Fred Israel, Denmark

Fashions of Moon. 1977 Hookfarm

Fred Israel is someone of mystery. He's only credited (to date) on one other German jazz fusion album, but otherwise Fashions of Moon (on the Danish jazz label Hookfarm) is his sole contribution to the music world.  It's a truly oddball album, with strong smokey jazz sax tendencies, off-kilter vocals, sound collages, sitars, classical piano, mellotron, etc... Zappa once again is an obvious influence here, minus the crisp ensemble work. I even hear some early Cluster at work here, though seriously doubt Israel was influenced, or even familiar with them. Heady album, though hard to imagine who the intended audience was.

Priority: none

2/4/10