Secret Oyster became somewhat of a super group when members of Burnin Red Ivanhoe, Coronarias Dans and Hurdy Gurdy formed this unit. All four original albums have received a thorough and outstanding remastering with added bonus tracks on the great label Laser's Edge. Secret Oyster got back together (Bohling, Vogel and Knudsen plus a new bassist and drummer) during the re-issues of their albums, touring the states and Denmark.
Secret Oyster became somewhat of a super group when members of Burnin Red Ivanhoe, Coronarias Dans and Hurdy Gurdy formed this unit. All four original albums have received a thorough and outstanding remastering with added bonus tracks on the great label Laser's Edge. Secret Oyster got back together (Bohling, Vogel and Knudsen plus a new bassist and drummer) during the re-issues of their albums, touring the states and Denmark.
Esoteric Recordings is pleased to announce the release of "Living On The Hill: A Danish Underground Trip 1967-1974", a 3CD clamshell boxed set celebrating the so-called “underground” rock music scene that emerged from Denmark at the tail end of the 1960s. It was an era that saw huge changes, both musical and social and was a pivotal period for creativity in rock music throughout Europe.
The influence of ground-breaking artists from Britain and the USA such as The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Jimi Hendrix, Traffic, Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention, Jefferson Airplane et al spread far and wide. In Denmark, as in many other European countries, the cries of change were made by students, radicals and hippies to a backdrop of emerging “underground” bands who were fusing the musical influences of psychedelia, jazz, blues, folk…
As the counterculture movements of the late 1960s rippled across various parts of the globe, each region seemed to develop its own musical response based on a collision of outside influences, regional characteristics, and the creative spark of mind-expanding drugs. While America and Britain are generally considered to have filled psychedelic rock's high court, they are by no means its only vital contributors. Championed by prominent eccentrics like John Peel and Julian Cope, Denmark's underground rock movement was a particularly fertile one, producing an array of challenging acts like Young Flowers, Ache, and Burnin' Red Ivanhoe, all of whom get their due on Cherry Red's excellent Living on the Hill: A Danish Underground Trip 1967-1974.
One of the biggest names of Scandinavian progressive groups that became well-known worldwide. Their music can be described as progressive jazz-rock under influences of beat, R&B, psychedelia… The compositions present often improvisational long passages with Karsten Vogel’s (soprano sax, alto sax) musical visions…
After Burnin' Red Ivanhoe had stopped, Karsten Vogel (saxophone, keyboards) felt something new should happen. The first fusions bands appeared on the international scene, - inspired by this Karsten Vogel would make a band with direction towards a more modern sound. In the end this resulted in Secret Oyster, but before that Mermaid was put to sea. In many ways Mermaid was a perfect band: A mix between two famous Danish bands: Young Flowers, from where Peter Ingemann (bass, vocal) and Ken Gudmann (drums) was recruited, and Burnin Red Ivanhoe: Karsten Vogel and Ole Fick (guitar, vocal)…
This dutch band featuring members of Ekseption stood exactly at the fragile and blurred frontier between mid 70's ugly, commercial, US-market oriented sounding jazz rock, and the kind of cool european jazz fusion that was pouring from Scandinavia back then (think Secret Oyster for instance). … Nothing life-changing here, but if you're into 70's european jazz rock and find a copy for a cool price, it's worth a few spins.
Time Life was founded in 1961 as the book division of Time Inc.. It took its name from Time Inc.'s cornerstone magazines, Time and Life, but remained independent of both. During 1966, Time Life combined its book offerings with music collections (two to five records) and packaged them as a sturdy box set. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the selection of books, music and videos grew and was diversified into more genres. When record labels stopped producing vinyl albums in 1990, Time Life switched to CD only. In the mid-1990s, Time Life acquired Heartland Music, with the Heartland Music label now appearing as a brand. This company was subsequently sold off and is no longer attached to Time Life.
Time Life was founded in 1961 as the book division of Time Inc.. It took its name from Time Inc.'s cornerstone magazines, Time and Life, but remained independent of both. During 1966, Time Life combined its book offerings with music collections (two to five records) and packaged them as a sturdy box set. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, the selection of books, music and videos grew and was diversified into more genres. When record labels stopped producing vinyl albums in 1990, Time Life switched to CD only. In the mid-1990s, Time Life acquired Heartland Music, with the Heartland Music label now appearing as a brand. This company was subsequently sold off and is no longer attached to Time Life.