Intuitive Music

Advent are a progressive rock band from New Jersey with a strong influence from bands like Gentle Giant with an amazing dose of musicianship. Their music features wonderful choirs in the style of old English renaissance music throughout beautiful and developed instrumental passages. Their latest album ‘Cantus Firmus” was featured in Intuitive Music’s list of Best Albums of 2006.

Alan Benjamin, Henry Ptak and Mark Ptak talked to Intuitive Music about his different influences and music recommendations.

- My last discovery album:

Alan: I’d have to say that Kenso’s new studio album ‘Utsuroi Yuku Mono’ is at the top of my list of recent acquisitions. I’ve been a huge fan of the band ever since I first heard a few samples of their (self-titled) third album back in 1989. And, over time, developed some amazing friendships that led to my role as US liaison for the band and Shunji Saegusa recording ‘Ramblin’ Sailor’ with us in early 2005. In addition to being a wonderful person, his bass playing is spectacular. While every Kenso album has significant merits, Utsuroi Yuku Mono is probably the band’s most challenging and dense effort to date. There’s so much going on that it’s taking quite a while to fully sink in, but every listen just gets better and better.

Henry: Roger Joseph Manning’s ‘The Land of Pure Imagination’, I think. Actually, it was Mark who discovered this album and first played it for me. The only thing I ‘discovered’ was that I liked it enough to order my own copy, which my daughter has since hijacked (laughs). Wonderful record. Self-described by Manning as power pop, it’s so much more than that Imho. Great vocals, great songs, great arrangements, and great production. Humor, resignation, nostalgia, and a surprising and disarming innocence, at moments when you least expect it. Not one I would have expected to enjoy as much as I now do, but then that’s been the pattern with me. I remember having the same initial reaction to both Procol Harum and Gentle Giant on first hearing.

- The song I always wanted to cover:

Alan: That’s a tough question. Having made a living in a cover band when I was fairly young (18-19) I kind of burned out on playing cover material a long time ago. However, as Advent was deciding upon which Gentle Giant material to cover for the band’s second tribute recording (after recording ‘BITB’ for the independent, Internet-based Gentle Giant Tracks project), I remember feeling very strongly about wanting to tackle ‘For Nobody’. We’d already decided to have a go at ‘Experience’ and my initial feeling was that the two songs would not really be compatible as a medley, but Henry was able to compose an amazingly clever segue to get us from one song to the other, so we ended up recording this (medley) for Mellow Records’ Giant for a Life tribute (although an incomplete, preliminary mix was used as a result of a tight deadline). I must say that covering all that Gentle Giant material was particularly fun.

- The song that always makes me cry:

Alan: Although I rarely break out into a full cry, a few of the pieces/sections that are always good for a strong emotional response (chills, tearing up, etc.):
The very end of the coda from Banco Del Mutuo Soccorso’s ‘Di Terra’ (the final cut)
‘Never the Same’ by Echolyn, from ‘As the World’.
‘Three Friends’ by Gentle Giant, from the album of the same title.
‘Tea for One’ by Kevin Gilbert, from ‘Thud’.
‘Iho’ by Maria Kalaniemi, from the album of the same title.
The reprise of the ‘B section’ from Pekka Pohjola’s ‘Imppu’s Tango’, from his ‘Urban Tango’ album, where the part previously played by mandolin is transformed and played on electric guitar.
‘Step into Easter’ by Mr. Sirius, from ‘Barren Dream’.
‘Labyrinth’ by Kit Watkins, from his solo album of the same title.

- The artist (alive) I’d like to work with:

Alan: Another tough question (especially when trying to narrow it down to just one), but I’d have to go with my good friend Ken Watson. Having fallen in love with a few samples I originally heard from his ‘Assembly’ album back in the early 1990s, my tireless search for a copy of the (then very rare) LP turned into a very special friendship. In addition to being an extremely talented (and severely underrated) composer and guitarist, our respective musical tastes are remarkably close to identical, which is really incredible given the depth, breadth, and overall intricacy involved. Ken and I have actually discussed the idea of working together at some point, which is something I really hope we can pull off before too long.

- The concert I always wanted to attend:

Alan: The one that immediately comes to mind is the Frank Zappa show where ‘Be-Bop Tango’ of the ‘Old Jazzmen’s Church’ was recorded for the ‘Roxy & Elsewhere’ album. One of my biggest regrets was never catching Zappa live, but the experience of living through that ‘Bebop Tango’ experience in person would have been especially rewarding. Not that I would really have fully appreciated it fully at the tender age of 10 or so, but it just seems like such a special event on record.

Henry: Well, since you didn’t specify a timeline, that leaves me a very wide range for interpretation. Hmm, let’s see…. I think I’d have liked to see The Beatles in some rare setting where you could actually hear what they were doing, probably after their Hamburg and Cavern days. The ‘… the rest of you just rattle your jewelry’ concert would be high on my list of first choices. The Nice, anytime, anywhere, with or without David O’List, and Rare Bird, in its original line-up (the first two albums). Also, the early Genesis club dates, when they were Charisma Label’s stable-mates with the aforementioned pair of bands.

I would have liked to have seen a few of the giants of romantic era pianism in whatever settings (probably the Parisian salons) they premiered their new works. Chopin, Schumann, and especially Liszt, just to see if he really lived up to the hype, both for pianistic ability and for the tremendous personal charisma he was reputed to have been capable of communicating to his audience. More recently, I would say Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Busoni, and Joseph Hofmann would have been on my must-see list, along with Paderewski, again as much for his Lisztian flare for showbiz as for his playing.

Certainly Art Tatum (again anytime, anywhere) and any of a number of greats from jazz’s golden era as well.

And finally, on a more sardonic note, the 1913 Paris premiere of Stravinsky’s ‘Rite of Spring’. I hear that was a real mess.

- Recommended progressive rock album:

Alan: Just one? (again) Argh! OK, I guess I’ll have to go with first instinct and select Música Urbana’s glorious (self-titled) debut album from 1976. What a gem! An incredibly inspired mix of jazz-rock fusion, sometimes remarkably Canterbury-like, especially for a band from Barcelona, classical, and almost RIO-like playfulness/experimentalism, all with a particularly beautiful Spanish flavor. Outstanding compositions, arrangements, and performances all the way around!

Henry: Tough call. I’d better go with initial gut instincts or I’ll be here all day. Probably Genesis’ ‘Selling England by the Pound’, ‘A Trick of the Tail’, and ‘Wind & Wuthering’. Gentle Giant’s ‘Free Hand’, ‘Interview’, and ‘In A Glass House’. And King Crimson’s ‘Lizard’. I’d better stop here.

- Recommended “Renaissance Music” album:

Henry: This is not a question I can nail down to a simple ‘favorite Yes album’ type of answer. It would have to include a multitude of recordings with several (or more) brilliant performances of works by well-known Renaissance composers. I would say this group would include performances of works by Giovanni Gabrieli (Canzoni, particularly Sonata Pian’e Forte), Monteverdi (Antiphonal Music), Susato (6 Dances), and so on by brass groups such as Canadian Brass and the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. For English Renaissance music, any fine recordings of works by William Byrd, Thomas Tallis, Antony Holborne, Taverner, Morley, and so on for brass or choral music.

And speaking of choral music, there’s nothing that compares with the Latin Mass settings of Tomas Luis de Victoria, especially ‘O Quam Gloriosum’, ‘Ave Maris Stella’, and ‘O Magnum Mysterium’. And almost anything by Palestrina and Josquin des Pres. In fact, the one absolutely ‘perfect album’ I could recommend here is a recording on Hyperion of the Westminster Cathedral Choir under the direction of David Hill performing de ‘Victoria’s Ave Maris Stella’ and ‘O Quam Gloriosum’. It is absolutely out of this world, and you can take that however you like.

- Recommended album that influenced me/us while doing ‘Cantus Firmus’:
Alan: There really wasn’t any particular album which provided direct influence from my perspective. However, there were a few times when I consciously gravitated toward what I felt was a Brian May reference point, particularly when it came to approaching some of the harmonized guitars and the first section where electric guitar appears in ‘Remembering When’ (although the latter somehow ended up with more of a Wishbone Ash vibe by the time all was said and done).

Henry: Take all of my other feedback (from all the previous questions above), add to it a few sources of American and British Isles folk music, a pinch of New Orleans music, especially the piano playing of Dr. John, and the writings of G.K. Chesterton, especially ‘The Everlasting Man’, and that’s about it.

Mark: While I love listening to lots of choral works, the album that probably influenced me most personally, from a vocal perspective anyway, during work on ‘Cantus Firmus’ was Nando Lauria’s ‘Points Of View’. There are some wonderful little a cappella things happening in that album and the harmonies are just beautiful. Actually the whole album is great as well. I remember playing it for Henry and he remarked that it would be nice to try to do something vocally on the album. A short time later he had played me a working version of ‘GK Contramundum’, which was originally going to have instruments behind the second verse. But after having listened to it with only the vocals completed, we liked it enough to keep it as an a cappella piece. A lot of people like to associate ‘GKC’ with Gentle Giant but, in my mind, I was hoping that we’d be able to construct something that was as interesting harmonically as, say, Lauria’s ‘Episode: Prelude’.

- My MysPace band/artist recommendation:
Alan: There are so many great MySpace music sites out there that it’s hard to choose. Off the top of my head, though, a few great choices:

Jean Pascal Boffo
Polyethylene Pet/+1 (Kimara Sajn)
Stars In Battledress
Súld
Lyle Workman

- My YouTube music video recommendation:
Alan: Although my tastes tend to shy away from the popular, I’ll make an exception here and put in a good word for ‘The Simpsons vs. Star Trek’ by Culture Killer. In addition to being both clever and fun, it always puts a smile on my face.

From a more “serious” standpoint, I suppose that the full-band rendition of ‘Chicken’ by Mats/Morgan is quite nice as well. Man, those guys smoke live!