URSULA k Le GUIN & Todd BARToN music And Poetry of The kesh (reissue, 1985)
The name Ursula K Le Guin might not be familiar to all music fans, but to devotees of fantasy fiction her novels are canon, futuristic and highly speculative works bringing themes of anarchism and environmentalism to a genre often mired in conservative thinking. Music And Poetry Of The Kesh is a commendably ambitious and longlost collection of music that Le Guin created with her friend, the musician and modular synthesist Todd Barton, to accompany her 1985 book, Always Going Home. Unearthed by the folk behind RVNG Intl sub-label Freedom To Spend, this is a sort of imagined ethnographic music of the sort you might find on Smithsonian Folkways – a collection of chants, lullabies, field recordings and ambient music interludes composed with poker face and attention to detail. Understanding Le Guin’s vision of the people of Kesh, an imagined future tribe native to Northern California, is not crucial, but useful to comprehending the contents – strange chants and incomprehensible poetry, shot through with soulful longing. There is music, too. “Heron Dance” marries chiming zither, handclaps and thrumming bass notes into something reminiscent of New Age guru Laraaji, while “A Music Of The Eighth House” draws the album to a close with gentle gusts of Buchla synth.
extras: 7/10. Deluxe jacket with illustrations from Always Coming
Home, a recreation of the original lyric sheet, new liner notes and a limited-edition bookmark.