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LP
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MBLP 1031LP
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Magic Box present a reissue of Third Ear Band's self-titled album, originally released in 1970. Eerie, dissonant, and hypnotic, Third Ear Band sounded like no one else on the British underground scene. Their second album -- often referred to as Elements -- was released in June 1970. Spanning classical, jazz, and folk, with clear original influences, it's a lost, avant-garde prog classic. Reissued here in its original gatefold artwork and with an insert offering images and background info.
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LP
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MR 410LP
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"As a luxurious aperitif for the future release of the Elements album (including its extra sauces), Munster Records bring us Macbeth, the staggering soundtrack by the English band Third Era Band for a Roman Polanski's film, recorded and produced in 1971. A magical invitation urging the listener to dive into unsuspected regions of boldness, unpredictability, and an intimate abstract-folkster-experimentalism. According to the founding member Glenn Sweeney, 'the music was called alchemical because it was produced by repetition.' However, mind it, such repetition doesn't follow the same musical structures of, let's say, Terry Riley, Steve Reich or Philip Glass due to its indefinite nature of internal-twisted and tormented passages of a peculiar poetic enchantment. The band, formed in Canterbury, started in 1967 playing an oriental hypnotic-free-form-folk. Signed to the prosperous cult label Harvest, they debuted in 1969 with Alchemy, an instrumental jazzy-psych improvisational album. A fully formed masterpiece came in 1970 on the already aforementioned self-titled opus, also known as Elements. For Macbeth, their third one, just the main chief Glenn Sweeney (assorted percussion) and Richard Coff (viola and violin) remained from the original four-piece line-up. It was recorded when half of the quartet -- Richard Coff (viola and violin) and Ursula Smith (cello) -- had already departed, and they were about to record a third album entitled The Dragon Wakes . . . Aside from a few sessions, this album was never completed. The themes presented on the film were composed in an improvised manner while watching black and white excerpts of the oeuvre. The music, recorded in six weeks at George Martin's Air Studios, in July 1971, has the same unconventional and quite unique dimension as the film itself. It is an auteur music for an auteur film . . . There is an arty-medieval atmosphere overall, and it's folkishly ludic in tracks like 'Overture', 'Iverness', 'Court Dance' and 'Fleance', where the experimental interjections function as colorful devices. 'Fleance' -- with the guest singer Keith Chegwin -- is a scintillating highlight. The poetic assaults of concrete music are present in themes like 'The Beach', 'Ambush', 'Prophesies', as if every drumming fractures, singing seagulls or sharp whistles where conducting us to waves of fear into the unknown. There are other lost beauties in its official 44 minutes like the minimal oboe melody of 'Lady Macbeth' floating as a centipede of dreams or the lyrical guitar chords of 'The Banquet' punctuating a climax of sheer mystery..." --Fernando Naporano
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LP
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PECLEC 2668LP
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"One of the first releases on EMI's progressive rock label, Harvest in July 1969, Alchemy was the debut album by Third Ear Band. One of the earliest signings to Harvest, the band was formed in 1968 around a nucleus of Glen Sweeney (percussion), Paul Minns (oboe), Richard Coff (violin, viola) and Mel Davis (cello). Third Ear Band were unique in their exploration of exotic baroque music fused with experimental rock. Signing to Blackhill Enterprises in 1969, the quartet opened for many of the legendary Hyde Park free concerts by Pink Floyd, The Rolling Stones and Blind Faith. Recorded at Abbey Road studios in the early months of 1969, Alchemy is regarded as one of the most striking and original works of the era with its unique gothic improvisational music and this new Esoteric Recordings 180 gram vinyl edition is a faithful reproduction of the original 1969 gatefold LP release. It has been re-mastered from the original Harvest master tapes and has been cut at Abbey Road studios for this definitive edition vinyl reissue."
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CD
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PECLEC 2656CD
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"Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of a new re-mastered and expanded edition of the classic 1972 soundtrack album to Roman Polanski's gritty film of Shakespeare's Macbeth. New re-mastered & expanded."
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3CD
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PECLEC 32653CD
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"Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the expanded and re-mastered release of the self- titled 1970 album by Third Ear Band."
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DVD
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HST 069DVD
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"The Lost Broadcasts are a series of DVDs featuring performances that have rarely been seen since the original transmission on German television, in some cases more than forty years ago. Third Ear Band was an experimental music group founded in London by Glen Sweeney in 1968. Their first album Alchemy was released in 1969 and actually featured British radio DJ John Peel on jaws harp. Three pieces were filmed on the 11th of September including the unreleased 'Hyde Park'. The other two tracks were 'David Grocking' and 'In D', which is thought to be 'Raga in D'. 'Druid Grocking' was played during a John Peel Top Gear session in the summer of 1969 and is an extended workout of the song 'Druid One' from the Alchemy album. 'In D' is a piece originally recorded at the sessions for the debut album Alchemy. The band returned to the studio to film once more on the 26th of September and this time performed another slightly shorter version of 'Hyde Park'." NTSC All Region format.
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