Albert Alan Owen, Following The Light  
Albert Alan Owen
Following The Light
FRA 1xLP 
Label: Libreville Records
Reissue
Release Year: 1982
Style: Jazz & Blues
 
  Tracks  
  A1 Following The Light, Part 1 16:36
B1 Following The Light, Part 2 9:33
B2 Following The Light, Part 3 14:18
 
  Albert Alan Owen was born in Wales in 1948 to Welsh and Latvian parents. His family subsequently emigrated to Zimbabwe, where his father worked as a teacher. Here, he grew up profoundly influenced by the local music and culture, as well as American RnB and jazz. It was also during this time that Owen became aware of the violent inequalities of British colonial rule, forging a lifelong commitment to socialism and a hatred of racism.
In 1967, he returned to Europe to study: first at the Royal Academy of Music in London, before spending time in Paris with the renowned composition teacher Nadia Boulanger and Jacques Fevrier, a favourite pianist of Ravel and Poulenc. Composition became Owen’s main focus, while the purchase of a Fender Rhodes electric piano signalled a complete break with his Western classical training. This opened up new possibilities, suggesting a radical way to combine his love of African and African-American music with the impressionism of Ravel and Debussy and the brave new sound-world of Electroacoustic composition. These experiences set Owen on the path he would follow as a composer and as a teacher at the Royal Academy of Music and London's Working Men's College, before he eventually returned to Wales where he still lives.

Owen recorded Following the Light in 1982 for the Apollo Sound Label. Ostensibly a Library Music label, it took advantage of what it perceived as a gap in the modern classical music market, which was dominated by major labels releasing ‘difficult’ avant-garde new music. By contrast, Apollo Sound commissioned melodic pieces from new composers, aiming presumably to provide atmospheric backgrounds for film, television and advertising, and to feed the burgeoning demand for ‘New Age’ music. Following the Light, while certainly melodic, makes no concessions to mid-afternoon mindfulness or commercial use and reuse. Instead, it is a deep and immersive listening experience, clearly the work of a singular musical imagination following its own rules in its own way.

The record demands to be considered as a stand-alone unit, its three sections unfolding elegant and propulsive by turns, as reoccurring themes answer each other through the layers. In doing so, it offers glimpses into a recognisably beautiful but completely other musical world. There are echoes of Reich and Riley in the use of delay, that warm rolling repetition and those bass pulses. But this is not in the service of a system. There is something more lyrical, more humane at work in the music. Perhaps it is closer to a representation of an imagined landscape: the Southern African dreamtime of Owen’s childhood walking in the bush, or a mystical but clear-eyed take on the British countryside recalling the paintings of Paul Nash or Virginia Astley’s From Gardens Where We Feel Secure.

With Following the Light, Albert Alan Owen has given us that rare thing: a record that stands outside of time and place, it’s familiar elements made strange and new, all bathed in magic hour light.

Lovely crafted tip-on sleeve. Remastered. 600 copies.
 
      Wish List  
  Price: CHF 29.00   Add to Cart  
  Releases of the same artist  
  No items found ..  
  Releases of the same label  
  Eko Kuango, Eko Kuango  
Eko Kuango
Eko Kuango
[Libreville Records]
TIP  
FRA 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 42.00 Add To Cart
 
  Guy Cuevas, Total Cuevas  
Guy Cuevas
Total Cuevas
[Libreville Records]
TIP  
FRA 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 35.00 Add To Cart
 
  Mal Waldron, Candy Girl  
Mal Waldron
Candy Girl
[Libreville Records]
FRA 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 54.00 Restocking!
 
  Mega Wave Orchestra, Mega Wave Orchestra  
Mega Wave Orchestra
Mega Wave Orchestra
[Libreville Records]
FRA 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 31.00 Restocking!
 
  Sunstroke, Nothing's Wrong In Paradise  
Sunstroke
Nothing's Wrong In Paradise
[Libreville Records]
TIP  
FRA 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 32.00 Add To Cart
 
  The William Penn Jazz Ensemble, Carvings  
The William Penn Jazz Ensemble
Carvings
[Libreville Records]
TIP  
FRA 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 37.00 Add To Cart
 
  Wilfred Percussion, Wilfred Percussion  
Wilfred Percussion
Wilfred Percussion
[Libreville Records]
FRA 1xLP  Wish List
CHF 30.00 Add To Cart
 
Ana Frango Eletrico
Mormaco Queima
[Mr Bongo]
Arat Kilo
Danama
[Accords Croises]
Barney Keen
Harbinger
[Touching Bass]
BOM
Àşę
[Paper Recordings]
Brenda
Where Did I Go Wrong?
[College Of Knowledge Records ]
Brian Ellis
Ease Out
[Star Creature]
Brian Ellis
Love Is The Drug
[Tugboat Editions]
Bukkha & Ites Vibration
Higher
[Higher]
Burna Boy
No Sign Of Weakness
[Warner]
Chaos In The CBD
A Deeper Life
[In Dust We Trust]
Commonsur
Commonsur EP
[Lovemonk]
Debbie Jacobs
Don't You Want My Love (Joe Claussell / Cratebug Remixes)
[Glitterbox]
Dimitri From Paris Vs. Chatobaron X Idjut Boys
Chez Madame La Baronne (Unreleased Versions)
[Bite The Day]
Domenique Dumont
Deux Paradis
[Antinote]
Electric Satie
Gymnopedie '99
[ISC Hi-Fi Selects]
Erika De Casier
Lifetime
[Independent Jeep Music]
Ewan McVicar
Careless Drifter
[Phantasy Sound]
Figi & Luca Dell'Orso
Mr. Computer
[Bordello A Parigi]
Footsie Meets Bukkha
Pon A Medi
[Bukkha]
Giorgio Lopez
Sud des Îles
[Cosmic Romance Records]
Herbert & Momoko (Matthew Herbert & Momoko Gill)
Clay
[Strut Records]
Instruments Of Rapture
Prolonged Resistance
[Instruments Of Rapture]
JasonMartin & DJ Quik
Chupacabra
[Empire ]
JAZ & Party Dad
DW00:00:004
[Death On Wax]
Jeroboam
See The Light
[Space Grapes]
Joaquin Joe Claussell
IBOGA 12" EP Two
[Sacred Rhythm Music]
Joaquin Joe Claussell
Iboga EP#1
[Sacred Rhythm Music]
Jonny Nash
Once Was Ours Forever
[Melody As Truth]
Kampinos
Good Looking Pepe (Deep Burnt)
[Gamm]
Kinga
Sexy Boy
[Dark Entries]
Konkolo Orchestra
Le Secret (Bosq Remix)
[Rocafort Records]
Kuniyuki / Cushty
Tremor
[Sound Of Speed]
Lars Bartkuhn
See The Light
[Rush Hour]
Leo Gibbon
Orbit Step
[Mudline]
Loredana Bertè, Dimitri From Paris
In Alto Mare (Remix)
[Nar International S.r.l.]
Louis and Bebe Barron
Forbidden Planet
[Sonitron]
Mark Ernestus' Ndagga Rhythm Force
Khadim
[Ndagga]
Maurice McGee
Do I Do
[Full Time Records]
N Kramer and Magnus Bang Olsen
Pastoral Blend
[Music From Memory]
Neuzeitliche Bodenbeläge
Neue Kreise
[Bureau B]
Omid Geadizadeh
Like The Sea Knows Blue
[Wah Wah Wino]
Outback
Strangers (In Our Homeland)
[Symphonical Records]
Pal Joey
Hear Again
[Pal Joey Music]
Pawz One & Robin Da Landlord
Sell Me A Dream (Flowstalgia)
[Below System]
Record Player
Free Your Mind
[Now Again]
Rhythm Machine
Rhythm Machine
[Vampisoul]
Roy Ayers
Everybody Loves The Sunshine
[Vampisoul]
Russ
Wild
[Unified Records]
Sampology
Ripen Vol.1
[Middle Name]
Seven Davis JR
Don't Crash Out Challenge
[Secret Angels]
Sheriff Lindo And the Hammer
Ten Dubs That Shook The World
[Em Records]
Space Ghost Feat. Teddy Bryant
Majestic Fantasies
[Peace World]
Stimulator Jones
Cool Green Trees (1999-2005)
[Be With Records]
TamTam
Where They Dwell
[Peoples Potential Unlimited]
Terror/Cactus
La Pantera
[Names You Can Trust]
The Circling Sun
Orbits
[Soundway]
The Mighty Mocambos
Showdown (10th Anniversary) + 7inch
[Mocambo]
The Outcasts
Loving You Sometimes
[Symphonical Records]
V/A
Manzo Edits Vol. 5
[Manzo Edits]
V/A
R.D.Y.#57 (Ron Hardy)
[R.D.Y.]
V/A
R2 + Yoruba 25
[R2 Records]
V/A
The Future Sound EP
[Metroplex]
V/A
Time For Us
[Black Hole]
Wally Wonder
City Freaks
[Star Creature]
Wino - E
Wino - E
[Wah Wah Wino]
  1. Lexx
Rhythm Of Love
 
  2. Amine
13 Months of Sunshine
 
  3. Doechii
Alligator Bites Never Heal
 
  4. Fugees
The Score
 
  5. J Dilla
928
 
  6. J Dilla
Genius
 
  7. Little Simz
Lotus
 
  8. Mystic Jungle
Sunset Breaker
 
  9. Nu Genea
Bar Mediterrano
 
  10. OG Florin + Melodiesinfonie
Meh Als Null Und Eis