Experimental Q2 + Paul Weiner's Gramophon + Marius Popp - 7LP BUNDLE

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Cvintetul de jazz ''Gramophon'' al lui Paul Weiner
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Marius Popp
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*** This bundle contains : "Experimental Q2 - Marș funebru la moartea unui astronaut = Funeral March For The Death Of An Astronaut" (1LP) vinyl + "Cvintetul de jazz ''Gramophon'' al lui Paul Weiner - Spirale II = Spirals II" (3LP) vinyl + "Marius Popp - Library Music Crate Diggers" (3LP) vinyl ***
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Experimental Q2 - Marș funebru la moartea unui astronaut =
Funeral March For The Death Of An Astronaut" (1LP)

Those of you who have journeyed with the Romanian Sounds Unearthed series from the start will know this is not the first time we’ve offered you a glimpse into the underground music scene of 1970s Cluj-Napoca. In fact you will recognize both the band and the track that gives this album its name from the previous release, “Experimental Q2”, the fourth in the R.S.U. series. Derived from its first iteration but without keeping the original line-up, this band from Cluj-Napoca was, like many others, a collaboration between Conservatory students, inspired by the musical influence of their Western counterparts.

Lengthy compositions have always been the hallmark of progressive-jazz-rock and by 1978 the genre already had examples that have become classics, like the early works of King Crimson (“Lizard”; “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic”) or Pink Floyd’s “Atom Heart Mother” with its full brass section. By comparison, Experimental Q2 appeared to be late to the party: the aforementioned works had been released at the beginning of the 70s when most of the Western prog-rock bands had moved away from this sort of compositions for various reasons. Nevertheless, in 1978, Experimental Q2 came up with the unusual piece you are listening to right now.

“Marș funebru la moartea unui astronaut” = “Funeral March For The Death Of An Astronaut” was performed full-length for the first time at the Conservatory in Cluj-Napoca’s studio hall. Clocking in at one hour and employing the Conservatory’s entire percussion instruments array, it turned out to be the best example of what this band would become known for in the underground music scene: the complex arrangements, the interlocking instrumental solos and of course, the aggressive, driven percussion, a hallmark of this “suite” (to use Pink Floyd’s terminology) and of the band itself.

Like other similar compositions, there is a theme running throughout the entire piece, one best expressed within the title: a funeral march for the death of an astronaut – an elegy for a man facing the infinite, the immensity of the cosmos and the solitude of existence (much like an astronaut on a spaceship), an expression of a journey leading to the inevitable conclusion of the man’s own mortality.

The effort to restore the original material resulted in a unique recording, the result of hundreds of hours of meticulous, painstaking restoration of the cassette tape which was originally recorded by band members during the live performance. Add to that the fifteen years of searching for the tapes in question and you can get an idea about the sort of effort involved.

Veterans of the R.S.U. series who also purchased the previous release by Experimental Quintet 2 and recognized the name from that tracklist will finally get the full version of the 14 minutes snippet, a one-of-a-kind performance in the history of Romanian Avant-garde jazz-rock.

This record would not have seen the light of day in its current form without the contributions of Johann Anton German, Johnny Bota, Ioan Kovacs and Valentin Farcaș, the band members who acted as music consultants for this release, alongside Lucian George Păiș, the man whose artwork adorns this one of a kind album, yet another gem in the unearthed musical treasure this series brought back from the past.

(Promotional text by Mihai Alexandrescu)

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Romanian Sounds Unearthed – 9
180gr. DMM (Direct Metal Mastering)
Made in France
MSRP €22
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"Cvintetul de jazz ''Gramophon'' al lui Paul Weiner - Spirale II = Spirals II" (3LP)

The underground music scene in the city of Timișoara had always been a hotbed of Western cultural influence throughout the Communist years and some of the greatest names in the history of modern music hailed from there, among them Richard Oschanitzky, Phoenix, Progresiv TM , Pro Musica and Post Scriptum, bands whose musical activity and indeed legacy endures to this day. But there were also bands that never achieved mainstream recognition, bands that were shunned from the start by the regime and were never allowed to have a real presence. Enter “Gramophone” or Gramofon, a band that can be considered the very definition of true “underground”.

Fans of the Romanian Sounds Unearthed series know that if there is one common element shared by all the musicians whose work was released in this series, that would be mobility. The bands that were part of the underground music scene would often change their line-up, would reform under a different name, would often employ session musicians from other bands and, generally speaking, would be defined by their adaptability. This was imposed by outside circumstances, namely the mandatory military service and the work repartition system that could see a young man sent across the country to an assigned workplace.

In circumstances such as these, Gramophon, like all the other bands, was forced to adapt, yet one name stood out as the driving force behind it: Paul Weiner, the piano player and composer responsible for most of the band’s musical output. Alongside him, there were Gheorghe ‘’Puba’’ Hromadka on drums, Liviu Butoi on flute or oboe, Tiberiu Ladner as vocalist or percussion, and Béla “Kamo” Kamocsa, the bass player whose name is more often associated with Phoenix, one of the greatest bands in the history of Romanian music. This was the band’s original line-up until 1977 when Doru Apreotesei (keyboards) and Mihai Farcas (drums) replaced Paul Weiner and Gheorghe ‘’Puba’’ Hromadka.

Even in the underground music scene, Gramophon were in a niche of their own. Their brand of music was anything but mainstream and, while the aforementioned Phoenix added folk elements to their compositions and achieved popularity in the country and a short-lived modicum of grudging acceptance from the regime, Gramophon stuck with their own brand of jazz with various influences from multiple niche genres and achieved greater popularity abroad.

Gratitude is in order for the contributions made by Paul Weiner, Doru Apreotesei, Gheorghe Hromadka, Mihai Farcaș, Liviu Butoi and Johnny Bota, all of whom served as music consultants for this triple LP vinyl record, as well as Ramona Marc, whose artwork provided a “packaging” worthy for this unique release, made using recordings from various sources, the result of a seventeen years hunt through archives, both private and national, using each and every resource available to track down the works of a band whose contributions to Romanian music were criminally neglected.

(Promotional text by Mihai Alexandrescu)

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Romanian Sounds Unearthed – 10
180gr. DMM (Direct Metal Mastering)
Made in France
MSRP €39
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"Marius Popp - Library Music Crate Diggers" (3LP)

When trying to understand the idea of underground, how do we define what belongs and what doesn’t, what is underground and what is mainstream, especially in the social and political circumstances of Romania before 1989?

Should we discuss it in terms of mainstream appeal? Genres such as jazz-rock or prog-rock have always been niche when compared to, let’s say pop music. What about censorship? Bands from the Romanian Sounds Unearthed series faced everything: having their songs banned, having their lyrics changed or censored, being declared persona non grata by the state authorities or being forced into obscurity by a state apparatus that had complete control over the media channels. With most of them being young men, the extremely regimented life under the communist rule, with its mandatory military service and the appointed workplace system, ensured that some of these bands would be physically unable to play.

In these terms, we cannot consider Marius Popp to be a member of the underground music scene.

It would take a lot more than this short text just to list all the awards he won for his activity, both before and after the fall of the regime. Marius Popp was (and remains) one of the most important names in the history of modern music, both as a composer and performer, both locally and internationally. In these terms, Marius Popp can be considered niche but not underground, yet that does not change the fact that he was one of the most important figures among the musicians of that era, both in the underground scene and in the mainstream. Not only did his compositions end up on the albums of mainstream artists, he also made OSTs for a number of movies and was a major figure of the Sibiu Jazz Festival, a nationwide event which we discussed throughout the entire R.S.U. series.

Marius Popp had a number of official records with his band, both during the Communist years and after the Revolution but the track versions you’ll find on these records are a premiere, never released in any capacity. Recovered from various national and private archives and restored to the highest possible degree of quality, these compositions offer a fresh, first-time-heard perspective into the oeuvre of an artist whose contributions defined an entire era.

What makes this record one-of-a-kind is not just the quality of the restoration process but the source material itself, the result of a decades-long hunt through various public and private archives. It would also be the first genuine Library Music record to be released in Romania, containing compositions by M. Popp which were made exclusively for film and were never available commercially until now.

Once again the artwork of Lucian George Păiș (previously seen on the 3rd R.S.U. release, “Modal Q”) serves as a fitting visual companion to the audio alongside Antonio Cioarek’s photography. And of course the record in its current, final form would not be the same without the input of Nicolas Simion who served as a music consultant for this premiere release.

As always, R.S.U. continues the effort of bringing this forgotten past back to life and offers you yet another high-quality restoration that will be a thrill for both newcomers and veterans of this series.

(Promotional text by Mihai Alexandrescu)

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Romanian Sounds Unearthed – 11
180gr. DMM (Direct Metal Mastering)
Made in France
MSRP €39
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