The Koln Concerts that these recordings from 2002 are taken from were part of the Per->SON Symposium that was curated by Anthony Moore of Slapp Happy/This Heat at the Kunsthochschule Fur Median, where Terry performed alongside among others Kenneth Fields, Marc Ribot and Alexander Balenescu. The album features guest appearances by David Coulter, Alexander Balenescu and Marc Ribot.
The album opens with Dipped In Tea/Nursery Rhyme that feels like you're dunking something more substantial than a rich tea biscuit in that Tea, the nursery rhyme element is a take on oranges & Lemons sang the bells of St Clements played on solo sax with all sorts of synth washes and crashes coming and going along with a morse code style beeped message.
Dinner Jazz has an East German flavour with the accordion and sax being a perfect accompaniment to some Gemuse und Aspik and a glass of Liebfraumilch.
The B.O.T.H. begs the question what does the acronym stand for, without the liner notes (or any explanation on the self-titled Terry Edwards album the studio version of the tune was released on) I will have to guess, judging by the atmospheric ambience of the music that it means Binary Otherness Together Heroically with Terry playing his cornet with mute against the ambient howling synths, that sound like recordings of train tunnels. The intensity of the cornet playing rises, sparingly used it interjects with the tunnel noises.
Boost!! Probably wasn't commissioned as the musical backing for a chocolate advert, but is one of Terry's favourite musical theme that has been re-worked endlessly by The Near Jazz Experience, only in this early form it sounds more like an avant garde re-working of a Gallon Drunk tune, the bass and drums drive things on with Terry's sax majestically marking out its territory before getting towards a squalling outro.
Ribot/Edwards is improvised guitar and sax that is interesting in pushing the boundaries of how you play the instruments and how the sounds interact with each other.
Didjeridu & Trumpet does what it says on the tin, the long bass tones of David Coulter's didgeridoo are adorned with slow elegiac trumpet, that expands, exploring how it can affect the tonality of the droning he is playing over.
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Harlem Nocturne (Gesundheit Version) is one of the tunes Terry has recorded most versions of, along with the hundreds of other versions of Earle Hagen and Dick Rogers classic, this a cool breeze version with truly minimal percussive backing.
Edwards/Balenescu has slow violin notes for Terry's Clarinet to add texture and shades of dark and light too.
The Jesus & Mary Chain's Never Understand has synths underneath and Terry's trumpet takes on the main theme of the tune, add in Tambourines and this is a darker take than his Peel Sessions version.
Stacking Beans sounds like Terry had to pay the bills with a job in his local supermarket and chose Stacking Beans rather than his other solution for tough times of living on Dog Food, this is atmospheric with a rotor sound like a faulty air conditioner that the sax weaves around. This gets slighter as it goes on, like that pile of beans is so high Terry is on tip toes trying to get the next packets/tins on top of that stack.
Homicide/Suicide has grumbling synths, siren's howling, rumbling undertows. Well You Needn't is noir sax blowing against the sparse drum machine pattern, the sax intensifies, dark distillation of the ways you want to make clear you didn't appreciate what they did.
The album closes with another version of Maybe Because I'm A Londoner played on melodica, this is every bit as sparing as the way Terry played it when I saw him a Paradise By Way Of Kensal Green not long after this version was recorded while he was promoting his Cliches album.
Find out more at https://terryedwards.bandcamp.com/album/the-k-ln-concerts-2002 https://www.facebook.com/mrterryedwards https://tower.jp/item/6854924
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