Iowa-born, San Francisco-educated, New York-based Arthur Russell (1951)
was a cellist who composed chamber music inspired to Indian ragas, or
"Buddhist bubblegum music".
At the same time, Russell was a disc-jockey who recorded some of the most
original disco-music of the era :
Kiss Me Again by Dinosaur L, a 1979 club hit,
In The Light Of Moracle,
Let's Go Swimming,
Lola I's Wax The Van,
Loose Joints' It's All Over My Face.
At the same time, Russell was an avantgarde composer of minimalist music,
as documented on the six-movement suite for string orchestra Tower Of Meaning (Chatam Square, 1983), conducted by Julius Eastman.
Most pieces like 2 indulge in a mathematical tapestry of languid lengthy dark tones. The longer 5 speeds up the countpoint, sounding like an Irish
jig dance. It is all fairly amateurish.
The album also contains the 21-minute Fragments From Tower Of Meaning
is a sort of remix of the six movements and fares much better, but it still
feels like a tentative imitation of the minimalistic compositions of
Michael Nyman and
Gavin Bryars.
The two volume of Instrumentals (Crepuscule, 1984), originally recorded in 1975, contain easy-listening music performed by a chamber orchestra of electric cello (Arthur Russell himself), electric guitar (Jon Sholle or Larry Saltzman), flute (no other than composer Rhys Chatham), trombone (Garrett List or Peter Zummo), reeds (Jon Gibson), keyboards (Peter Gordon or Glen Lomoro), percussion (David VanTieghem), bass and drums.
1 sets the tone with its Latin beat and sensual melodic counterpoint.
4 veers into dissonant jazz, with prominent minimalist piano.
11 sounds like a somnolent version of
Michael Nyman's music.
The ten-minute 12 is even slower, ending like a celestial orchestral adagio.
Most of the other pieces are just brief vignettes.
The double album also contains the
ten-minute dissonant electronic poem Sketch For The Face Of Helen,
as well as a 16-minute sonata for the undulating drones of two electric pianos, Reach One,
First Thought Best Thought (Audika, 2006) compiles Tower Of Meaning (Chatam Square, 1983) and Instrumentals (Crepuscule, 1984).
World Of Echo (Upside, 1986 - Audika, 2005) collects compositions for voice and cello. Almost all of them feel like incomplete sketches, but altogether
they create a bleak, ghostly atmosphere.
The nine-minute Soon-to-Be Innocent Fun / Let's See is the most
interesting combination of ballad and minimalist cello patterns.
Subliminal cello noise dominates Hiding Your Present from You,
reverbed Alan Vega-ish vocals propel She's the Star/ I Take This Time,
a bleak bluesy atmosphere envelops Place I Know/ Kid Like You.
The muezzin-like lament of Being It is drenched in crackling noise.
See-Through is a Nick Drake-ian emotional black hole.
Echoes of blues music pervade the album, from Treehouse to Wax the Van.
All-Boy All-Girl feels like the invocation of a redskin shaman.
Lucky Cloud wraps the singing around funky Caribbean moves.
There are interesting ideas everywhere, and the mood is so alienated
that it is a work of art in itself.
Russell died of AIDS in 1992, leaving almost 1,000 hours of music
unreleased, some of it collected on
Calling Out Of Context (Audika, 2004).
The funky-soul shuffle The Platform On The Ocean multiplies Russell's
soothing voice to produce both a melodic and a rhythmic effect, like composing
music with echoes.
The vocals basically duet with the sound effects in Hop On Down.
However most of the material is inferior, leaning towards the format of the
pop-soul ballad with really trivial arrangements.
Another Thought (Point, 1995) collects ballads for voice and cello.
The World of Arthur Russell (Soul Jazz, 2004) is a career retrospective.
