July 2005
« June 2005 | Main | August 2005 »
July 01, 2005
R.I.P. BASIL KIRCHIN
So today when my copy of Basil Kirchin's Abstractions of the Industrial North arrived, I checked out the website to read up about it only to discover that he passed away this week.
Basil Kirchin was a jazz musician that made his name as a drummer in the 1940s and went on to create wonderfully abstract records in the 1960s and 70s. He became obsessed with compositions which tied in jazz, lounge, tape loops and sound collage. His music has even featured Don Cherry, Evan Parker and Jimmy Page. However, obviously so, his audience was not particularly large and so he has gone on to become an obscure legend.
In 2003 or so, a wacky man by the name of Johnny Trunk, who worked with vintage erotica and lounge music put out his Quantum record. Once I heard this, I immediately became hooked. Trunk Records has since gained a small cult following of sorts and gone on to reissue some great italo-horror and porn soundtracks and has also helped respark intrest in the insidental music of Dawn of the Dead, which is fabulous.
So a big thanks to Johnny Trunk for reissuing and compiling some of Basil's music the last couple of years and letting me hear this underappreciated artist. As a sidenote, Johnny himself does home-made kitzchy exotica mood music. Its very delightful.
So I take great pleasure in sharing with something from one of the special gems of my record collection. This is an uneasy track which fluctuates between a nightmare and a delacate daydream. If I am correct, Basil recorded patients in a psychiatric hospital for this composition.
I should have done this much sooner but I guess Basil was never in any kind of hurry anyways.
Basil Kirchin: Special Relativity
Posted by Fran at 02:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)