11 April 2023: Ryuichi Sakamoto Tribute

  Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support - 

This is the week of the Spring Fund Drive: Donate Now!

The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites. (links below) 

We urge you to support the musicians you hear on FreeForm Radio.

Tonight's show is a tribute to composer Ryuichi Sakamoto.  The first half of the show will showcase his early electronic compositions; the second half will be devoted to his Academy Award winning soundtrack for The Last Emperor.

 

Ryuichi Sakamoto (Japanese: 坂本 龍一^[a], Hepburn: Sakamoto Ryūichi, January 17, 1952 – March 28, 2023) was a Japanese composer, record producer, and actor who pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his bandmates Haruomi Hosono and Yukihiro Takahashi, Sakamoto influenced and pioneered a number of electronic music genres.^[1]

Sakamoto began his career while at university in the 1970s as a session musician, producer, and arranger. His first major success came in 1978 as co-founder of YMO. He concurrently pursued a solo career, releasing the experimental electronic fusion album Thousand Knives in 1978. Two years later, he released the album B-2 Unit. It included the track "Riot in Lagos", which was significant in the development of electro and hip hop music.^[2][3][4] He went on to produce more solo records, and collaborate with many international artists, David Sylvian, Carsten Nicolai, Youssou N'Dour, and Fennesz among them. Sakamoto composed music for the opening ceremony of the 1992 Barcelona Olympics,^[5] and his composition "Energy Flow" (1999) was the first instrumental number-one single in Japan's Oricon charts history.^[6]

As a film score composer, Sakamoto won an Oscar, a BAFTA, a Grammy, and two Golden Globe Awards. Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence (1983) marked his debut as both an actor and a film-score composer; its main theme was adapted into the single "Forbidden Colours" which became an international hit. His most successful work as a film composer was The Last Emperor (1987),^[7] after which he continued earning accolades composing for films such as The Sheltering Sky (1990), Little Buddha (1993), and The Revenant (2015). On occasion, Sakamoto also worked as a composer and a scenario writer on anime and video games. He was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from the Ministry of Culture of France in 2009 for his contributions to music.^[8]

 

18 January 2022: The Samurai of Prog; Wobbler; Steven Wilson

 Be sure to follow KMXT FreeForm Radio on Facebook and Bandcamp.  

Please support FreeForm Radio and KMXT by going to KMXT.org and pledging your support.

The music you hear on tonight's show is available on the artists' Bandcamp pages and websites (links below).    We urge you to support the musicians you hear on FreeForm Radio.

Tonight we feature progressive rock from Finland and Norway and instrumental game music from Steven Wilson.

Article by: Jez Rowden

This review is a little overdue after the 2014 release of this third album from the extravagantly named The Samurai of Prog, but it is certainly well worth investigating. Whereas the multinational collective that make up The Samurai have concentrated on cover versions and reinterpretations of classic Prog pieces for their previous releases, The Imperial Hotel sees them make a move towards original material.

Also responsible for the production, the core band of Marco Bernard (bass), Steve Unruh (vocals, violin, flute, acoustic guitar) and Kimmo Porsti (drums and percussion) are assisted by a variety of guests including keyboardists Robert Webb (England), Robert Myers (The Musical Box) and Linus Kåse (Änglagård) plus guitarists Kamran Alan Shikoh (Glass Hammer) and Yoshitisa Shimizu (Kenso).

Housed in sumptuous sleeve packaging with wonderful artwork from Ed Unitsky, it really is a delightful object. But we’re mainly here for the music…

Despite being more than accomplished composers in their own right – Unruh’s work should certainly be familiar to many through his solo work, Resistor and other projects – the core trio took the decision to approach outside composers to provide the material. Possibly a strange choice but the result is that the five tracks come from four independent writers. To the credit of the band their arrangements mean that the finished product does not sound fragmented.

Their previous releases have a kind of novelty tag (and the band name does not help them much there!) but this album marks a new dawn. The opener After The Echoes, written by and featuring keyboardist Octavio Stampalia of Jinetes Negros, is a strident and uplifting number carried aloft on Steve Unruh’s high pitched vocals and Yes-like harmonies. The main melody is central but it is the additional sections that make it work, the various keyboards adding different textures with Unruh’s flute and violin increasing the variety. It is at times tricksy and chocolate boxy but never gets too schmaltzy and makes for an expansive piece of Prog to set the scene, the piano and violin outro being just beautiful.

The bright and breezy Limoncello was written by Robert Webb and he also adds keys and vocals here. A different version of it apparently appeared on the second part of the Colossus Project’s Decameron album. I am not familiar with it but as the core band also featured on that album they are sort of covering themselves this time. Suffice to say that it is a fun piece, lovely staccato piano intertwining with other keyboard lines to build the piece organically to Shimizu’s guitar solo which really cuts through. Unruh’s violin again makes a difference and the harmony vocals are delightful. At its heart is a very simple song that has been expanded and inflated but it all works and the extended instrumental section at the end is simply superb.

The gorgeous piano melody of Victoria’s Summer Home, written and performed by David Myers, deserves attention on its own merits and it is almost a shame that here it acts as a prelude to the album’s main event, the title track. That said, it works perfectly in the role, the culmination of birdsong and a car pulling up on a gravel driveway leading us beautifully into The Imperial Hotel itself. An unreleased song co-written by Robert Webb and England it certainly deserves to be heard and the trio have done a fine job with it. Webb again adds keys and vocals and the guitar of Kamran Alan Shikoh is excellent. An extended and self-contained story shot through with the kind of theatrical Victoriana that Genesis used to do so well, it is a great centrepiece and the highpoint of the album. I won’t spoil the story but it is is witty and well realised with a lovely surprise ending. The music takes you through the ups and downs of the story and it is all beautifully realised and played with enthusiastic passion. This is a half hour epic with not much in the way of excess flab and keeps you hooked throughout, it doesn’t move far from the England original recorded in 1975 (which you can find Here) but extends some of the instrumental passages. There is nothing “new” here, so to speak, but it is engaging and a great lost song from the ’70s that The Samurai have done full justice to.

After all that we get Into The Lake by Linus Kåse to finish, another full-on Prog extravaganza of excess to finish things off. Very much influenced by Gentle Giant, it’s one for the fans of that style of music to enjoy. It is dense and intricate, the complex music harking back to the classic era of Prog with hints of Genesis again, but it is all beautifully done and a resounding way to finish off an album such as this.

Steeped in what you might call “traditional” Prog stylings and performances it is bound to be disregarded by many as a pointless exercise of rehashing but that is to miss the quality of the performances and arrangements which are what makes it all work. If you are looking for the future and new avenues – turn back. If, on the other hand, you’re looking for interesting music packed with melodic hooks and wonderfully warm playing then this might well be for you.

The Imperial Hotel is a quite beautifully crafted work that deserves to be heard more widely. Some of the passages are simply breathtaking and the title track is a wonderfully conceived extended work in the grand traditions of High Prog to which The Samurai have added their own stamp. 

Wobbler´s fifth offering is an exciting blend of carefully planned and jammed material that encompasses everything the band has done up to now. Dwellers of the Deep consists of four distinctive pieces and is a broad looking glass into Wobbler´s creative whims and playful exuberance. The album showcases the band´s mastery of dynamics and flow, with passages and themes veering from the scenic and serene to the downright rocking.

The lyrical themes on the album deals with human emotion, and the ongoing struggle between juxtaposed forces within the psyche. An introspective voyage among the realms of memories, feelings and instincts, where the light is brighter, and the dark is darker.
The concepts of wonder, longing and desperation permeates the histories told, and the currents from the deep are ever present.

released October 23, 2020  

progressive rock rock classic rock prog rock symphonic rock vintage rock Oslo

Last Day of June is an interactive tale about love and loss, from an all-star team of creators - including critically acclaimed director Massimo Guarini (Murasaki Baby, Shadows of the Damned) & award-winning musician and record producer Steven Wilson, and featuring a collaboration with writer/director/animator Jess Cope (animator on “Frankenweenie”, director for Metallica’s “Here Comes Revenge” music video).

Steven Wilson (born Steven John Wilson on November 3, 1967, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England) is an English musician, singer, songwriter and record producer, most closely associated with the progressive rock genre. Currently a solo artist, he became known as the founder, lead guitarist, lead vocalist and songwriter of the British rock band Porcupine Tree, as well as being a member of several other bands.

Wilson is self-taught as a producer, audio engineer, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter. Under his own name, he has released the albums Insurgentes (2008), Grace for Drowning (2011), The Raven That Refused to Sing (and Other Stories) (2013), Hand. Cannot. Erase. (2015), To the Bone (2017), and The Future Bites (2021). He also released a EP, 4 ½ (2016), as well as a series of singles titled Cover Version (released online between 2003 and 2010; released worldwide as a compilation in 2014). His other solo projects can also be found attributed to monikers of his, such as Bass Communion and Incredible Expanding Mindfuck.

He is perhaps best known as the frontman for progressive rock band, Porcupine Tree, for whom he was the sole member during the 1980s and early 1990s. His projects are numerous however, including collaboration with Aviv Geffen as Blackfield; a long-running partnership with Tim Bowness, known as No-Man; teaming up with Dirk Serries in Continuum; as well as a joint album with Opeth's frontman, Mikael Åkerfeldt in Storm Corrosion.

Wilson employs synthesizers and programmed music along with live instruments to create a unique atmosphere for each song he works on, including otherwise-simple pop tunes. In addition to his prolific musical output, Steven has crafted a reputation for the high production quality of his music, and has undertaken production duties with such high-profile artists as Opeth, Dream Theater, Jim Matheos of Fates Warning, Anathema, Orphaned Land, Marillion, Fish, Pendulum, Yoko Ono, and friend Robert Fripp. He is also part way through remixing the albums of King Crimson and other classic artists' back catalogues into surround sound and new stereo mixes.

 

 

 

23 April 2013: Steve Hillage et al "Cyberwar" Soundtrack and Area, Italian jazz fusion

        Cyberwar, a video game loosely based on Lawnmower Man, consists of three discs but also includes a CD with the soundtrack featured in the game. The soundtrack includes a number of tracks scored and played by Steve Hillage of Gong and System 7.   Copies of the soundtrack are very rare and difficult to come by as the CD itself was never available as a separate release.
        The game was briefly popular in the 1990s:  The player is assigned the role of Dr. Angelo, sent in to Virtual Reality to defeat Jobe, who, in the film was born simple but increased his brain capacity by 400% using Virtual Reality. He eventually leaves his physical body and enters VR permanently. The various gameplay elements are based on the Virtual Reality segments seen in the original film. For instance, one of the levels has the player flying through tunnels avoiding multiple objects, much like one of the games in the film.
       The game did not have multiple lives, but just one - if the player missed any part of any challenge, he would be sent to the "cyber-hell" where he would die. This proved brutal to many who played this game, but the puzzles were colorful and innovative - at least one required the player to remember a code from the first disc to be used in a room on the second disc. If the player entered the wrong code, he would die. 
      This game is now very rare but can sometimes be found on auction sites.

           Arbeit macht frei is the debut album of the Jazz fusion band Area. It is notable for featuring Patrick Djivas (which is now known better for his work with Premiata Forneria Marconi) on bass and Eddie Busnello on saxophone, which parted after the release of the album. According to the booklet the lyrics were written by Frankestein (which is an alias for Gianni Sassi), and the music was written by Patrizio Fariselli. "Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (nero)" became Area's first hit (even if most of the 7" censored the word "nero", which was a reference to Black September). It was only released as a juke box only item, and the b-side was the song "Miña" by Italian prog band Aktuala. On the posthumous live release "Concerto Teatro Uomo", Demetrio Stratos says that "L'abbattimento dello Zeppelin" was composed after a pub on which they were playing asked them to perform "Whole Lotta Love". They didn't know the song and played that one instead, and they got fired. Guitarist Paolo Tofani can be heard quoting the main riff during his solo. "L'abbattimento dello Zeppelin" was also released as a 7", backed by the title track of the album, but failed to hit any charts.
           "Arbeit macht frei" (German pronunciation: [ˈaɐ̯baɪt ˈmaxt ˈfʁaɪ]) is a German phrase meaning "labour makes (you) free".^[1] The slogan is known for having been placed over the entrances to a number of Nazi concentration camps during World War II, including most infamously Auschwitz I, where it was made by prisoners with metalwork skills and erected by order of the Nazis in June 1940.
Track listing 

Side one

1. "Luglio, Agosto, Settembre (nero)" – 4:27
2. "Arbeit macht frei" – 7:56
3. "Consapevolezza" – 6:06

Side two

1. "Le labbra del tempo" – 6:00
2. "240 chilometri da Smirne" – 5:10
3. "L’abbattimento dello Zeppelin" – 6:45

Personnel

• Eddie Busnello - Saxophone
• Giulio Capiozzo - Drums, Percussion
• Patrick Djivas - Bass, Double Bass
• Patrizio Fariselli - Piano
• Demetrio Stratos - Vocals, Organ, Steel Drums
• Giampaolo Tofani - Guitar, Synthesizer
• Ria Gaetano - Engineering