Secret Oyster - Astarte / Vidunderlige Kælling (1975)

The third album from this Danish band.

Secret Oyster was a quintet with a lineup of saxophones, guitars, bass, drums, synths, moog, keyboards, sitar and harmonica.

Secret Oyster started out in 1973 with the very good Furtive Pearl album. The follow up album, 1974s Sea Son was not that inspired.

The band got the job to come up with a piece of music for a Danish theatre which was celebrating something. The result was a pretty unusual Secret Oyser album.

I believe this album was recorded in a studio just after or before the performance of this piece of music.

This thirty-six minutes long album/piece of music starts out as a jazz album with some good saxophones. Then the album/piece of music takes a sharp left turn into a much more folky, almost Balkan folk-rock RIO terrain. There is indeed some Aranis influences throughout the middle part of this album. This piece of music is performed with some acoustic instruments.

The final part of this piece of music/album takes us through a much more fusion piece of music with some guitars and keyboards. Then we are back in the Arani territory again during the final albums.

I am not sure what the audience made of this concert and piece of music. It is not straight jazz. It is a funny, weird piece of music and album. I have to admire the band for going this extra lenght with this album and piece of music.

This album is a good album though from a band who were not afraid of challenging themselves and their audience. This is my kind of band, indeed.

3 points