Mnemonist Orchestra — Mnemonist Orchestra

First released in the late 1970s, this self-titled album is a dense ‘n’ dizzying collision between baying guitar ‘n’ honking horn instrumental music, avant jazz, modern classical music, jamming experimentation, and shifting sample dada derangement.

This is a CD reissue of the four-track album on Klanggalerie, with the digipak presented release coming with a twelve-page inlay booklet- feature crude/ abstract artwork and full credits.

Mnemonist Orchestra were an avant-garde collective formed at some point in the mid to late 70’s in Colorado-it was led by Mark Derbyshire and William Sharp. At times up to ten players were involved. This 1979 debut album is seemingly their one & only release, though in 1985 it got a vinyl reissue with an album called Some Attributes Of A Living System.

This is four track album-each with runtimes between eleven and sixteen minutes. The project has a decidedly dense, packed, and often overloaded sound with a drifting jam-like mix of guitar, horns, percussion, piano, and smaller abstract instruments. Which are topped off with a thick, swirling & shifting weave of dialogue samples, weird vocal lines, weird noises, etc.

It’s not really an album that you can formally break down in a sound or sane manner, as each of the tracks unfold in a busy stream-of-consciousness manner. Vague musical structures, grooves, or patterns will appear- then to be engulfed/ blended into other elements. Yet there are certainly moments of shape, clarity, and even calming sonic grace present- it’s just the normal setting is dense/ overloaded chaos.

As an album, Mnemonist Orchestra is certainly an all-engulfing, at points overloaded trip. If you enjoy dense & largely deranged genre collisions which feel both maddening, off-kilter, and playful- with the odd sane/ soothing moments- then this will most certainly appeal.