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d i s s i d e n t
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a r t i s t : Alterations
t i t l e : Voila Enough!
d a t e : 2003
l a b e l : atavistic
g e n r e : Avantgarde
r l s. d a t e : Jul-2003
t r a c k s : 15
b i t r a t e : 192kbps
s i z e : 80,4 MB
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Alterations was one of the premier British improvising groups
of the 1970s. Comprised of four omnivorous multi-
instrumentalists - Steve Beresford, David Toop, Terry Day and
Peter Cusack - they represented an important crossing zone
between abstaction and pop, incorporating elements of punk,
indigenous musics and hip-hop (Toop wrote the influential study
RAP ATTACK, as well as his more recent book OCEAN OF SOUND)
into their free play.
Compiled and exhaustively annotated by Toop, VOILA ENOUGH!
consists of previously unreleased music from '79-'81, packaged
with a gallery of unpublished photos by Gerard Rouy.
(http://www.atavistic.com)
For the sake of argument, letÆs say there are two schools of
free improvisation: the European and the American. I realize
pinning style and genre on nationality is a dangerous game, but
there are fundamental discrepancies between Ornette Coleman and
Peter Brotzmann, between Eugene Chadbourne and Derek Bailey,
between Henry Kaiser and Fred Frith. In theory, American
improvisation is very much concerned with the same issues of
national identity and cultural reflection that saturated the
work of earlier American composers like Charles Ives and Conlon
Nancarrow. ColemanÆs freedom, for instance, was born through
idiomatic jazz, ChadbourneÆs was born through idiomatic roots
music. The easy antithesis to this, the one most likely to be
pinned on the European school of thought, is that they are more
interested in ideals, purity of sonic approach, more rooted in
abstraction. Perhaps it is merely an issue of translation, the
fact that American listeners canÆt easily hear the frame of
reference for Derek Bailey with the same assuredness with which
they approach John Zorn. If Bailey represents freedom from
form, the American response claims the form of freedom.
AtavisticÆs Unheard Music Series has once again revealed a
missing link and altered the well-documented accounts of what
is European and what is American, as well as the well-
documented accounts of what is free improvisation. Voila
Enough, a collection of recordings by Alterations, a group of
highly notable British improvisers at the near beginning of
their careers, seems to set straight any misapprehension. The
division between Brotzmann and Coleman obviously isnÆt
nationality, itÆs a solely a question of approach. Alterations
proves that our frame of reference for music is, in fact,
international, emphasizing that cultural musical difference is
something purely ideological. (The context of these ideologies,
the histories that explain the need for formal devices of
musical liberation, why the things we assume are ôfreeö seem
free to us, is another, more complicated question)
The culturally-loaded approach that separates John Zorn from
Evan Parker makes up a tangible, almost adolescent, ideological
conflict on Voila Enough. There is a constant battle between
the sound-for-soundÆs-sake, timbre-centric approach of AMM, the
physical, ritualistic gesturality of Brotzmann, and the sound-
as-significant-of-long-standing-cultural-historical approach of
the allegedly ôAmericanö school of thought. All are embroiled
in an unfolding psychodrama, both violent and tongue-in-cheek.
This is unique to Alterations because in cases ranging from
James Tenney to Albert Ayler to Sonic Youth, the issue of
integrating noise and abstraction into formal, historical,
American idioms has always paled, seeming more likely to
represent the idioms themselves! Playing The Shape of Jazz To
Come is sure as fuck less likely to alienate people than
Machine Gun û its harmolodic approach, though in many ways
definitively abstract, is still rendered comfortable through
its jazziness. Voila Enough seems to be one of the few
recordings, debatably alongside of some of ZornÆs game pieces,
to have a genuine balance between idiom and non-idiom,
something that is both distinctive and frustrating.
In the liner notes, written by Alterations guitarist and now
inexplicably loved music critic David Toop looks back
cynically, suggesting that the ôbloody mindedness was loosing
its sense of good humour.ö And that ôthe constant clash of
idioms and personalities had its dark and somewhat vengeful
side.ö Yet, this is precisely what is so urgent about this
release. With the impending forces of academic stiffness and
inhuman rigidity usurping the once gloriously flawed, vital and
anarchic character of the avant-garde in the form of a nearly
fascistic electronic elite, Voila Enough contains a long
overdue dose of awkwardness and uncertainty. It is something
not necessarily identifiable by either nationality or ideology,
but rather experimentation and confusion, a release seemingly
comprised of visible effort and labor.
(http://www.dustedmagazine.com/reviews/831)
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01-Berlin 1 [03:27]
02-Berlin 2 [01:53]
03-Berlin 3 [02:44]
04-Berlin 4 [04:49]
05-Berlin 5 [11:10]
06-Bracknell 1 [10:17]
07-Bracknell 2 [00:39]
08-Bracknell 3 [01:26]
09-Bracknell 4 [02:03]
10-Bracknell 5 [02:17]
11-Tilburg 1 [03:08]
12-Tilburg 2 [01:18]
13-Tilburg 3 [06:04]
14-Tilburg 4 [02:54]
15-LMC Segue [04:18]
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58:27 min
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