Named after the odd, angular walk of a bird, this piece is a dazzling display of counterpoint. Listen for Walcott’s unconventional percussion (a cardboard box? finger cymbals?). The dynamic range here is extreme—from a whisper to a sharp attack. Lossy compression introduces "pumping" artifacts during these shifts. Lossless FLAC handles it with grace.
Three primary digital versions circulate:
To understand the album, one must understand the seismic shift in 1970s jazz. Ralph Towner (guitar, piano, trumpet), Paul McCandless (oboe, English horn, soprano sax), Glen Moore (double bass, violin), and Collin Walcott (sitar, tabla, percussion) were the rhythmic spine of the Paul Winter Consort. Oregon Music of Another Present Era 1972 FLAC
However, by 1971, they had grown restless. Winter’s group leaned heavily into accessible world music. Oregon wanted to go deeper. They wanted to compose through-composed pieces that felt like classical nocturnes, improvise with the ferocity of post-bop, and incorporate Eastern drones without sounding like a novelty act.
Music of Another Present Era (Vanguard Records, VSD-79331) was their manifesto. Recorded in 1972 at the height of the quadraphonic experimental period, this album was never meant for earbuds. It was designed for high-mass diaphragms, tube amplifiers, and dead-quiet listening rooms. Named after the odd, angular walk of a
A modal masterpiece. Glen Moore’s double bass walks a tightrope between arco (bowed) and pizzicato (plucked). In a 320kbps MP3, the bow’s rosin texture is a smear. In Oregon Music of Another Present Era 1972 FLAC, you hear the hair gripping the strings. Collin Walcott’s sitar and tabla introduce an Indian microtonality that bends precisely. The FLAC format preserves the harmonic overtones of the sitar's sympathetic strings—a detail completely lost in lossy codecs.
Music of Another Present Era is a masterpiece of restraint and synthesis. It managed to predict the "World Music" boom of the 1980s by a full decade. It proved that fusion did not require distortion pedals to be progressive. The dynamic range here is extreme—from a whisper
Why the FLAC matters: This is an album of nuance. It is quiet music that demands loud attention. Lossy formats tend to remove the "breath" of the room and the decay of the instruments. The FLAC format restores the organic warmth that the band intended. You aren't just hearing the notes; you are hearing the wood of the instruments and the fingers on the strings.
Rating: 9/10 Essential listening for fans of ECM-style jazz, acoustic fusion, and world music. A pristine transfer of a quietly revolutionary record.
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