Cacophonic Electronic & Dance 3 Items

The lesser-spotted jazz atoms that formed the fusion of Futurist Flanders! It might sound like an ambitious claim but having been a firm fixture at the top of many European jazz collector want lists over the past decade Finders Keepers wouldn't be alone when proclaiming this extremely rare, lesser-known two-track 7" from 1969 as one of the best jazz 45s of all time! Alongside Polish pianist Krzysztof Komeda's soundtrack 7" for the film Cul-De-Sac and ranking closely with François Tusques' commemorative Le Corbusier exhibition 45 (featuring Don Cherry) this format-specific release known only as Brussels Art Quintet might well sit at the top of the podium while striking similarities and arguably combining the best stylistic traits of both aforementioned contenders.

This is all speculative and clearly a matter of individual opinion but it's not often that one should find a recording from this era, comprising such high production qualities, keen compositional values and robust craftsmanship spread across two equally spellbinding individual tracks, all of which awards this record justified hyperbole albeit subject to a 50 year delay. It is safe to say that this unique release is "rare" on many levels. Like all privately pressed art projects this 45 comprises some serious outsider art trappings. However, on closer inspection it also stands as a pivotal record in the micro-genre of Belgian jazz, pin-pointing an early axis for some vital progressive jazz players who went on to become sturdy pillars of the central European happening.

Essentially as a five-piece, the short-lived Brussels Art Quintet neatly combines members of both the mythical Babs Robert Quartet (early exponents of Belgian spiritual jazz) and key players from the leading progressive jazz/rock/funk unit known as COS (formally Classroom) who would stand as close affiliates of the likes of Marc Moulin, Kiosk and Placebo through the 1970s. Reproduced in close collaboration with COS leader Daniel Schell, who, under the early guise of Daniel "Max" Schellekens, authored both tracks that make up this facsimile 45 single, this one-off single includes the only known output by the Brussels Art Quintet thus marking the essential in-road to instantly start and complete your entire BAQ collection not without reliving the early germination of the froward-thinking jazz fusion that came to shape Belgium's truly unique movement.

The first-ever dedicated album release by pioneering female Italian film music composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Giulia De Muittis (aka Mrs. Alessandro Alessandroni). Rare undercover pseudo-ethnological studio sessions made under her experimental alter ego Kema (The Pawnshop/Abnormal Sensations) combining the ethos of Can’s Ethnological Forgery Series (EFS) with the studio trickery of Delia Derbyshire and unshakable credentials as one of the founding figures of Giallo film music and Italian psych soundtracks.

Perhaps best known amongst fans of Italian production music and Giallo movie soundtracks as the wife of the legendary Alessandro Alessandroni, composer, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Giulia De Muittis was an equally formidable force who emerged from the formative years of the aforementioned anti-genres and rose to a monarchic status within the country’s vibrant, and seldom rivalled musical secret society. The cliché “behind every successful man, there is a strong woman” might not do Alessandro and Giulia’s long-running creative unison justice but one thing that rings true that in the shadows of Senor Alessandroni’s limelight (illuminated by his work with Ennio Morricone for the films of Sergio Leone and Dario Argento) remained a darker musical feminine force which in time has come to represent the duo’s finest and most sought after sonic artifacts. In a career that spanned four decades until her untimely death in 1984 Giulia’s collaborative work as a reliable creative all-rounder and pop polymath has stood the unshakable test of time like few other musicians resulting in projects like The Pawnshop, Femina Ridens, Revolver, Questo Sporco Mondo Meraviglioso, The Night Evelyn Came Out Of The Tomb, Angoscia, Inchiesta Giudiziaria and Witchcraft ‘70 (Angeli bianchi Angeli neri) earning increasing “Most Wanted” status on the collectors’ market. It is of no coincidence that Giulia’s nom de plumes, Kema and De Muittis, have in recent, more educated years, become trusted seals of approval which connect top choice composers such as Raskovich (aka Sorgini), Stelvio Cipriani, Morricone, Braen (aka Alessandroni) Amedeo Tomassi, Piero Umiliani and Bruno Nicolai amongst select others. It is, however, De Muittis’ seldom heard self-initiated solo work for small independent Italian library music imprints that reveal a unique multi-instrumentalist female composer working at her most intimate and uncompromised best.

Filed neatly and undisturbed within the micro-genre of 1970s Italian artsploitation, amongst
films soundtracks such as Girl With The Crystal Plumage, A Quiet Place In The Country and
House With The Laughing Windows, this obscure library LP is one of the few fully formed
concept albums from the recently reappraised discography of Rome’s most versatile and
adventurous female production music composer Daniela Casa. Once destined for a shelf life
within the storage rooms of defunct TV studios and educational facilities Daniela’s previously
strictly commercially unavailable music has in recent years been given new focus at the
hands of open-minded disc detectives and sonic salvage hunters earning Casa’s distinctive
feminine take on experimental instrumental mood and movie compositions a place next to
her widely respected masculine counterparts such as Alessandro Alessandroni, AR Luciani,
Pierro Umiliani, Morricone and Nicolai.
Sharing tight studio space and strict syndication schedules with all of the aforementioned
artists (under commission from Romano Di Bari’s fervently independent Flipper music factory)
Daniela Casa embraced a liberating wind change in affordable music technology which opened
doors for uninhabited solo compositions in home studios taking advantage of communal
recording consoles and domestic synthesisers which nurtured a lesser-documented creative
family tree (or rather secret society) and paved the way for individualistic projects from the
likes of Magnetic System’s Fabio Frizzi and Goblin’s Claudio Simonetti. Here, on this repress
of the impossibly rare, one-time subscription-only album, Arte Moderna, we find Daniela at
her versatile best creating a wide thematic suite (based on paintings and sculptures in an
abstract art gallery) for which she would deploy mostly organic and acoustic instruments
to construct a set of unorthodox compositions straddling avant garde, free jazz and Giallo
tension (with some brief moments of brooding electronics and italian pop).
Veering from her stylistic pop interests (which clearly included a fondness for the music of
Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin) Daniela Casa’s Arte Moderna saw her adopt a less era
specific approach combining neo-classical elements and piano improvisations akin to the
likes of France’s Francois Tusques or Burton Greene, or America’s Mal Waldron without
compromising her strong narrative personality for this unique abstracted picture music.
Unintentionally but profoundly political in her prolific existence Daniela Casa’s contribution
to a predominantly male industry earned her a small clutch of inspired idiosyncratic Italian
female bedfellows such as Nora Orlandi, Giullia De Muittis (aka Kema), Fiorella Fratini, Emma
De Angelis and Maria Teresa Luciani, who, with faceless anti-celebrity as its essence, never
benefitted the wider critical focus that much of this music now duly commands on the
collectors circuit.
Finders Keepers Records, in continued collaboration with the Di Barri company, with the
Casa/Ducros family blessing, are now proud to shine new light on this sonic sculptures and
provide a fresh context where educated music listeners are ready to fill the gaps between
Delia Derbyshire, Ennio Morricone, Suzanne Ciani and Harry Partch and patronise a very
welcome considered alternative to the recent rise in popularity of Italian Giallo soundtracks
from a seldom savoured feminine creative vantage point. Daniela’s musical paintings can
now be unveiled to the public for the first time, with Modern Art sounding as contemporary
as it did when it was recorded forty years ago. The gallery is now open for limited sittings,
discerning ears and open minds.