Oregon - Oregon (1983 Japanese ECM Vinyl LP)

Oregon - Oregon | Vinyl LP, 1983 Japanese ECM (25MJ 3293, Polydor K.K.)

• Oregon’s self-titled ECM debut, recorded digitally at Tonstudio Bauer in February 1983 by Martin Wieland for Manfred Eicher, with the original quartet still intact
• Ralph Towner, Paul McCandless, Glen Moore and Collin Walcott playing classical guitar, piano, Prophet 5 synthesizer, soprano saxophone, oboe, English horn, bass clarinet, sitar, percussion and bass across eight pieces that move between chamber composition and collective improvisation
• Japanese pressing manufactured by Polydor K.K. with obi and Japanese info insert, from the same year as the original German and US releases

Oregon came out of the Paul Winter Consort in 1970 and spent a decade recording for Vanguard and Elektra before signing to ECM. By the time of this self-titled album, their first for the label, the quartet had been playing together for thirteen years and had developed a sound that resisted easy classification. Sometimes called “a jazz chamber ensemble”, that moniker comes closer than most descriptions, though it leaves out the Indian music (Walcott studied sitar with Ravi Shankar and tabla with Alla Rakha), and the folk threads that run through their sound. This album added something new. Towner uses a Prophet 5 synthesizer alongside his classical guitar and piano, and the electronic timbres fold into Oregon’s acoustic language without disrupting it. “The Rapids”, Towner’s composition, opens with the synth and builds into one of the more compositionally structured pieces in the set. “Taos” and “There Was No Moon That Night”, both group-composed, move through shifting colours and implied rhythms. “Arianna”, by Moore, features Walcott’s sitar alongside Towner’s twelve-string guitar and McCandless’s oboe.

The album was a digital recording, and the clarity of Martin Wieland’s engineering gives each instrument its own space. McCandless’s doubling across soprano saxophone, oboe, English horn, bass clarinet and tin flute means the tonal palette keeps shifting even within a four-piece group. Moore plays bass and viola on different tracks, and Walcott’s percussion includes tongue drums, bass drum and voice alongside his sitar. This was one of the last Oregon albums with the original lineup. Collin Walcott was killed in a tour van accident in East Germany on November 8, 1984, aged 39, less than two years after this session. This 1983 Japanese pressing is manufactured by Polydor K.K. Catalogue number 25MJ 3293 (original ECM catalogue: ECM 1258).