Tuesday 29 April 2014

Sandy Owen's Euphonia from 1984 [Iliad-related]


Out of respect for the artist I will only present this for a short time.
Like the work he did with Iliad, the same melancholy, gentle, reflective sounds, oftentimes minor chords or lavish sevenths and ninths on major chords with diatonic melodies, his training in jazz is evident in a boogie number.  There are a couple of tracks on his post-Iliad works that recycle some of the Iliad pieces, for ex. (on this album) "Canterbury" appeared on "Sapphire House," Iliad's "Distances Theme" reappears on the "Montage" album, and our beautiful sampled "Beyond the North Wind" reappears on the "Themes" album, etc.
I think you can purchase the CD versions of these solo works here (which is why I don't want to keep a link long here):
http://www.sandyowen.com/discs.htm

After listening many times to this record, I couldn't help but notice this tiny little gem he placed at the very end called "Once in a Time" which puzzled me for the longest time, one can tell there is something distinctly odd about the time signature.  It's not till I tried to sit down and replicate it on the piano that I realized the polyrhythm here is due partly to the fact the 4/4 first bar is played by 3/4 chords, first of all, but then the second bar is 3/4, that is, the last beat is missing, or the total should be 7/8 or 7/4.  This gives it a kind of stuttering quality at the end of each two-bar passage, or perhaps an unfinished, things left incomplete feeling.  Really a beautiful, stunningly delicate little piece.  What a shame we couldn't have heard it with the oboe, cellos, etc. that were employed to such good effect on the Iliad records.




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