As part of the Hull City of Culture events, this week's H&N is a broadcast of a concert in tribute to one of the city's most Musically original residents, Basil Kirchin. Far too little celebrated (mea culpa - I had heard of him only from passing comments from other Musicians, and hadn't followed these up) Kirchin began his career as a drummer in Big Bands, and worked with Rock Musicians (Jimmy Page and Mick Ronson included) for much of his life. An ever-exploratory, inquisitive Musical mind, he became fascinated from the early '60s in the possibilities offered by tape manipulations of environmental sounds, producing albums which failed to reach a huge audience when they first appeared, but which a decade and more later were acknowledged by subsequent Musicians and audiences as (trying to come up with another word than "trailblazing"/"ahead of their time"-type clichés) significant influences on later Music.
Significantly, it is Musicians from "pop" Music who are chiefly responsible for this concert: Tears For Fears/Goldfrapp composer and instrumentalist Will Gregory, and electronic composer/performers Matthew Herbert and Jim O'Rourke feature as composers with works by Kirchin himself - and performers include Evan Parker. Just sad that Kirchin himself isn't around to see how much affection and respect his Music and ideas inapire, twelve years after his death.
Significantly, it is Musicians from "pop" Music who are chiefly responsible for this concert: Tears For Fears/Goldfrapp composer and instrumentalist Will Gregory, and electronic composer/performers Matthew Herbert and Jim O'Rourke feature as composers with works by Kirchin himself - and performers include Evan Parker. Just sad that Kirchin himself isn't around to see how much affection and respect his Music and ideas inapire, twelve years after his death.
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