For a brief history of Basil Kirchin please click here.

Special release for RSD – and I don’t normally do RSD BTW

PRODUCED BY BASIL AND ESTHER KIRCHIN MUSIC CO ORDINATED BY ESTHER AND BASIL KIRCHIN

It is important to me that "Worlds Within Worlds" should have the effect of providing the listener with a completely personal experience.

Those who involve themselves with it should extract their own feelings from it: I, personally, find that it helps deliberately to induce a state of self-hypnosis by playing back somewhat louder than the norm - in fact as loud as you or your equipment can stand! IN this way one can “swim underwater” in, and “breathe in” the music.

"Worlds Within Worlds" is taken from life, and like life takes a depth of understanding and an ability to be open to understanding.

There are certain people I wish to thank for giving (help, sympathy and co-operation) above and beyond etcetera... EVAN PARKER, DEREK BAILEY, CLAIRE DENIZ, GRAHAM LYONS, DARYL RUNSWICK, FRANK RICOTTI, BRIAN DEE, JIMMY RODAN, ERIC TOMLINSON, KEN CAMERON, ADRIAN JOSEPH, DAVID GREENE, JACK NATHAN AND ESPECIALLY ESTHER KIRCHIN.

Finally please don’t attempt to judge this record in the animated surroundings of a record store. Take it home and isolate yourself: swim under water and breath in the music.

BASIL KIRCHIN 1971

When I first met Basil in 2002 we talked a lot about Worlds Within Worlds. He’d originally come up with the concept for it whilst walking around the docks in Hull.

"I had known all along that this music was there, but it was then that I realised it could be used to fulfill a function in music. Up to then it was impossible because the equipment to capture the harmonic content of all the sounds just didn’t exist. About 1968 equipment of sufficient quality became available but it was so expensive it was out of my reach".

Two years later Basil managed to get an Arts Council Of Britain grant, which enabled him to buy a Nagra tape machine and a directional Sennheiser microphone, one capable of isolating sounds from their environment. He then set to work.

The end result involved hundreds of Basil’s field recordings – anything from the ducks in Hyde Park to the autistic children of Schurmatt – these were then treated, slowed down, then slowed down further to release "the little boulders of sound within". This I believe was then played out whilst his jazz cohorts improvised. There were many recordings made, and this original that was issued was not one that Basil was happy with at all. There were disagreements with the record company about the music and the sleeve too, which he hated. Quantum which was retrospectively released in 2003 was in fact closer to his original sonic vision.

However the original released version has remained a key recording for many intrigued by the early jazz avant-garde. It made it to the legendary Nurse With Wound list and by the mid 1990s had become a serious scarcity for anyone trying to track down unusual British jazz-based recordings or anything by Basil.

I have issued it using one of Basil's master tape boxes, rather than issue it in the sleeve he hated so much. Also, I have added some of his field recording tape boxes and a strange small letter than came with the first copies of the album noting that a tape of Kirchin talking about the album is available. I am going through his tape archive at the moment and once located, I will make it available for all to hear.

In the meantime, I suggest you do what he says – go home, isolate yourself: swim under water and breath in the music.

Jonny Trunk 2019

SIDE ONE
PART I: INTEGRATION (non-racial)

SIDE TWO
PART II: THE HUMAN ELEMENT

PERSONNEL:
BASIL KIRCHIN, EVAN PARKER, DEREK BAILEY, CLAIRE DENIZ, GRAHAM LYONS, DARYL RUNSWICK, FRANK RICOTTI