• Home
  • About
  • Music
  • Contact
  • Falling A Records
  • Miniatures 2020
  • Falling A shop
  • Archive
Barry Lamb
BL

Simple Pleasures

27/2/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

There's a new Census Of Hallucinations single on the way. 
A Side: Simple Pleasures
B Side: The Smiling Lama 

More info and a video coming very soon. The release date is not yet fixed but it will be out in March. Simple Pleasures as the A side and The Smiling Lama
0 Comments

The early years...

21/2/2022

0 Comments

 
Picture

Alessandro Monti, author of "Riproduzione Casuale", respected critic of avant-garde and experimental music recently reviewed the three CD reissues of my earliest cassette releases. I have to say that I feel somewhat flattered by the comparisons and warmth of the review. 

Other reissues are coming soon including the much requested "Poetry for motorways" and "Picnic". The latter album was recorded entirely with the Casio VL-Tone and various effects, no other instrument was used. Due to the cult status of the instrument it has been one of the most requested reissues. 


Life may always surprise us: in fact, reviewing the brilliant reissues of Dusk, Keys & Ludi Funebres with a delay of 45 years, it may seem strange and in the case of Barry Lamb's records even unforgivable, but the new compact disc technology has allowed me to rectify the problem, since at the at the time these works had only come out on cassette and also because their distribution was in limited handmade quantity. First of all, I can say that this listening was revelatory and compelling like few others.

If it is true that these compositions photograph a particularly fertile moment in the music scene, like the awareness of DIY and the growing interest in alternative distribution channels (punk rock, the new wave), it is also true that their author seems to be following a path in which only distant echoes remained of rock culture; in the above three works we certainly find ourselves in experimental soundscapes but also in a new territory, closer to musique concrète without the uncomfortable labels of serious music. The perfect title Ludi Funebres (Latin for funerary games) describes the musician's practice as dramatic and at the same time playful, a sort of creative therapy in which the most diverse sensations coexist, from darkness to light, a music of the inner human spheres.

In listening to the three works repeatedly (also in a rewarding continuous session) I noted some essential points on small pieces of paper:
1) Barry Lamb avoids all the clichés of experimental and industrial music, choosing instead a personal way of electric construction, the one that E.Varèse and T. Dockstader called “organized sound”; 2) the aforementioned construction is of an almost symphonic quality with rhapsodic sections, zen-like percussion passages, disturbing loops, sinister toy organs, post-prog mellotrons, martial and mechanical rhythms (no drum machines here); 3) these three works cover an important period of time in the development of independent music (1977-79) but still retain a timeless ritual value; 4) the use of language perfectly immersed in the pre-digital reality in which the author operates and the surprising vocal inserts have a sort of narrative approach closer to poetry than traditional singing, a rich poverty without the use of synths, vocoders, personal computers or other luxurious means.

Dusk, Keys & Ludi Funebres are a cycle of works that documents both a personal creative development and a real musical evolution and should be cited at least as much as the contemporary works of the overrated Eno; in fact where the latter chooses to be pleasant and lazy, Barry Lamb chooses the opposite path of a difficult music that does not take prisoners and from which there is no escape. I was fascinated by the use of dynamics (from pianissimo to fortissimo) and by the painstaking attention to detail, especially considering the limits of the medium available: the sound here really shines from analog to digital. From these 3 discs I got a sense of a continuous invention, a passion for pure sound that made it familiar to my ears for methods and solutions. It would be unfair to compare some moments to previous or contemporary authors, but who would be able to bring together such different artists as Terry Riley, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luc Ferrari, Jan Steele, early Cabaret Voltaire, Derek Bailey, Prog rock and sound-collage? And these are only vague or distant references for those in need of maps or directions, but certainly no one would have been able to merge them into a single concept like the composer. In my first book Riproduzione Casuale (written in Italian, sorry) I argued that the same music varies if it is listened to in the morning, afternoon or evening: I tried all three possibilities with Barry Lamb's works and they always show different perspectives and emotions.

In this era of massification and tested patterns (even in the avant-garde itself) we absolutely need this artisan music, a humble idea of a sincere and anarchic spirituality, a wonderful humanism ancient to the future.

- Alessandro Monti

The Italian language version of the review can be found here: 
https://unfolkam.wordpress.com/segnalazioni/

Original cassette front artwork 
Picture
0 Comments
<<Previous
    Picture

    Archive

    These pages represent my best attempt at a musical journal, travelogue, archive record of my musical landscape and everything I have been involved in over the years. It features celebrated projects to undeveloped ideas, sketchpad moments, memories and general stuff that has been part of my creative endeavours and the Falling A Records story. I am attempting to place things in chronological order though as time passes and I trawl the crates in my loft, I am discovering that my record keeping has been quite vague at times. Please feel free to interact and correct where necessary. The page also serves as the archive page for the website and is where we post our various announcements etc.,
    It's very much a work in progress. 

    "a work of art is never finished, it is merely abandoned" 

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    May 2017
    December 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    January 2014
    September 2013
    June 2013
    February 2012
    October 2011
    September 2011
    March 2011
    April 2010
    March 2010
    February 2010
    June 2009
    April 2009
    April 2008
    November 2007
    July 2007
    May 2007
    January 2006
    July 2004
    May 2004
    April 2004
    March 2004
    February 2004
    May 1983
    December 1982
    August 1982
    June 1980
    October 1978
    August 1978
    December 1977
    November 1974
    December 1969
    October 1961
    March 1959

    Categories

    All
    Archive
    Cassette Culture
    Catalogue
    Clacton Years
    Cloud Quartet
    Definitive Moments In The Musical Landscape Of A Noise Architect
    Dynamite Vision Years
    Falling A Archive
    Influences
    Jazz
    Musical
    Music Press
    Rock Against Racism
    Social Media
    Stone Premonitions
    Synth Pop
    The Insane Picnic

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly