Experimental Q2 – Experimental Q2 (Vinyl)

Descriere

Derived from its first iteration but without keeping the original line-up, this band from Cluj-Napoca was, like many others, a collaboration between Conservatory students, inspired by the musical influence of their Western counterparts.

Lengthy compositions have always been the hallmark of progressive-jazz-rock and by 1978 the genre already had examples that have become classics, like the early works of King Crimson (“Lizard”; “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic”) or Pink Floyd’s “Atom Heart Mother” with its full brass section. By comparison, Experimental Q2 appeared to be late to the party: the aforementioned works had been released at the beginning of the 70s when most of the Western prog-rock bands had moved away from this sort of compositions for various reasons. Nevertheless, in 1978, Experimental Q2 came up with the unusual piece you are listening to right now.

“Marș funebru la moartea unui astronaut” = “Funeral March For The Death Of An Astronaut” was performed full-length for the first time at the Conservatory in Cluj-Napoca’s studio hall. Clocking in at one hour and employing the Conservatory’s entire percussion instruments array, it turned out to be the best example of what this band would become known for in the underground music scene: the complex arrangements, the interlocking instrumental solos and of course, the aggressive, driven percussion, a hallmark of this “suite” (to use Pink Floyd’s terminology) and of the band itself.

Like other similar compositions, there is a theme running throughout the entire piece, one best expressed within the title: a funeral march for the death of an astronaut – an elegy for a man facing the infinite, the immensity of the cosmos and the solitude of existence (much like an astronaut on a spaceship), an expression of a journey leading to the inevitable conclusion of the man’s own mortality.