Robert Ashley & The Ensemble MAE — Tap dancing In the Sand

Having been aware of Robert Ashley as a major influence on the likes of Nurse with Wound and many other sound/ surreal artist it’s nice to finally hear some of his own work. Tap Dancing in the Sand is a selection of pieces of musically avant grade repetition offten text linked pieces with the Dutch Ensemble MAE.

It all begins with the title track which features Ashley voice reading what starts off as a relatively mundane text about breakfast in hotels, but it gets more strange, surreal & bizarre, bringing together mentions of tea, bone structures, philosophical ideas. He speaks it in an strange up & down rhythmic well spoken American tone, over the top of a repetition locked avant jazz meets bizarre musically like patterns with piano, clarinet, guitar, distant female ohhs and subtle bass/ guitar playing – it mangers to sound both awkward, hypnotic, bizarre and very compelling. Later on hidden Similarities-the shortist track here, users a mix of male and female Germanic recorded off the radio voices, over doomy spaced and sustained piano notes with hints of improvised scapes, blows and wines here and there. The albums finishers off with she was a visitor- which starts off with a male voice saying over and over “she was a visitor” that for the rest of the piece drifts in and out of beign audible. Over a collection of rising doomy voices, vocal utterings and chants- managing to sound creepy ritualistic, off kilter and rather haunting.

The disk comes with a informative booklet which has a detailed write up about each of the five tracks on offer here and biographies of both Ashley & Ensemble MAE. Really if you enjoyed NWW forays in to text linked repetition or strange text linked sonic atmospheres this really is a must check out album.