SIMON H. FELL Composition No. 12.5

"Compilation II is a remarkable piece of work. Solos throughout are terrific, ensemble playing is strong, the writing is episodic but there's still a central flow and coherent development, production values are nothing short of unique. In short, we have a potential classic here.....Brilliant." Steve Lake THE WIRE

"An outstanding record that demands a place in any comprehensive collection.....some of the most vivid and creative improvisation/composition fusions in recent times.....wholly individual mixtures of realtime improvisation and writing that cheerfully filches from all post-bop and compositional areas, yet which depends as much on the colour and intensity of the individual improvisations as it does on Fell's witty and often bewilderingly complex structures." THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ ON CD, LP & CASSETTE

"Simon Fell is a leading composer of his generation, crossing boundaries and creating music of a passion and originality unusual in Britain." THE GUINNESS ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC

"It's hard to think of anybody in the UK among the jazz-related musicians of his generation.....who is working on this scale and with such audacious inventiveness." Chris Blackford THE WIRE

"The sharpest dialogue between composition and improvisation realised by any English composer." Ben Watson RESONANCE

"An explosive dialectic between the visceral impact of jazz propulsion and the astringency of serial note choices." Ben Watson UNSUNG MUSIC

"Compilation II is a remarkable piece of work. Solos throughout are terrific, ensemble playing is strong, the writing is episodic but there's still a central flow and coherent development, production values are nothing short of unique. In short, we have a potential classic here . . . . . Brilliant." Steve Lake THE WIRE

"It embraces the entire jazz tradition, electronic experimentation, serial composition, and yet still manages to sound unusually coherent . . . . . It all sounds rather like Gil Evans on a heavy acid trip." Mark Russell MIXING IT, BBC RADIO 3

"An amazing series of 'variations for improvisers, jazz ensemble and electronics'. These may not be 'famous names', but who gives a damn about that?" Richard Cook TOP MAGAZINE

Compilation II placed no. 14 in The Wire Critics' Poll (Jazz & Improvised) 1991

"An outstanding record that demands a place in any comprehensive collection . . . . . some of the most vivid and creative improvisation/composition fusions in recent times . . . . . wholly individual mixtures of realtime improvisation and writing that cheerfully filches from all post-bop and compositional areas, yet which depends as much on the colour and intensity of the individual improvisations as it does on Fell's witty and often bewilderingly complex structures." THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO JAZZ ON CD, LP & CASSETTE

"Simon Fell is a leading composer of his generation, crossing boundaries and creating music of a passion and originality unusual in Britain." THE GUINNESS ENCYCLOPAEDIA OF POPULAR MUSIC

"It's hard to think of anybody in the UK among the jazz-related musicians of his generation . . . . . who is working on this scale and with such audacious inventiveness." Chris Blackford THE WIRE

"The sharpest dialogue between composition and improvisation realised by any English composer." Ben Watson RESONANCE

"Compilation II, for example, even at its simplest sounds like Albert Ayler free jazz and Stockhausen electronic music playing at the same time - causing sparks to fly. This is kaleidoscopic music for listeners with eight-track minds. Can listeners cope? Are people willing to listen in four dimensions?" Ed Pinsent THE SOUND PROJECTOR

"Working with featured players Alan Wilkinson, Charles Wharf, Martin Jones and Pete Minns, and drummer Paul Hession, Fell takes recordings of unconnected improvisations and mixes them together, creating astonishing musical events that never actually happened. He then adds layers of his electronic playing over the top, and mixes in speeded-up tapes and other musique concrète devices. Fell's methods may upset improvisation purists, but who can complain when the results are as good as this? No holds are barred when it comes to the post-performance editorialising in the cutting suite; this recording has a much more rough-hewn quality than its 1998 brother. All the edges are slammed together, still raw and bleeding. A splendid work and one that will repay closer listening." Ed Pinsent THE SOUND PROJECTOR

"As with Compilations I & III, this work inhabits the heights of the bassist's ambitions. In the course of nine parts it explores, in sometimes remote stylings, ideas which always finish by overlapping, rejoining, interrupting, confronting and augmenting each other. Paul Hession provides a stunning solo against a reversed electronic tape, during which the score goes completely out of the window! Each part becomes a puzzle which mixes contemporary composition, improvisation and jazz (along with other favourite touchstones of the composer), into a coherent ensemble, teeming with ideas and connections; in fact, in the line of other master bassists such as not only Mingus, but also William Parker, Barry Guy or Alan Silva. Even the silence between parts serves as a breathing space, a pause before a new exploration, without ever interrupting the coherence of the whole. This reissue is indispensable." Philippe Renaud IMPROJAZZ

"Utilises a startling array of real-time, sampled and synthesised improvisations and composed passages to create a kaleidoscopic aural collage . . . works surprisingly well." Derek Taylor CADENCE

"Compilation II feels like a huge extravaganza, which it actually is. Simon H. Fell's every musical experience has been poured into it, from his solo playing to his free improv trio playing, interest in electronics, and post-production techniques. Fell's detailed program notes help the listener from getting lost in this orgiastic, at times Zappa-esque composition, where seriousness and hoax live hand in hand. Stylistically, this is light years away from the abstract and restrained music he would release in the late '90s (like Pure Water Construction with Martin Archer). Fans of the bassist's more intimate recordings (like the beautiful 1999 Extracts by the VHF trio) will be puzzled, others will find avant-garde entertainment and a lot of food for thought." François Couture ALL MUSIC GUIDE

"Recorded five years after Compilation I, this album represented a major step forward along the conceptual path that Simon H. Fell took for the remainder of the decade, culminating in Composition No. 30. Using a collage technique he refers to as "xenochronicity", Fell combines recorded material from distinct sessions into the same piece, resulting in a hall of mirrors approach to jazz composition. That he utilizes a good deal of relatively "standard" jazz thematic material makes it all the stranger. The listener is never quite sure whether the apparent interplay ever actually took place or was reconstructed later in the studio. Fell clearly takes a devious delight in this sort of mischief, and one gets the impression that part of his whole drive is to subvert and shake up the stodgier characteristics of even free jazz improvisation by negating some of its most prized aspects. The success if this venture lies in to what degree the listener is willing to hear the music as "jazz" or contemporary classical. Approached as the former, it can make for a frustrating (deliberately so) experience. Listened to as a postmodern collage, it has more appeal and the jazzy richness comes as a bonus. Compilation II is a fascinating work and very much different from anything else being produced by the British avant-garde at the time." Brian Olewnick ALL MUSIC GUIDE

"Compilation II is the second installment in a series of compositions blending classical forms (sections of thoroughly written music), jazz structures (free jazz head-solo-head forms) and free improvisation, live recording, and studio tinkering. The piece, in nine parts, is scored for ten musicians including a brass section, a string section, keyboards, drums, and electronics, but all rarely play at the same time. The recorded music has also been manipulated in the studio using xenochronicity, a technique that consists of assembling unrelated performances (in Part VII: Drumset [For Paul], the drum solo is put against electronics the drummer never heard when he was recording), backward tapes, etc. Compilation II feels like a huge extravaganza, which it actually is. Simon H. Fell's every musical experience has been poured into it, from his solo playing to his free improv trio playing, interest in electronics, and post-production techniques. Fell's playing belongs to his average twisted self. Alan Wilkinson provides a strong performance on alto saxophone. Fell's detailed program notes help the listener from getting lost in this orgiastic, at times Zappa-esque composition, where seriousness and hoax live hand in hand. Stylistically, this is light years away from the abstract and restrained music he would release in the late '90s (like Pure Water Construction with Martin Archer). Composition No. 12.5 was first released on LP and cassette in 1991, but this reissue adds material that had to be cut, so this is the first time the complete work is made public. Fans of the bassist's more intimate recordings (like the beautiful 1999 Extracts by the VHF trio) will be puzzled, others will find avant-garde entertainment and a lot of food for thought." François Couture, ROVI

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