Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Bill Connors - Swimming with a Hole in My Body (1979)


Enchanting, nocturnal compositions for acoustic guitar. On a personal note: The events in Baltimore have been wrenching to me in a way that I wouldn't have expected. Then there's the earthquake in Nepal. And I woke up today (which will be yesterday when this gets posted) to the news that this nice lunch lady that smoked cigarettes across the street from my house and gave my cat treats was murdered by her husband. The world can seem so sad sometimes. So I'm in need of some musical comfort food.

Track listing:
1. Feet First
2. Wade
3. Sing and Swim
4. Frog Stroke
5. Surrender to the Water
6. Survive
7. With Strings Attached
8. Breath

[Link removed due to DMCA complaint.]

15 comments:

  1. Feeling bummed? I dig. Try the Diva Soundtrack. Sweet movie, great music.
    https://www.oboom.com/CY9OBLQA

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    1. Thanks so much! I'm always down for a killer soundtrack. Looking forward to hearing this.

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  2. Sorry to hear for your loss of a friend. Yes, I agree the world can be a sad, wretched place-it would far worse without music-particularly what you post. I love your blog-your the only person I know of who has taste as wacked as mine. Keep up the great work-YOU make this a better world!

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    1. Thank you for your kind words. I don't want to be a grief thief, so to be clear, I barely knew this lady. She was far better friends with my late cat than with me, but something about her senseless death, in combination with a bunch of other things, really bummed me out. But again, thanks for your comment -- glad to know there are others like me out there!

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  3. You're absolutely right, life can suck. This is a great album, you can't get much better than acoustic Connors for something restorative. Along with Theme To The Guardian, I really wish Manfred would pull his finger out and reissue these out-of-print gems.

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    1. Mr Eicher drops something nice and reissued our way once or twice a year whilst he gets on with his prolific po-faced arthouse globetrotting. Would love to see a Barre Phillips OOP box for starters.

      Thanks to our host for his generosity with time and effort on this blog, and my commiserations over the poor lady opposite. I think I know what you mean about such horrid out-of-nowhere stuff which casts a shadow on you far larger than anything you are "allowed" to throw back at it.

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  4. I'm a latecomer here, and am very pleased to have arrived. This Bill Connors album is one I've long sought, so many thanks for this and whatever else - and there's a lot - which grabs my fancy.

    Noting that you posted this some four weeks ago, I trust you've recovered from your gloom. Whenever you next encounter it or if you're in need of a quiet chill with a bottle of wine, or whatever, then I'm offering you an album that works for me here in Indonesia.

    Bubi Chen (1938-2012) was known as the 'Godfather' of Indonesian jazz, and credited with introducing Indonesian ethnic instruments, other than gamelan, and scales into the genre.

    His album Kedamaian (http://mir.cr/1YXBSOWQ) to my knowledge only ever released on cassette, is from 1989 and features his piano improvisations flowing, Keith Jarrett like, over kecapi (zither) and suling (bamboo flute) accompaniment. It is recognisably Sundanese (West Java) music, and utterly compelling.

    Enjoy.

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    1. Oh man, that sounds right up my alley. Can't wait to hear it. Thanks!

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  5. Hey friend! Any chance you could re-up this one?

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  6. DEAR_SPIRIT, could you please re-up this selection? Thanks!

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    1. I'm not updating the link in the post because I got a copyright complaint about it, but dropping a link here couldn't hurt, right?
      https://mega.nz/file/VisgQRQD#EhiG1priBBdO7hBytgDWexDG7F6yVIWGcM0tLf6JXVU

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    2. Thank you for responding with the goods, DEAR_SPIRIT! This is exceedingly hard to come by, and I'm utterly baffled by that: this is a superb album! Bill may be best known for his electric playing on "Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy", but his acoustic stuff is entrancing, and reminds me of Pierre Bensusan on the much later album "Intuite". Along with the stellar "Theme To The Gaurdian" - yes, it's spelled that way - there's little to compare to Bill's '70s acoustic music. He is one of the true 20th century guitar greats.
      Thanks again - Cheers!

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  7. An addendum: Bill's acoustic compositions also are reminiscent of Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco's "Platero and I" ("Platero y Yo") pieces written for and recorded by Andres Segovia, and also nod to Debussy. They speak the same mystical harmonic language. Gorgeous!

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