CC really wanted to have a small exploratory trio to do live elctronics and treated acoustic music with. At one Talking Fish rehearsal only CC, Mick & Andy made it so they jammed a bit and CC saw the potential. It kinda reminded him of The Rain Garden in it's approach.

This recording is the best hour from 3 x 30min live sets. There were no rehearsal and they soon found some wondrous soundworlds, sometimes revisiting one in subsequent sets which gives this album a nice feeling of cohesion.

As all three players were new to the group there is a great feeling of exploration and freshness. The voyage continues.

Terry Riley, Vidna Obmana, Eduard Artemiev, Robert Rich, Simon Stockhausen, Bernard Xolotl, Lydia Kavina, Wendy Carlos, JL Ponty

recorded digitally live at the Musician and International Art Centre, Leicester , mastered at Oblong Studios.

know

These are The Planet Scabbers very first meetings

As is a common tradition with Chris Conway improvisations the titles were taken from random page, random line of whichever book he was reading at the time. Which book this was has been lost in the mists of time.

All three musicians had worked together before in Chris Conway's acoustic songs group The Talking Fish

In a way, born out of the SCANNING PLANET 3 concept, Chris got together this trio to explore such space music in a live improvised setting. Basically:
Chris Conway (synthesizers, organ, Theremin, flutes, kalimba, vocals), Mick Oxtoby (violin, guitar) and Andy Fitzsimons (congas, bodhran, percussion), the astute amongst you may note that all 3 have featured in different incarnations of Shapeshifter.

This disc documents live recordings from gigs along with Endgame and as support to Shapeshifter, and rides a wide range of styles from the totally cosmic, via ethnic musics, through to bizarrely twisted jazz fusion. The latter aspect of reminds me of Brainticket on their ADVENTURE and VOYAGE albums, there are also touches of Between and the Third Ear Band, but largely it's Chris Conway's definite stamp that's all over it, ably proving he can be four musicians at once, even in a live setting.

Violin fans are, of course, in for a treat, as Mick creates some giddy dazzling dances of effects with his electric "psychedelic" violin.