From: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc
Subject: "Sahara Blue" vanishes like a mirage....
Date: 5 Jan 93 22:23:31 GMT
Reply-To: gtaylor@vme.heurikon.com (Gregory Taylor)
Distribution: world, rec, usa
Organization: Heurikon Corporation, Madison, WI

Those of you who were mildly intrigued by the review and subsequent
"best of the year" status listing of the "Sahara Blue" [see the attached
mini-review] might be well advised to act swiftly on your idle interest
in the Crammed Discs/Made to Measure release; I have it on very good
authority that Virgin/EMI has filed suit against Crammed to force its
removal from the marketplace on the grounds that David Sylvian's appearance
is not allowed without Virgin's permission due to the nature of DS's
contract with Virgin (that is, the *music and lyrics* he has written
are perfectly allowable for inclusion - it's the playing and singing
that makes the disc a problem). Given that Crammed Discs have been
reported to be in financial trouble, this could be bad news for more
reasons than the mere unavailability of a single recording. It's
unclear from my informant whether or not the goal of the suit is merely
the removal of the CD from availability, or the recovery of royalties.
Hunt the pup up now, if you're interested.

With every good wish,
Gregory Taylor

_____begin the mini-review________

Various Artists "Sahara Blue" [Crammed Discs/Made to Measure MTM32]

One of the recent objects to cross my aural transom might be worth 
mentioning to you for a)its subject matter b)its guest list c)the
fact that its a reasonably consistent listen of high quality. Let's
see which one you might be interested in....

This is the 32nd disc in the Crammed Discs' "Made to Measure" series.
The ah...."curator" of the set if Hector Zazou, who's got - oh, maybe
3 or 4 earlier Made to Measure releases as well. He's a favorite of
this label grouping. The subject of this compilation "Sahara Blue" is
the poet Arthur Rimbaud. Lyric fragments in French, Hebrew, Japanese
and English mix with original songs of homage. Patti Smith contributes
a little drawing/poem on the inside of the booklet. Like the recent
"Weird Nightmare" CD of Mingus work, there's a kind of core "house band"
for the backing tracks that includes Hector Zazou on keys, Renaud Prion
[did I spell that right] on winds, and Ryuichi Sakamoto on piano. The
person listed on the CD back as "Mr. X." is David Sylvian. You also get
spoken word stuff from John Cale ("first evening") Sylvian's ex Yuka
Fujii ("to a reason") Richard Bohringer ("lettre aux maritimes") and
Gerard Depardieu ("I'll strangle you"). Bill Laswell show up on bass
and beats on a couple of cuts, Tim Simenon and Keith Leblanc make the
guest appearance. Sylvian contributes a couple of Rimbaud-inspired
tunes and even plays a little guitar behind John Cale. Susan Deihim
(whose work with Richard Horowitz on the MTM "Desert Equations" is one
of my favorite recordings) appears with Samy Birnbaum and there's even
an arrangement of some traditional Ethiopian material. The overall 
ambience is pretty nice (although the pedant in me might long a tiny
bit more for fewer dense, wet spaces and for a little more desert
ambience for Rimbaud), and its a coherent outing. Being a serious Sylvian
and Sakamoto fan, I bought it for their appearances, but find myself
enjoying other parts of this wonderful recording more. Highly recommended.
If this is what postmodernism is about, then how could one object?

--
The law moves quickly in the rain/and chokes the world with memorials./The
courts accept the lowest superstition/into evidence. And we embrace quickly in
the rain,/conceiving a hale infant with hands to wrinkle/the bedsheets toward
it, wave by trough by wave./Gregory Taylor/Heurikon /Madison, WI/608-828-3385
Newsgroups: rec.music.misc