Leon, Craig / Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1: Nommos/Visiting
Album: Anthology Of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1: Nommos/Visiting   Collection:General
Artist:Leon, Craig   Added:Oct 2014
Label:Rvng Intl.  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2014-12-12 Pull Date: 2015-02-13
Week Ending: Feb 1 Jan 25 Jan 11 Jan 4 Dec 28
Airplays: 1 1 1 1 2

Recent Airplay
1. Sep 08, 2016: Magnetized Toner: Summer Mix 3 (All Formats)
She Wears A Hemispherical Skullcap, Four Eyes To See The Afterlife
4. Jan 07, 2015: Clean Copper Radio
Visiting, She Wears A Hemispherical Skullcap
2. Jan 28, 2015: After the After Party
One Hundred Steps
5. Jan 02, 2015: Clean Copper Radio
Ring With Three Concentric Discs
3. Jan 21, 2015: After the After Party
Nommo
6. Dec 27, 2014: Music Casserole
Visiting, Ring With Three Concentric Discs

Album Review
Telepathic Juan
Reviewed 2014-12-09
Craig Leon’s ambitious synthesizer masterpieces are finally reissued as envisioned by its creator over 30 years ago. Anthology of Interplanetary Folk Music Vol. 1 consists of two recordings, Nommos and Visiting. Nommos is inspired by an exhibition of artifacts from the Dogon tribe of Mali that Craig Leon visited in the early 1970s. According to the tribe, their ancestors, the Nommos, were beings from outer space that share among other things, their musical traditions. Craig Leon became so fascinated by this concept that he decided to make a score of how he imagined the melodies would sound like for these beings as they travel through space.

Nommos, a vastly imaginative recording using the highest synthesizer technology available at the time (late 1970s), is a composition divided into five sections that emanates a sense of spacefaring movement propelled by repetitive sounds that resemble mechanical friction, active machinery, and the noise of continuous meteor showers hitting the aircraft.

As a side note, this is not the originally recorded version from 1979-80 but rather a re-recorded version made in 2009 by the artists, Craig Leon and his partner Cassell Webb, using the same machines, score, and notes from those sessions. The original master tapes are unavailable due to an ongoing court legation.

Visiting materialized in 1982 as a conceptual continuation of Nommos. The album is in equal measure more improvisatory and constructed than its predecessor. Visiting, despite its noteworthy minimalist qualities, is an album constructed more like a pop record in part by being less experimental and less lengthy. The compositions also resemble more that of stripped down instrumental post-punk tracks where the drum beats and the keyboard parts are the only elements present and constantly repeating.

Both albums are intended to be listened to as a set. Think of Nommos as the soundtrack to accompany your departure and Visiting as the recording playing on your return trip home. A remarkable and influential piece of speculative sonic fiction.

NOTE: These tracks are supposed to be played as one continuous recording. There are no breaks between the recordings so they all blend into each other. You can play a couple of them back to back but if not, just fade them out.

RIYL: Phillip Reich, Glenn Branca, Vatican Shadow, Klaus Krüger, and Demdike Stare.

NO WORDS, NO FCCs.
Recommended Tracks: [CD1] 1, 2, 4, and 5; [CD 2] 1, 2, 4, and 5.

Nommos [CD 1]
1. (6:25) *** Ring With Three Concentric Discs – Slow ambient intro, then a wave of whirly, repetitive loops followed by a layer of sporadic metallic noises and more atmospheric synths. Space dust.
2. (6:19) **Donkeys Bearing Cups – Mechanical noises and a minimal continuous beat. Layer upon layer of repetitive, synthesizer elements. Chaotic.
3. (7:18) Nommo – A sequence of beats slowly building up. A layer of synthesizer elements complements the composition. Serene moment.
4. (15:20) **Four Eyes To See The Afterlife – Quiet intro - the first appearance of sounds imitating spacecraft computer machinery. As the track slowly evolves, a very slow rhythm, the song abruptly stops to introduce this repetitive synthesizer riff that continues for over ten minutes. Towards the end, a layer of humanoid voices emerges sporadically. Impenetrable communication.
5. (6:50) **She Wears A Hemispherical Skullcap – Multiple beats, repetitive noises, and then layers of atmospheric synths until the end. Epilogue.

Visiting [CD 2]
1. (4:50) **One Hundred Steps – Slow introduction. Programmed drums, synthesizers, and other minimal repetitive resonances. Steady and alluring.
2. (4:34) ***Region of Fleeing Civilians – Amazing synth intro, continuous drumbeat, and a great keyboard riff. The most accessible composition on the anthology. Kraftwerk’s influence here.
3. (6:43) Three Small Coins – A mechanical noise similar to that of a large appliance. Beats emerge here and there. Ambient track.
4. (4:54) **Visiting – A nice complement to the previous track. Long distorted guitar solo emerges half way through the song – think The Durutti Column.
5. (2:31) **Details Suggest Fidelity To Fact – Accelerated drum sequence. Nice synths. Sporadic humanoid voices.
6. (7:45) The Customs of the Age Disturbed – Long minimalist track with synths in three different sections. Faded.

Track Listing
1. Ring With Three Concentric Discs   7. Region Of Fleeing Civilians
2. Donkeys Bearing Cups   8. Three Small Coins
3. Nommo   9. Visiting
4. Four Eyes To See The Afterlife   10. Details Suggest Fidelity To Fact
5. She Wears A Hemispherical Skullcap   11. The Customs Of The Age Disturbed
6. One Hundred Steps   .