Kew Rhone

Kew Rhone was a 1977 project/record of John Greaves, Peter Blegvad and Lisa Herman with some help of fellow canterbury musicians like  Mike Mantler, Carla Bley, Andrew Cyrille and others. It is a very strange and unique record with influences of Henry Cow and pointing already to the Art Bears. The tracks are based mainly on absurd DADA-like lyrics. Example : 'Apricot' "I sang : "A-P-R-I-C-O-T abbreviates attain perfect realization in the cot. / I sang : "Cot contains certain shinning irreducible contributions. So does the charnel So does the Ferris-Wheel gondola./Singing words devised for seeing "through not with eyes". Lisa Herman sings or claims the lyrics often in a Kurt Weill fashion as did Dagmar Krause with Henry Cow. The music itself sounds sometimes like Henry Cow and often like something completely unheard.This is not an easy to-get-in record, but it is rewarding. (BTW: It is one of Roberet Wyatt's favourite records) If you like Henry Cow and the Art Bears go for it.

The original vinyl version also credited Lisa Herman along with Greaves and Blegvad. It's an absolute masterpiece which is one of the great undiscovered artistic gems of our time, and it also contains (in the title track) probably the longest palindrome ever set to music:

'Peels foe, not a set animal, laminates a tone of sleep'

The John greaves album Songs contains a brilliant version of the title track sung by Robert Wyatt. 

There is an oblique reference to the album on National Health's Of Queues and Cures, where Blegvad guests on the track Squarer for Maud to explain the meaning of the word 'Numinous', and Blegvad also published some additional notes on the album in one of the Re.Records Quarterly releases. Blegvad's 'Downtime' contains yet another Greave/Blegvad fragment, Actual Frenzy, which sounds like an out take from the same sessions.

Essential stuff.