Henry Cow "The Road concerts" (live @ TRONDHEIM (I/IV) 1976)

(from wikipedia article)

concert recorded in Trondheim, Norway on 26 May 1976, later broadcast on the Sveriges Radio radio program, Tonkraft on 14 July 1976.

When Henry Cow prepared to embark on their May 1976 tour of Scandinavia, they were two members short: John Greaves had left the band after the March 1976 Hamburg concert, and Dagmar Krause had remained behind in Hamburg due to ill-health. As they were committed to the tour, Henry Cow, as a quartet of Cutler, Frith, Hodgkinson and Cooper, abandoned their familiar set lists and decided improvise all the concerts on the tour in the dark. They were also accompanied by "shadows that were not us", which were two-hour tapes that Cooper, Hodgkinson and Frith had each prepared. The subject of the tapes were: Cooper -- youth to old age; Hodgkinson -- history of language; and Frith -- history of Henry Cow. The tapes ran continuously and inaudibly throughout the duration of the show, but were made audible by their creators from time to time with a foot pedal, without knowing what part of the tape would be heard. Chris Cutler explained that it was an "attempt to inhabit a dramaturgy anchored in narratives of origins, evolution, history and ritual". They also decided to disguise and "primitivise" themselves and their equipment, and hence the darkness.

François Couture at Allmusic called Trondheim the "crown jewel" of the box set, saying it was "some of [Henry Cow's] darkest and most thrilling music". John Kelman at All About Jazz described Trondheim as "about as unapproachable as Henry Cow ever got, and yet amongst the densities and at times harsh realms are moments of profound beauty. The 80-minute improvisation [...] demonstrates the kind of intuitive push-and-pull that could only come from musicians not just spending a great deal of time playing together, but also living together, with a potent ability to sometimes shift ambience and color at the drop of a dime."

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