Browse by Artist: FANKHAUSER, MERRELL

Artist:	FANKHAUSER, MERRELL
Title:	Return To Mu
Label:	CAPTAIN TRIP (JAPAN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$18.00
Catalog #:	CT 237

"Heavenly sound from the reunion of his own band MU. Based on Maui island, Hawaii in the mid-70s. Some tracks include John Cipolina, Nicky Hopkins, Ed Cassidy (Spirit), etc." This CD features a continuation of the sound found on the Subliminal Sounds Maui album (SUBL CD03). Three tracks are reprised from that album, including "On Our Way To Hana" & "Waterfall", but these are different versions recorded with variant line ups. .A slightly more produced take on very spiritual acoustic style of Maui, it still connects with Merrell's idyllic Maui lifestyle, and that's enough.

Artist:	FANKHAUSER, MERRELL
Title:	Maui
Label:	SUBLIMINAL SOUNDS (SWEDEN)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	SUBL 003CD

2006 remastered repress of this album which has been out of print for the last five years or so (first reissued on CD by Subliminal Sounds in 1998). Maui is the first Merrell Fankhauser solo album, a classic of cosmic folk music, recorded in 1975. The band Mu was formed in 1969 when Merrell Fankhauser teamed up with Jeff Cotton of Captain Beefheart's band. Both of them had had successful careers in the surf music craze of the mid-'60s (Fankhauser penned the hit "Wipe Out"). When it was discovered that the Hawaiian Islands could have remnants of the sunken Mu civilization, the band decided to move to the island of Maui. But by 1974, all but Merrell Fankhauser had left for the mainland. Merrell was now staying with his girlfriend violinist Mary Lee in the two story Tarzan-style jungle house which Merrell had built, complete with flowing lily ponds. The stream cascaded around the house forming a natural pool and waterfall, an ideal setting for Merrell to compose his laid back cosmic music. Around this same time the Tibetan Lama Kar Mapa came to the island for a meditation retreat that was sponsored by one of Merrell and Mary's neighbors in the jungle. They did a special Black Crow ceremony with 400 devoted hippies all meditating for peace and harmony for all beings on the earth. Merrell and Mary were the first musicians in the United States to play modern music for the Lama. They lived in the Maui rain forest in their jungle retreat for over seven years. Late in 1975 they visited L.A. and recorded the Maui album, which described perfectly the feeling of his lifestyle in his jungle house beside a free-flowing stream in the Maui rainforest. The album recording originally started at MCA Studios in Hollywood with producer Dino Airelli who went on to head up Dark Horse Records for George Harrison. Due to Dino's busy schedule he was unable to finish the album, and it was later finished in San Francisco and came out on a small independent Hawaiian label, Maui Music. It sold a few thousand copies and disappeared. The album is released here in its entirety with 8 bonus tracks, including an unreleased version of "Some Of Them Escaped." This is a true artifact from the hippy dream of peace, love and harmony for the world!

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