Out Sound — All Formats  

A wild batch of instrumental psychedelia – with plenty of avant garde touches thrown in! This is the sort of record that always restores our faith in major labels – and it makes us realize that no matter how many Elvis Presley albums RCA was selling in the 60s, there was also room to put out odd little record like this one. The enigmatic Friend Sound are kind of a loose collective of hippie jazz musicians – playing flute, organ, guitars, percussion, piano, recorder, shovel (shovel?), finger cymbals, and just about anything else that seemed to be handy – and they had a style that was kind of like free-jamming jam band stuff, but with out the skill of most jam bands. Ok, it sounds like we're talking ourselves into a corner – but the record's pretty darn compelling. It's kind of like the band and the engineers took a bucketful of drugs – so many that they got really mellow and dark – then went into the studio to cut a tripped-out album of instrumentals. The whole thing comes across with the same "anything goes" spirit of the NY 60s underground film scene – but with none of the silliness of bands like The Fugs – and it's that kind of energy that makes us love this one, and be proud that we're just giving it a space to exist. Titles include "Childhood's End", "Lost Angel Proper St", and "The Empire Of Light".

Seminal sounds from John Cage – his groundbreaking Sonatas & Interludes of the late 40s – performed here with a rich sense of tone and timing by James Tenney! The performance is easily the most striking we've ever heard of these short pieces – and really bring out the magical sounds that Cage composed when conceiving of his "prepared piano" approach to music – interpreted wonderfully by Tenney, with a great ear for the sounds inside the instrument! Given that the compositions were initially what had inspired a young Tenney to take up music in his teens, this performance has a deeply personal undercurrent – and it's perhaps that which makes the music here sound so great.