Great Britain's BGO label continues its ambitious reissue of bassist/composer/arranger
Graham Collier's works with this fourth volume of recordings cut between 1976 and 1978, all inspired by, and/or based upon, works by author
Malcolm Lowry. Disc one contains
Collier's extended
The Day of the Dead suite, which is over 70 minutes in length. It contains read passages from
Under the Volcano as well as
Dark as the Grave Wherein My Friend Is Laid, read beautifully by
John Carbery. The music, which is by turns impressionistic and expressionistic, leaves room for short periods of improvisation; it is performed by an ensemble that includes
Collier,
Alan Wakeman,
Roger Dean,
Mike Page,
Harry Beckett, and
Peter Duncan. Disc two contains the truly strange long-form Canterbury-influenced jazz-rock work "October Ferry," which was also on the original
The Day of the Dead LP, based on the author's
October Ferry from Gabriola, but with no narration. The remainder contains
Collier's glorious "Symphony of Scorpions," relating to
The Day of the Dead. Played by
Collier's working ensemble (
Beckett,
Henry Lowther,
Dean, and
Art Themen), it may be called a "symphony," simply because of the unification of theme and relational harmonic ideas -- in other words, it's as loose and shambolic as
Lowry's writings. The set ends with the lovely, brief "Forest Path to the Spring," based upon a
Lowry poem, played by the same group according to a closely defined chart by
Collier. The sound here is greatly improved from the Disconforme editions of these works from 2001, and these sets were approved by
Collier before his death in 2011.
–
Thom Jurek, Rovi