Oregon - Oregon
SKU
28-ECM1258
"This 1983 self-titled album by Oregon, the group's first for the ECM label, is stunningly beautiful -- one of their best. (Over the years I wore out two cassettes of this album before the more durable CD came along.) You may think it improbable, given that this album marked their first use of synthesizers, while Oregon's reputation was made by developing all-acoustic "east/west chamber jazz" as a counterpoint to the prevalent 1970s electric fusion sound. But it is one of their best, nonetheless, and my speculation as to why is that it marked a fresh start for the group, and a fresh sound. To my ears, Oregon had lost the magic of their early Vanguard recordings by the late '70s, and their Elektra albums sound uninspired. Then, after a several year hiatus, they returned with this one, featuring Ralph Towner's Prophet 5 synthesizer. The center and high point of the album is the long track 3, "Taos." The shimmering textures of the synthesizer are used masterfully to create a utopian vision of great clarity and power. Oregon may never have done anything so psychedelic or mystical before or since. To go out on a limb with interpretation, the surrounding tracks ("The Beacon" and "Beside a Brook") summon up the harmony of non-human nature, and lead to and away from this flash of cosmic harmony -- the human joined seamlessly with the rest of nature.... It strikes me as ironic that the album cover is the hip painter flinging a disc of orange paint at a wall. If any ECM recording ever deserved a serenely lovely nature scene of the sort the label is renowned for -- perhaps including a glimpse of Taos Pueblo -- this is the one!"-R. Hutchinson
Paul McCandless reeds, flute
Glen Moore bass, violin, piano
Ralph Towner guitar, piano, synthesizer
Collin Walcott sitar, percussion, voice