Rites of Spring

The 1974 and 1975 releases from British jazz-fusion outfit Nucleus has just been released on the fine BGO Records as a 2 CD set, chock full of liner notes and line-up information. Both of these albums saw Ian Carr and Nuclues taking on a more funk/rock fusion slant, and while there is still a lot of jazzy tones here, the music is more electrified and filled with more grooves than previous offerings.
The presence of electric piano and Moog synthesizer play a huge role on both these albums, courtesy of Gordon Beck, Geoff Castle, and Carr himself. In addition, lots of wah-wah guitar licks from Ken Shaw and Jocelyn Pitchen permeate the mix, as well as throbbing bass lines from Roger Sutton, all of which can be heard from the opening moments of the song "In Procession" from Under the Sun…

When people think of the masterpieces of art, painters such as Gauguin or Picasso might spring to mind. But thousands of years before these modern masters put brush to canvas, artists from all over the ancient world, from France to Egypt to South America, created a trove of masterpieces—artwork stunning for its opulence, its realism, its utility, and its visual drama.

Blue is the color of infinity. Circular movements and cycles are basic principles of life. As musical elements, they are associated with movement and rhythmic energy - as repetitive figures, which charge themselves continually with new energy, stimulate each other and finally start to rotate and dance. To awake such primal forces and to make them audible and sensible is one of the objectives of Hans Lüdemann's ROOMS. They are translated into a sensual and physical musical approach. The musicians embody these musical elements and forces, they are continuously charged with their energies and transfer those to the listener in musical processes. The blue is also the blue of jazz, of 'blue notes', of melancholy and pain.