This might be as close as some music listeners ever get to Brian Eno, who both produces and gets involved in the actual music-making. Max Eastley and David Toop have both been immersed in creative music on the London scene for decades, expressing and furthermore acting out on their fascination with strange musical instruments from the past and future. This is the theme of this album, which although a bit gimmicky in places does provide a superbly recorded document of weird musical activities, in itself a good thing. Eastley is some kind of genius when it comes to designing and building instruments. In his presentation of the hydrophone, the centriphone, and other delights, there is a sense if wonder, similar to the way a person might feel gazing upon the Parthenon for the very first time. The album's title refers to just this reality, that the musical instruments of tomorrow, no matter how strange, will undoubtedly have some engineering link to the instruments of a very distant yesterday. It is more than just thought-provoking, as musical traditions have a way of actually materializing right in front of a performer's nose, like an unwanted poltergeist. It is Eastley who connects most solidly to this cosmic phenomenon in his set of brilliant performances. The Toop sessions are an altogether different story, ranging from combinations of voice and ethnic instruments such as bamboo trumpets to a larger group recording that features Eno on prepared bass guitar playing alongside the avant-garde legend Hugh Davies and several interesting, obscure players from this period on the London scene. Toop plays some beautiful flute on the final track as well as some of his trademark water effects.
© Eugene Chadbourne /TiVo