Marsupilami Band

Open Spaces (1971). Esoteric Recordings are pleased to announce the release of Open Spaces by CMU, the band's debut album from 1971, this unique masterpiece is a much sought after collectors item originally released on the Transatlantic label. CMU (Contemporary Music Unit) were a unique fusion of Progressive rock, Jazz and Folk influences. In keeping with the mood of the times, Open Spaces touches a style that evokes the work of contemporaries Affinity or even Arthur Brown. In Larraine Odell, CMU had one of the few female vocalists of the Progressive era, a fine vocalist supported by a fine band…

Recorded in 1970, Panna Fredda's lone work is one of the earliest pioneers of the ISP genre, one of the trailblazers of the distinct style of festive experimentation that would characterize so many great Italian bands. It's really an overlooked title in the Italian progressive rock universe. Heavy and dark with a distinct baroque twist and an emphasis on exploration, "Uno" was right there with other first wave titles from Orme, The Trip, and Osanna. The origins of Panna Fredda (translates to Cold Cream) date back to 1966 Rome and the Italian beat when members were playing in a group called I Figli Del Sole. These nightclub gigs evolved into a 6-piece funk/R and B/brass outfit called Vun Vun.

Jake Jones (whoever knows to whom this name refered to?) was a short-lived American band from St. Louis, Missouri, which put out two albums in 1971, a self-titled one with strong psychedelic and folk leanings, and a second one during the same year, titled ''Different roads'' and being the most progressive of the pair, both were released during the fading days of the American label Kapp Records…

1971 was perhaps the best year for the lesser known British bands who still found themselves in the proto-prog category. Such acclaimed albums as Cressida's "Asylum", Beggar's Opera's "Waters of Change" and of course Spring's self-titled album were released that year. But while these albums are well known to at least progressive rock fans, Deep Feeling's album from the same year seems to be strangely forgotten, even if it occasionally boasted a higher degree of complexity than the earlier mentioned bands…

Julian Jay Savarin was born on the exotic island of Dominica, being of British origin, and moved to London in 1962. There he found the appropriate enviroment to reveal his talents as an organist and composer.He was in love with sci-fi stories and wrote some sort of a Rock Opera, based on an Atlantis-like lost civilization. He formed his personal band Julian's Treatment in 1970.
"A Time Before This" is a charming British Prog/Psychedelic Rock gem, where Savarin's mood for cosmic, jamming and atmospheric music eventually surfaces via the emerging progressive scenery, as the album is dominated by his work on Hammond organ and his tendency towards sinister Marsupilami-like psych manifests and The Nice-inspired semi-Classical piano and organ smashing…