Saturday, September 09, 2006

Celtic Requiem: rarest Apple LP?

Sorry for the lack of posts. I've been busy... You know how it is. At least I haven't given up completely like some of my favorite "sharity" bloggers. This time I'll be sharing one of the rarest LP's on the Beatles' Apple label, John Tavener's Celtic Requiem.

Apparently "discovered" and handled by Ringo, John Tavener was an avant-garde classical composer who put out two records for Apple. His first, the Whale (which was re-issued on Ringo's
short-lived Ring O' Records in the later 70's) is actually the better of the two and is one of my favorite Apple albums (which is saying a lot). This one is enjoyable too, if you dig this sort of thing.

Celtic Requiem
was never released in America and is supposedly almost impossible to get ahold of in England as well. Tavener's early work features innovative percussion and instrumentation, spoken words, operatic wailing and chanting and
small orchestral ensembles altering between somber droning textures and stabbing cacophenies of sound. The music on this record deals with children and their view of death and meditations on religious/biblical themes. The sing-song taunts of British schoolchildren add a nightmarish quality. When I heard some of Tavener's more recent work, I was disapointed to find it was kind of mediocre and uniteresting schlock, but I guess you could say the same thing about pretty much every other musician from the 1960's.

Most of the non-Beatles Apple albums were re-issued on CD and/or "limited edition" vinyl for about 30 seconds in the early 90's. They all went back out-of-print almost instantly. I guess that there wasn't much interest in "musical relics" like Billy Preston, Mary Hopkin and George Harrison's Wonderwall Music at that time. I randomly found my used copy of the Celtic requiem re-issue a year or two ago. I think I paid about three bucks for it. It's on CD so there's no pops and I've included the booklet. Hope somebody will be interested in this!

download!

16 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wonderful! Much much thanks for this John Tavener Celtic Requiem album. I've been looking for this LP for many years. It's blowing me away.
By the way, an interesting blog you have here.

Anonymous said...

Thank you for sharing this, it reminds me of 'Horspiels', the tradition of creative radio dramas in Germany. The recurring chorus of school children carries a chilling narrative. I sought out George Harrison's 'Wonderwall' after hearing this, to see what other things Apple Records presented. It's an exciting portal into a time I've always been curious about, but was born to late to experience first-hand. Thanks again!

Phillip said...

Thanks forthis, and thanks for not giving up!

Anonymous said...

PLEASE REPOST ,IM LATE AND I CAN´T FIND THIS JEWEL !!!!

Adam Infanticide said...

I put it back up so it should be OK now. let me know if any of the other links go down.

Anonymous said...

Brother, you have more than made my day by posting Tavener's Celtic Requiem. I have been trying to get hold of the CD for years now - my analog recording, bought in 1970 or so, is full of hiss and pops. So may the Grand Architect of the Universe smile upon you for as long as needed !
Guido Courtois
Antwerp, Belgium

Anonymous said...

Thank you, a true gem. Nice blog, I'll be back!

indieground said...

great blog !!!
great album !!!

i was looking for the celtic requiem's cover and i accidentaly (in a positive way) found this nice blog...

keep blogging please !!!
check mine if you have the time, ok.

http://indie-ground.blogspot.com

Adam Infanticide said...

in addition to this one, indieground's blog features Tavener's "the whale." Unlike this one, you might actually find it in a record store somewhere, but download it anyway. If you liked Celtic Requiem at all, it is a must have!

Lefty Lucy & Ry T. Tidy (Powered by Radio Zero) said...

Hi Adam,

Thanks so much for making this available. Unfortunately, RapidShare does not like me so much. Any way we arrange a trade via e-mail?

Many thanks

Lefty Lucy & Ry T. Tidy (Powered by Radio Zero) said...

Hi Adam,

In response to your request, which was a response to MY request:

maxbarrett (at) optonline (dot) net

Thanks so much, and let me know what I can send in return!

Anonymous said...

Oh Thanks! Just on time.. My vinyl could not stand anymore!
It is a classic album.. What a pity, many people ignore it..

Anonymous said...

wow many thanks for this been trying to collect all the apple lps and this fills a nice gap

Anonymous said...

Thank you so much!

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