"...Bittern...Stellarus..."
Quite who was listening to
Bert Jansch and his two pals Martin Jenkins and Danny Thompson in February 1979
on the 'budget' label Class (part of the Charisma Records group in the UK) is
anybody's guess. I doubt anyone was - and that would most definitely have been 'their' loss.
The entirely instrumental
"Avocet" album has an 18-minute title track on Side 1 and the other 5
bird-themed flick-and-strums on Side 2 give it a bit of a New Age meets early
Americana vibe (high guitars vs. high production values). Budget label or not -
in the huge 51-year arsenal (1965 to 2016) of the mighty ex Pentangle Guitar
player Bert Jansch - time and a tasteful remaster have been kind to the
forgotten but strangely hypnotic "Avocet" album.
This is a gorgeous record - ambling guitar themes that float over you like a more-mellow Gordon Giltrap or Sufjan Stevens or even the soundscapes of Boards Of Canada. It isn’t all pointless noodling either – there is warmth to this Acoustic music - and at times the whole album’s swirl and sway feel like it was ahead of its Progressive time - pre-dating Nineties sounds by at least twelve years. Time for a tasty reissue - here are the flighty details...
This is a gorgeous record - ambling guitar themes that float over you like a more-mellow Gordon Giltrap or Sufjan Stevens or even the soundscapes of Boards Of Canada. It isn’t all pointless noodling either – there is warmth to this Acoustic music - and at times the whole album’s swirl and sway feel like it was ahead of its Progressive time - pre-dating Nineties sounds by at least twelve years. Time for a tasty reissue - here are the flighty details...
UK released February 2016 -
"Avocet" by BERT JANSCH on Earth Records EARTHCD010L (Barcode 809236171092)
is a straightforward CD Reissue and Remaster of the 1979 LP and plays out as
follows (37:09 minutes):
1. Avocet (17:59 minutes)
2. Lapwing (1:31 minutes)
[Side 2]
3. Bittern (7:49 minutes)
4. Kingfisher (3:44 minutes)
5. Osprey (3:16 minutes)
6. Kittiwake (2:48 minutes)
Tracks 1 to 6 are the album
"Avocet" - first released 1978 in Denmark on Exlibris Records EXL
30.005 (credited to Bert Jansch and Martin Jenkins). It was then released
February 1979 in the UK (credited to only Bert Jansch) on Charisma CLASS 6 and
November 1980 in the USA on Kicking Mule KM 310. Recorded in February 1978 at
Sweet Silence Studios in Copenhagen, Denmark - Engineered and Produced by
Freddy Hansson and Fleming Rasmussen - all songs are by Bert Jansch except
"Osprey" which is by Martin Jenkins.
Players:
BERT JANSCH - Guitar and
Piano
MARTIN JENKINS - Mandocello,
Violin and Flute
DANNY THOMPSON - Double Bass
The artwork for the LP has
had three incarnations - the Denmark original 1978 LP with only the Avocet bird
in pencil - the British reissue with five birds drawn in colour aside an inset
picture of Bert with Guitar - and now this Earth Records 2016 reissue which
opts for a simple but very elegant cover. The textured gatefold card sleeve is
gorgeous to look at and feel with an 8-page booklet in the left flap and an
'Earth Records' inner sleeve in the right. The booklet has the six birds drawn
in beautiful colour by artist HANNAH ALICE - one to each page with their
correct anatomical name beneath each - Avocet (Recurvirostra Avosetta), Lapwing
(Vanellus Vanellus) and so on. The downside is no liner notes of any kind.
You're getting more info from me on the album than you are from the reissue
that is a ridiculous situation and something 'Earth Records' needs to rectify in
the future. The Remaster has been done by BRIAN PYLE (doesn't say where) and is
truly beautiful - as was the original recording anyway.
Side 1 is taken up with the
extraordinary "Avocet" - eighteen instrumental minutes of Acoustic
Guitar pickings, Violin strokes and heavy Double-Bass meanderings. There's a
central musical theme that keeps recurring - but then in goes off in tangents -
Jansch on guitar alone - then Jenkins comes in on either Violin or Flute -
while Danny Thompson gives it some Nick Drake/John Martyn plucks on his Double
Bass. "Lapwing" is only Jenkins on Piano and feels like a Mozart
ditty someone plays in a BBC production of "Pride And Prejudice".
You get a real John Martyn
feel to "Bittern" circa "Solid Air" where Danny's DB
dominates the track. Initially Jansch solos away on Electric and Acoustic
Guitars but it slows into an unexpected Thompson solo - huge sliding notes and
plucks rattling your speakers (probably my favourite track).
"Kingfisher" has a beauty too - Martin Jenkins' Violin playing set
against DT's Bass plucking giving the whole thing a 'where have I heard that
ancient melody before' feeling - gorgeous stuff. "Osprey" is
dominated by Jenkins on Violin as Jansch accompanies on Acoustic Guitar and
Danny plucks that Double Bass as only he can. The playing on this song is
fabulous as is the Remaster. It ends on the pretty Acoustic assault of
"Kittiwake".
"Avocet" is the
very definition of 'overlooked gem that shouldn't be' - an album that cries out
for rediscovery. Call it Folk - call it England's 1978 answer to 1990s
Americana - call it Progressive even - "Avocet" is kind of magical
and well done to Earth Records for making it available again...
