Harry Partch / Gate 5 Ensemble – And On The Seventh Day Petals Fell In Petaluma
(New World)

Harry Partch is a man who should need no introduction. His efforts in expanding the experience of music as a phenomenon, as well as redefining the process of performing, reach a level of excellence and exploration that has been matched by few if any. Assuming that you already know about the man and his inventive instrumental tendencies and intonation, I will skip to the meat of this sandwich. New World Records has just reissued and repackaged his 1967 release And On The Seventh Day Petals Fell In Petaluma. This is an album made up of 34 verses that would eventually turn into what some may refer to as his master work: Delusion Of The Fury - A Ritual Of Dream And Delusion (1971). If Delusion Of The Furyis his novel, Petals Fell In Petaluma is his work of poetic prose. It carries Partch’s refined sense of exploration that had been put into practice on both stage and tape. Although it’s listed as 34 verses, the album feels like one tightly braided piece of music, full of all the sounds one might associate with Partch and his work but with an immediacy and intimacy rarely found in his more popular works. As one who is usually quite skeptical of retrospective releases by artists of Partch’s nature, I was not only pleasantly surprised by this release but I felt as if I may have stumbled upon his most accessible work. Accessibility: certainly a dubious word when describing such an auteur as Partch! To be clear, some of his other works such as The World Of Harry Partch and even Delusion Of The Fury, feel rather modular in nature, or erratic in sequence, as they can range from tonal meditations, to spoken word and narrative pieces. And On The Seventh Day Petals Fell In Petaluma is 100% the former; a journey into the world of Harry Partch and a singular glimpse into the creative process. It is truly a testament to the man and his insatiable urge to invent and forge new ground. (Adam)
Check out a track here.