BASIL KIRCHIN WORLDS WITHIN WORLDS LP 1971 SCX 6463 EXCELLENT CONDITION

	£		378
	$		501

Basil Kirchin's Worlds Within Worlds Part 1 & 2.

If anything fitted the bill for avante garde/experimental it was this. There is some weird stuff going on here. Sounds like an army of geese and ducks on acid sometimes. But it is a highly collectable album and hopefully there are some people out there looking for it.

I have just played it through and there are no jumps. The record is perfectly flat and the vinyl looks in excellent condition and plays very well too. The sleeve has a few marks and is slightly uneven but it is complete and in good condition.

This was the 1971 predecessor to Kirchin's much more well known/distributed "Worlds Within Worlds Parts 3 & 4" and involves a similar universe of grotesquely morphed and pitched sonic treatments, only here, legendary improvisors like Derek Bailey and Evan Parker are to be found growling, plinking and spluttering amidst this melee, making this a monster rarity for fans/followers of them as well."

Each side contains a single track, or movement, as follows:

Side 1

Part I - Integration (non-racial) (Basil Kirchin - Jack Nathan)

Side 2

Part II - The Human Element (Basil Kirchin - Jack Nathan)

A Denis Preston Production

Produced by Basil & Esther Kirchin

Produced in 1971

COLUMBIA SCX 6463 STEREO  (1E 062 o 92558)

A decade before it became fashionable, Kirchin went to India and spent five months in the Ramakrishna Temple. He then moved to Sydney but as his possessions were being unloaded from the ship a strap broke and everything, including his recordings of the Kirchin band, was lost beneath the sea. This loss would trouble him for the rest of his life.

In 1961, he returned to Britain and worked with Keith Herd on experimental pieces, "soundtracks for unmade films". He also produced material for the De Wolfe library using the talents of young session musicians like Jimmy Page and Mick Ronson. In 1967, the Arts Council awarded him a grant to purchase a Nagra tape recorder. This he used to collect ambient sounds, animal noises at London Zoo and the voices of autistic children. Kirchin experimented with slowing down the recordings to reveal "Little boulders of sound". "Take birdsong, all those harmonics you can't hear are brought down -sounds that human ears have never heard before." His experimentations were partly financed by composing film music for Catch Us If You Can (1965), The Shuttered Room (1967), I Start Counting (1969) with Jenny Agutter and The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971).

His experimental pieces were released on two albums both called World Within Worlds. The first was issued in 1971: Worlds Within Worlds, EMI Columbia (SCX6463) and included Part I - Integration 2; Part II - The Human Element. The second was not issued until 1974: Worlds Within Worlds Island Records (HELP 18) Part III - Emergence; Part IV - Evolution. Kirchin was frustrated with the record companies meddling with his material. Neither recording sold well at the time but have since become highly valued collectors items.

He continued to compose throughout his life and his music was acknowledged by a new generation with the release of material by Trunk Records. Kirchin said "I wanted to try and leave something for young people who are starting in music and looking for something as I've been looking all my life."

He spent the later years of his life living back in Hull in a modest terraced house with his wife. His early fame and eventful life not known in the ex-fishing community of Hessle Road where he lived until his death in June 2005.

Many musicians have since acknowledged the influence Kirchin had had on their own works. From Brian Eno and Nurse With Wound to Broadcast - "We need role models like Basil Kirchin to go forward, and, as we can see parallels in his music and ours, hearing this confirms that we're doing the right thing."

I should have added it earleir but here is a close up of the record showing how good the condition is of the label and this reflects the condition of the vinyl.

Thanks