Highly acidic "progressive-jazz" that unravels the final hieroglyph of an Egyptian stele; shapeless rhapsodies; allure of the cryptic, the incomplete. Frenzied needles of nautical compasses, missing pieces of Byzantine mosaics.

The ethereal improvisations of National Health descend to Earth and become flesh, become matter. Dense swarms of obstinate oboes, buzzing clarinets, zigzagging sax; they fly free and incomprehensible and get entangled in gigantic webs of rhythmic improvisations.

Surrealist automatic writing that becomes sound, creating messy sketches on battered canvases; chaotic atelier of compulsive painters. Third Ear Band that smothers its psychedelic offspring and conceives others, melodramatic and expressionist.

Sensations on edge, electricity in the air. Will it rain or won't it?

Tracklist and Videos

01   Bittern Storm Over Ulm (02:18)

02   Half Asleep; Half Awake (07:59)

03   Ruins (12:10)

04   Solemn Music (01:11)

05   Linguaphonie (05:31)

06   Upon Entering the Hotel Adlon (03:04)

07   Arcades (01:57)

08   Deluge (05:24)

Loading comments  slowly

Other reviews

By Giona

 Henry Cow have crafted another excellent example of pioneering avant-progressive pushed to the limit of experimentalism.

 The B-side... is the perverse black bible of the Cow, creating a gloomy and disturbing artifact, only minimally illuminated at the end.