome is the most subtly mindblowing trip I have had for a while, it’s all about the gorgeous dissonance, moments of pure sound  all the more precious when bracketed in silence, awestruck walks inside the vaults of the cathedral of drone, and quotes to the titans of goodness Arthur Russell and Robert Wyatt. Spinette is the liveliest piece in the whole album, a lush continuation of Abc Gol’fish which sounds like a lullaby for wide-eyed children destined for polymathematic stardom.

ARP and Anthony Moore- Spinette

You should continue supporting the good cause of FRKWYS by purchasing the album here.

We finish this day of blissful trance with a some more illuminated waves off the solo project of our comrade/conspirator/brother Brian Deathbomb Arc, Back to the Future The Ride. Crystal Kisses on Reindeer Lake, included in the Pronoia Sunsets Cassette, is the sounds of all the worlds above melting into each other in a drone choral that would have made Gyorgy Ligeti proud. Pristine notes so clearly defined in the head of Zeus spring out and converge into a primeval sludge which is the outcome of the victory of magic over entropy, the Starchild has finally returned home.

Alternatively, you could think about it as one of those moments of pastoral beauty in No Age’s repertoire left to dry in the desert wastelands of an ageing planet. Aeons after, a supernova.

Back to the Future the Ride- Crystal Kisses on Reindeer Lake

You can download the debut self/titled EP here.

Epilogue -
This post is tagged with kosmische prog