Secret Oyster were formed when members of Danish bands Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Coronarias Dans and Hurdy Gurdy joined together in 1972 to form a new group. By the end of Burnin' Red Ivanhoe's seven year career, Karsten Vogel started putting together a new band, taking with him BRI's drummer Bo Thrige Andersen, and bassist Mads Vinding, and knowing Claus Bohling from the Danish circuit, he enticed him into the band, which took its name from a track from Burnin' Red Ivanhoe's second album 'Secret Oysters Service'. The last to join was keyboardist Kenneth Knudsen, who had never played an electric instrument prior to joining this outfit, but was playing in a piano avant-garde trio. Knudsen would prove particularly helpful as the second songwriter of the group, allowing Vogel to leave the keyboards to play wind instruments. Their sound recalled Mahavishnu Orchestra, Nucleus, and later-period Soft Machine, as well as Herbie Hancock's 'Mwandishi' album and Miles Davis' 'Bitches Brew'. Secret Oyster released their self-titled debut album in November 1973 on Danish CBS, and in the US the album appeared on Peters International Records as 'Furtive Pearl'. It fused the instrumental side of Burnin' Red Ivanhoe with the newly established jazz-rock style of Return To Forever from the US, and Passport from Europe. After a line-up change that saw the rhythm section get a complete overhaul, with Jess Staer replacing Vinding and Ole Streenberg taking over from Andersen, their second album, 'Sea Son', was released in November 1974, and was even better, but failed to get the international public recognition it deserved, even if most fans agree that it was the band's pinnacle.
At one point the line-up of this group was exactly the same as Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, with the addition of that band's bassist joining the group, and this line-up composed the music for the ballet 'Vidunderlinge Kaelling', which was released as an album in 1975, to very mixed reviews. It was later re-issued under the name of 'Astarte' in The Netherlands, just a few months before their final album, the much better 'Straight From The Krankenhaus', which came out in 1976. Following the release of 'Straight to the Krankenhaus', Secret Oyster continued for a few more months, before disbanding in autumn 1977. However, material recorded before the breakup resurfaced decades later in two archival projects tied to Karsten Vogel’s personal archive. One of these, 'Striptease', stemmed from a planned follow-up to 'Vidunderlige Kælling', again involving choreographer Flemming Flindt. Composed primarily by Vogel and Knudsen, the music was partly tracked in the studio and partly recorded during rehearsals, but the ballet was never staged due to Flindt's relocation to Dallas, although Vogel preserved the tapes, which were eventually released more than forty years later on both vinyl and CD. Along with Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, Secret Oyster are one of my very favourite Danish bands, and if you've never heard of either group, then this collection of outtakes could almost be looked on as a 'Best Of...' sampler, as nothing on here is second-rate, and every track gives an indication of what their studio albums will sound like.
Track listing
01 Sea Son
02 Alfred
03 Glassprinsen
04 Orlavaer
05 Intro To Act II
06 Alfresco, Part I
07 Alfresco, Part II
08 Circus Sax
09 Dampexpressen
10 Sleep Music
No comments:
Post a Comment