Rarities Volumes 1 & 2

Rarities Volumes 1 & 2 is a 2014 posthumous compilation album of various pieces by English experimental musician and composer Lindsay Cooper.

Background

Cooper died of multiple sclerosis in 2013. This compilation was assembled by her colleagues in her memory.

Content

The accompanying booklet includes memorials written by Sally Potter, Tim Hodgkinson, David Thomas and Kate Westbrook.

Tracks

Disc 1

From Outtakes for Other Occasions (1986), originally released as a limited edition cassette to subscribers to Music for Other Occasions

From the play "The Execution"

• 1. "Tsar's Band" (0:44)
• 2. "The Assassination" (1:33)
• 3. "The Evening Before" (1:51)

From the film "Give Us a Smile" by Leeds Animation Workshop:

• 4. "Give Us a Smile" film score (3:05)

From the film "Green Flutes"

• 5. "Washing Line" (0:36)
• 6. "Against the Current" film score (3:08)
• 7. "The Time of Their Lives" curtain music (1:22)
• 8. "Trih's Song" (1:17)

All compositions by Cooper

• Lindsay Cooper – piano, bassoon
• Chris Cutler – drums
• Maggie Nicols – voice
• Irita Kutchmy – flute, saxophone
• Vicky Aspinall – violin
• Georgie Born – cello on "Trih's Song"
• Fred Frith – guitar

Recorded in London between 1979–84

From The Small Screen: Music for Television, originally released as a limited subscription cassette in 1984

Songs from 5 Short Films, made by Lis Rhodes and Jo Davis

"Four Corners", for Channel 4

• 9. "The Song of the Goose and the Common" (1:34)
• 10. "Off the Fence" (1:20)
• 11. "Fair Exchange" (1:59)
• 12. "Windscale" (0:47)
• 13. "The Number 8 Bus" (1:23)

Music for "Green Flutes", a film about a republican flute band in Glasgow, directed by Nancy Schiesari for Channel 4

• 14. "Belfast" (2:08)
• 15. "Fanfare" (0:39)
• 16. "Flute Tune" (1:16)
• 17. "Priesthill" (0:49)

From "Domestic Bliss", a comedy drama directed by Joey Chamberlain for Channel 4

• 18. "Domestic Bliss" end credits (2:37)

From "With Our Children", a film about lesbian mothers directed by Melanie Chait for Channel 4

• 19. "Court Entry" (0:57)
• 20. "Lord Wilberforce" (1:02)
• 21. "Home Movie 1" (1:12)
• 22. "Open Letters" (2:30)
• 23. "Linda B" (1:05)
• 24. "Home Movie 2" (2:51)
• 25. ""Three Heads" (1:14)
• 26. "Julia", end credits (3:16)

All compositions by Cooper, except "The Song of the Goose and the Common" and "Flute Tune" (trad.); words for "Four Corners" by Lis Rhodes, except "The Song of the Goose and the Common" (trad.)

• Lindsay Cooper – piano, Casio, bassoon, oboe, sopranino and alto saxophones, bass guitar on "Off the Fence" and "Domestic Bliss"
• Georgie Born – guitar and bass guitar on "Green Flutes" and "Domestic Bliss"
• Chris Cutler – drums on "Green Flutes" and "Domestic Bliss"
• Celia Gore Booth – singing saw on "With Our Children"
• Dagmar Krause – singing on "Windscale" and "The Number 8 Bus"
• Irita Kutchmy – piccolo on "Green Flutes"
• Maggie Nicols – singing on "With Our Children"
• Kate Westbrook – singing on ""The Song of the Goose and the Common", "Off the Fence" and "Fair Exchange"; tenor horn on "Off the Fence", "Fair Exchange" and "With Our Children"

Recorded in 1983 ("Green Flutes"), March and August 1984 ("Four Corners"), June 1984 ("Domestic Bliss"), September 1984 ("With Our Children"). All engineered by Charles Gray.

Lindsay Cooper and orchestra, originally released on Angelica '92 compilation

• 27. Extract from "Concerto per Sax Sopranino e Archi" (5:07)

Recorded at the Angelica festival, Bologna, 1992.

From A Beginner's Guide to Nomansland (1988), originally released on the No Mans Land compilation sampler A Beginners Guide to Nomansland (1988) Pieces originally written for the films "Das Nächste Jahrhundert Wird Unseres Sein" and "Wir Wollen Lieber Fliegen als Kriechen", directed by Claudia von Allemann for Hessischer Rundfunk television

• 28. "In the Archive" (0:40)
• 29. "Mainz" (1:55)
• 30. "Paulskirche" (2:22)

• Elvira Plenar – synthesizer, piano
• Lindsay Cooper – sopranino and soprano saxophones
• Alfred Harth – bass clarinet
• Ann-Marie Roelofs – violin, trombone

Recorded and engineered by Walter Brussow in Frankfurt, March 1987

TOTAL TIME: 52:08 -- Assembled and pre-mastered by Udi Koomran

Disc 2

Trio Trabant (Lindsay Cooper, Alfred 23 Harth, Phil Minton), previously unreleased

• 1. "Le Detroit" (6:49)
• 2. "De Breede en de Smalle Weg" (4:41)
• 3. "Le Cadran Bleu 3" (5:38)
• 4. "State of Retrograd" (4:43)
• 5. "Vigilanz" (3:46)
• 6. "Le Cadran Bleu 5" (8:02)

All compositions by Cooper/Harth/Minton

• Lindsay Cooper – bassoon, sopranino saxophone, electronics
• Alfred 23 Harth – alto and tenor saxophones, clarinet, bass clarinet, trumpet, trombone, piano, synthesizer, Farfisa organ, melodika
• Phil Minton – voice

Recorded at Festival Musica in Strasbourg on 4 October 1991. Mastered by Harth.

Lindsay Cooper, originally released as a limited edition not-for-sale subscription item with the LP Rags on a hand silkscreened one-sided 7" vinyl

• 7. "Pictures from the Great Exhibition" (8:08)
  • "Fingers Weary and Worn" [Tulley]
  • "Canal Towpath" [Cooper]
  • "Musical Box" [Tulley]
  • "Regent Street" [Herold]
  • "Women's Wrongs" [Cooper]
  • "Cholera Morbus" [Minton]
  • "The Housewife's Nightmare" [Herold/Cooper]
  • "Spitalfields" [Tulley]

Written by Lindsay Cooper

• Georgie Born – cello, bass guitar
• Phil Minton – trumpet, voice
• Lindsay Cooper – bassoon, saxophone

Recorded in April 1979 for the film "Song of the Shirt"

Cooper/Cutler/Wyatt, originally released on The Last Nightingale (1984), released to raise money for the British miners during their strike

• 8. "In the Dark Year" (3:48)

Words: Chris Cutler; music: Lindsay Cooper

• Lindsay Cooper – piano, electric piano, sopranino saxophone, bassoon
• Robert Wyatt – voice
• Chris Cutler – drums
• Bill Gilonis – guitar, bass

Recorded and engineered in Brixton by Gilonis and Tim Hodgkinson, 29–31 October 1984

Lindsay Cooper, previously unreleased

• 9. "Piano Roulette: Solo Piano" (11:24)

Recorded live in New York, 13 November 1985

David Thomas and the Pedestrians, originally released on Winter Comes Home (1983)

• 10. "Petrified" (9:49)

Text: David Thomas; music: Lindsay Cooper

• David Thomas – voice
• Lindsay Cooper – bassoon, sopranino saxophone
• Chris Cutler – drums

Concert recorded in Erding, Germany on 11 December 1982; concert mix: EM Thomas

Bauer/Cooper/Cutler/Potter, originally released on Volume 1 No. 1 of the Re Records Quarterly Magazine (1985)

• 11. "Education" (3:42)

Words: Chris Cutler; music: Lindsay Cooper

• Lindsay Cooper – piano, alto and soprano saxophone
• Sally Potter – voice
• Chris Cutler – drums
• Connie Bauer – trombone
• Bill Gilonis – guitar, bass

Recorded in Brixton by Gilonis, April 1984

TOTAL TIME: 1:10:26 -- compiled by Chris Cutler and remastered by Bob Drake.

References

• Rarities Volumes 1 & 2 CD booklet (ReR MEGACORP, 2014)

External links

• Rarities, Vols. 1 & 2 at AllMusic
• Rarities (Volumes 1 & 2) at Discogs