Hugh Hopper R.I.P.

So sad to hear the passing away of Hugh Hopper
Hugh became a legend as the bass player in Soft Machine with his innovative compositions and a unique signature fuzz-bass sound. making his mark on the history of progressive rock and forward-looking jazz-influenced psychedelic groups of the period and ever since.
I had the opportunity and privilege of meeting and working with Hugh when he played with Brainville 3 In Tel Aviv a few years ago and was struck by his down to earth and humble nature, his friendly manner and typical very English of humor.
Here is an improvisation Hugh played with Chris Cutler as the opening of the concert
This has all the magical ingredients that made Hugh such a unique bass player and improviser.






Hugh had one last request which stems from his faith in Buddhism; that request is to chant "Om Mani Padme Hum" for 49 days, visualizing him in the light of a rainbow.
Rest In peace dear Hugh

Shub Niggurath - Introduction

Its been a while... Just back from the post office to receive copies of one of the most interesting and emotional projects I have had the chance to take part in -The restoration and re issue of Shub Niggurath's debut release. Shub Nigguarth was a french group active in the early 80's till the 90's (no doubt the worst time to play anything even remotely relating to Progressive music).Their album Les Mort Vont Vite captured and fascinated me for years This album has gathered much praise and rightfully considered a classic by critics and fans of the "outer zone" of the progressive music scene.
As the name Shub Niggurath taken from H.P. Lovecraft's mythology suggests their sound evokes foreboding and sinister atmosphere. So aptly put by Wayside Music "music that reaches to the inner core of the evil void." heh heh Combining complex compositions intricate arrangements and passionate playing.the result is a fine balance of dark sometimes suffocating violent brutal massive passages with beautiful chilling melodies The line up consisted of drums, keyboards(mostly organ harmonium and piano), eerie classical inspired female vocals, and the 3 elements that made them sound so unique : Trombone the special ingredient that at times could add a lyrical voice to the melodies and on other parts sound abrasive dissonant and powerful. Add to that maybe the most brutal sounding distorted bass ever recorded ,and the burning,scorching unique sounding guitar tones produced by master of sonority and timbre Frank Fromy.
Fromy left sometime after this album due to musical differences and went on to record his only solo album the haunting eerie Quatre Axes Mutants .The group went on to record several other albums none even came close
Years later I discovered that the line up that recorded the classic Les Mort Vont Vite had previously also recorded a cassette only release simply named Shub Niggurath After some serious searching I did find this tape (courtesy of my Friend Leor Hardy) and realized this album had all those special ingredients that made Les Mort Vont Vite such a great album a bit less polished a tad more brutal and raw. For my own pleasure I transferred the tape and mastered it (some tonal balancing some cleaning up and voila !). Through the following years I tried to raise some int rest with some of the labels that I knew sent them a few copies and tried to find why this gem never got a proper re issue and the end conclusion was put well by Brandon Wu who wrote a nice review in Ground & Sky on this after I have sent him a copy :"And so the two towering achievements by an unforgettable band are inextricably linked; it's just too bad that one of them is almost impossible to find. My guess is that it must be the mental-health lobby that's been keeping this amazing, demented album out of print." Ah well...
Then last year Les Mort Vont Vite was re-printed and this lit the spark again and this time I guess I was more determined .... What more natural was to Ask Zeuhl specialist Alain Lebon head of Soleil Zeuhl a french label that focuses on releasing archive releases of this type of music. if there was one person that might know I thought it had to be Alain .But to my sup rise he was not aware of this album but once he heard it he was determined to put it out and give it the proper well cared release it so deserves.Finding the members of the group did need some investigations but finally Alain was able to trace Frank Fromy and Jean Luc Herve and to their delight and surprise tell them this work has not been forgotten (Fromy told us he has not listened to this piece of music for over then 25 years yet he remembered every note every nuance and small detail).
Later when work started on the restoration and mastering of this album I had the chance to get to know Fromy and find out that besides being a unique and gifted guitarist and musician he turned his passion for sound design and experimenting, and started his own company FWF Systèmes that designs and builds specialist microphones for a variety of applications such as musical instrument amplifications and other unique applications (such as micing up the noisy cockpit of race cars on the famous Grand Prix) working with many known internationally famed musicians and big clients like Euro Disney InaGrm etc. Its worth to mention Fromy's only musical project in the new melenium called 000 - Crypto Sensus an album featuring his blistering guitar work with electronic artist Vincent Sicot-Vantalon and superb drumming by former Shub member Edward Perraud resulting with a massive overwhelming thunderous sound.

There are plans for a further future release of some archive material by Shub Niggurath and Fromy's previous band - hey maybe even a re issue of his only solo album Quatre Axes Mutants... But the best news is that Frank has plans to go back to being musically active and form a new group.
Here are a few samples from the album
Barback 1
Yog Sothoth
In Memoriam
Barback 2
Many thanks to Alain Lebon ,Eric Lumbleau,Leor Hardy,Phil Kime

Arik Hayat RIP

This morning I received terrible news.
Arik Hayat committed suicide yesterday
Arik was a dear friend a extremely gifted musician and a humble human being.
Arik was the leader and one of the main composers of Sympozion he played keyboards and sang the lead vocals .
He was just here a few days ago to finalize his new solo album which he chillingly titled "Doing Life"
I am still completely speechless and trembling as I write this .

Here is the link to his album :

http://www.archive.org/details/DoingLife_456

And this is what he wrote

Hi everyone
Since this is my first post, I'll introduce myself.
My name is Arik Hayat. I was born in Holon, Israel in 1980, and pretty much stayed there since.
I am a musician. Music is what I do, it is what I live for and what I care most about. So just keep in mind that I'm serious. Sometimes it feels like I'm not.
Anyway, the important stuff:
I have just released my second album, titled 'Doing Life'.
Get it here for free right now.
It is a personal album, not an easy album in my opinion, but I believe that it is also an interesing and mature album, and maybe it will pluck a string or two in you.
In the recent years I have come to believe that music should be free. I have warmly accepted some of the important revolutions of our time and I am glad to be able to contribute on that level as well.
MUSIC SHOULD BE FREE.
Remember that.
Here are some good places to get lots of great free music:
WFMU
http://blog.wfmu.org
UBUWEB
http://www.ubu.com
Internet Archive
http://www.archive.org
I assume you probably know your stuff and have tons of sources that you found for excellent music. I would love to get to know them as well. I have all the time in the world for this. FEED ME!!!
Thanks for your patience,
have a good life.
Arik