Oregon - Distant Hills (1973 Japanese Vanguard Vinyl LP)

Vinyl: VG+
Sleeve: VG+
Obi: None

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Oregon - Distant Hills | Vinyl LP - 1973 Japanese Vanguard (SR-3179, King Record Co. Ltd)

The credits tell the story before you drop the needle. On "Aurora" alone, Towner plays guitar, piano and trumpet, Moore plays bass, electric bass, violin and flute, Walcott plays tabla, and McCandless plays oboe. Every track reshuffles the instruments into a different configuration. "Dark Spirit" (which Towner also recorded as a solo overdubbed piece for his ECM album Diary, taped the same year) pairs Walcott's sitar with Towner's guitar and McCandless's oboe, Moore on acoustic bass underneath. "Mi Chinita," credited to all four members, is the most densely textured piece: Walcott on piano, marimba, congas and clarinet, Moore on bass, violin and flute, Towner on guitar, trumpet and mellophone, and McCandless on oboe and English horn. The title track on side B strips things back to Walcott's tambura and clarinet with Towner's guitar and McCandless's English horn, a quieter, more spacious piece that lets the instruments ring against each other. "Canyon Song" is one of the few tracks with conventional drums (Walcott), and "Confession" closes the album with a group composition built on Walcott's sitar, Moore's piano and McCandless's oboe layered together.

This was Oregon's second album, following Music of Another Present Era (1972). The group produced it themselves at Vanguard's studio on 23rd Street, with Jeff Zaraya engineering and mixing. Five of the seven tracks are Towner compositions; the remaining two are group-credited. The recording was made in July 1973, weeks after Towner had recorded his solo Diary for ECM in April of the same year, and both albums share "Dark Spirit" as a composition, though the arrangements are completely different. This is the 1973 Japanese pressing on Vanguard SR-3179, manufactured by King Record Co. Ltd with obi.