National Health: Missing Pieces
One of the most interesting, but lesser-known bands from the 70s British progressive rock scene was National Health. They played some of the most intricate and engaging music ever attempted by a rock group. Largely instrumental, the music is characterized by shifting time signatures and virtuoso playing, yet it somehow remains accessible. The lineup included Dave Stewart, Phil Miller, Mont Campbell, Amanda Parsons, Alan Gowen, Pip Pyle, and Bill Bruford.
"Missing Pieces is a chance to hear the first line-up of the band [Stewart/Gowen/Miller/Parsons plus Mont Campbell (bass), Phil Lee (2nd guitar), Steve Hillage (guest 2nd guitar) & Bill Bruford (drums)] tackling early pieces by Dave Stewart and Mont Campbell. This CD album contains good quality, complete versions of some great compositions, plus one or two surprises." - Dave Stewart
For more information about National Health and the "Canterbury scene", visit
* Dave Stewart & Barbara Gaskin / Broken Records
* Of Queues and Cures unofficial National Health website
* Calyx - National Health Profile
For more information about Progressive Rock, visit Vermont Review Annex
New Sounds • New Releases
Lucas Hille
Formerly available only on cassette, this re-mastered CD features ten songs, all composed by Subud members: Lucas, Luther Schutz, Hamid Camp and Marshall Veal. Two of my favourite tracks feature my daughter, Veda, adding her great vocals. The musicians are top Canadian players and the music ranges stylistically from folk-rock to country to Latin. This music has been appreciated by people of many cultures and has led to a worldwide publishing deal and a recording trip to Nashville. The price is $15 U.S. including mailing.
You can order it by e-mail at this address: lucashille@telus.net
Hamilton Cheifetz: Jubilatum
"Terrific. First-class music-making..." --Janos Starker
Jubilatum premieres two new duos for cello and guitar by Bryan Johanson and two art songs newly arranged for cello, plus The Swan by Saint-Saens and three unusual virtuoso pieces: Sonata by Francoeur, Toccata by Frescobaldi/ Cassado and Divertimento by Haydn/ Piatigorsky. In keeping with the spirit of celebration, Jubilatum also includes the complete Suite No. 3 in C Major by J.S. Bach.
For more information, other recordings, sound tracks, or to order Jubilatum, visit sirius.com/`arts/cheifetz.html
Dirk Campbell: Music From A Round Tower
An older 'new release,' this is the first album by composer and multi-instrumentalist Dirk Campbell since the early 70s. In those days, he was known as Mont Campbell, one of the most respected composers in the English progressive avant-garde. It is also his first solo album. The piece is a summing-up of Campbell's musical experiences to date, from his childhood in Egypt and East Africa, through early Stravinsky to synthesised soundscapes and performance art. The music is both beautiful and intelligent, and has been described as "the real progressive music for the 90s". Composed in an East Sussex oast house, the album was completed with the help of old friend Dave Stewart.
Ken Egbert of Tone Clusters, USA called it the best CD he'd heard all year, and Peter Thelen of Exposé USA called it "a masterpiece of complex world-flavoured music that stimulates the senses with cinematic overtones...breathtaking music that challenges every sense and frees the imagination."
Jim Aikin of Keyboard USA picked it as one of the top five albums of the year. "Objectively speaking," he wrote, "it's wonderful."
"Drawing on the indigenous music and instruments of Armenia, the Masai, Japan, Hungary, Brazil, Greece, Turkey, Java, Ireland, Egypt and more, Dirk has done a phenomenal job at putting a globe-full of influence into the recording of a single piece...an expressive minimalism that moves from one diorama to the next inviting us to consider another combination of sounds without too much on the plate." -- Thomas Schulte, CDNow
A 1997 East Side Digital Release, (ESD 81212) the musicians are : Dirk Campbell (ney flute, kaval, reedpipes, bansri, gaida, tulum, daoul, whistle, keyboards, vocals) George Hadjineophytou (saz, oud, kemanche) Barbara Gaskin, Lucianne Lassalle (vocals)
Sample tracks at VoicePrint and East Side Digital websites listed below.
Order now from VoicePrint/Resurgence in UK, Europe, and Japan — or from Dave Stewart's Broken Records . In the USA order from East Side Digital.
SEBASTIAN FLYNN
Originally from Liverpool, England — and classically trained on violin — Sebastian Flynn has travelled throughout Europe and the UK as a musician. He's played in various music groups and as a solo street musician - including spells on the Paris Metro and London Underground. He has played mainly Celtic Traditional Music since the 70s, although more recently his repertoire has expanded to include American & East European Traditional Music & Swing. He is featured on several CDs including Dirk Campell's Ireland (1995.)
He presently lives in Brisbane, Australia
Sebastian Flynn: The Band That Plays at Night
The Band that Plays at Night, Malarky's debut release, is getting rave reviews. Annie Deller-Peterson (Co-organiser of the Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia - one of the biggest folk festivals in the world) rates it a top note debut recording and calls it a gem! "This album is a wonderful example of a group leaning on, exploring and organically advancing their music traditions. Their utilisation of a wide array of instruments without cluttering shows a maturity and depth to their writing and arranging skills."
"The ornamentation is recognisably Celtic, and so are its roots, but it would be a mistake to think this is an album of traditional tunes. In fact eighteen of the twenty five tunes are original melodies and rhythms which are not readily pigeonholed."
"....Sebastian's exquisite fiddle,...the tasty strings of Martin Reese and Terry Jacob,... clever Simon Wells on Harmonica ...Terry's brilliant songs... I cannot encourage you enough to add this fine thirteen track CD to your collection immediately".
Hanafi Hayes of the Oz Reporter puts it this way: "If you have a heart you will have to tap your toes. If you have a soul, you will shed a tear and if you just happen to have the teeniest drop of Irish blood, you will dance until you drop."
CD Orders: www.jacana.demon.co.uk/djc
Enquiries - Email Sebastian Flynn
DIRK 'MONT' CAMPBELL
Dirk is a composer and multi-instrumentalist whose career began in the late 60s with the fearsomely complex experimental rock band Egg. Between 1969 and 1970 Egg recorded two albums for Decca and reunited with guitarist Steve Hillage to record the legendary psychedelic album Arzachel.
In 1972 Dirk quit the rock scene to study composition, and in 1976, he briefly returned to live performance as bassist in Dave Stewart's band National Health, playing on two UK tours and contributing several major compositions. During the 80's, Dirk became proficient on a wide range of ethnic wind instruments such as the bagpipes and ney flute, and developed an interest in the traditional music of Ireland, North & East Africa and the Balkans. This study of world music is an important influence on this album. Campbell says, "It's got most of the elements that give me pleasure: minimalist, middle eastern, far eastern, African tribal, weird synth sounds, Russian period Stravinsky, and a lot that I must blushingly admit comes from me."
Text (both panels) courtesty of East Side Digital website.
SEE INSIDE TRACKS in this issue of Inspire for Stephen Yarwood's interview with Dirk Campbell !
Hamilton Cheifetz and Brian Johanson: Affinity
The critically acclaimed cello and guitar duo of Hamilton Cheifetz and Bryan Johanson introduce an exciting recording of music newly composed and arranged for this delightful combination of instruments. The recording features a broad range of music from this century by composers like Shostakovich, Ravel and Falla as well as four new works by Johanson: Homemade Music, In Amber Light, Fantasy on a Plainchant, and Elegy.
Hamilton Cheifetz: bio and discography on Gagliano Recordings, © Gagliano Recordings
Bryan Johanson: bio and discography on Gagliano Recordings, © Gagliaono Recordings
For more information, other recordings, sound tracks, or to order Affinity, visit sirius.com/`arts/cheifetz.html
SAVAE: El Milagro de Guadalupe
"Miracles happen and this music proves it." — The Austin Chronicle
The music SAVAE (San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble) has on its newest recording, El Milagro de Guadalupe, comes from cathedral archives in Mexico and Guatemala and were mostly composed by Nahua and Aztec Indians who had been converted to Christianity and musically trained by Spanish missionaries.
SAVAE's use of Mesoamerican wind and percussion instruments is based on Aztec artwork and early paintings from the first decades following the Conquest. Instruments used include the huehuetl (vertical drum), teponaztli (horizontal log drum), huilacapitzli (clay flutes), atecocolli (conch shell trumpet), deer antlers, lajas (stones), chayahuatzli (rain stick), ayacaxtli (a variety of rattles and shakers), omichahuaztli (rasp), Native American flute, European recorders, tambourine, and guitar. The rhythms used are adapted from syllabic drumming patterns found in the codex Cantares Mexicanos, compiled in the 16th century by Aztec musicians and historians. SEE INSIDE TRACKS page in this INSPIRE for more on SAVAE. Visit SAVAE WEBSITE to order this and other recordings.
San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensembe (SAVAE) pictured here in front of the Alamo. Artistic Director and baritone Christopher Moroney studied composition at the New England Conservatory of Music, and arranging and composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston.The remaining members of the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble are sopranos Paula Olsen and Kathy Mayer, altos Tanya Moczygemba and Covita Moroney, tenors Lee P Pool and Jody Noblett.