"I've always liked Soft Machine's music and the incredible, unpredictable world of jazz-rock like the one that was born out of their creative galaxies.  Mike [Ratledge] and Soft Machine send me high … close to the Moon-in-June … and in all the other months of the year."
~ Beppe Crovella

There's a relaxed mental state available in some musics, if you stop being distracted and listen. I feel it as that same, unfamiliar place somewhere else. It feels psychedelic, as though I were a light in space without suffering because I don't have a body. There's work tomorrow in some other universe, but not here. I have a few tour guides for this incorporeal journey, trusted friends, who can show me the way to a moment without impatience or duration. They are Morton Feldman's "Rothko Chapel," Wendy Carlos' "Digital Moonscapes," Gyorgy Ligetti's "Clouds" (and not so much the clocks), Terry Riley, Sigur Ros, Fauré's "Requiem," and this album of reinterpreted Soft Machine. (There are others.)

"Mike [Ratledge] went even beyond, creating his highly distinctive sound on his mightly Lowrey organ, starting from a very unusual timbre, distorting it some would say, changing the sound of a noisy insect into that of a wonderful singing blackbird.  Few musicians in either jazz or rock have found such an original timbre, rendering it instantly identifiable and so musical."
~ Beppe Crovella

What's Rattlin' on the Moon is Beppe's dialogue with fellow composer Mike Ratledge. It is as though Crovella were saying, "This is where you took me with that song, and this is somewhere else I found from there." It's a little like describing a dream, or a trip, or a moment of illogical inspiration. Some composers might deconstruct the tune, and apply some technique to reassemble the pieces. That can be very interesting. Beppe probably did that in college. There's something else at work! He's offering a new kind of fantasia in the true jazz of composers dating back to Brahm's Variations on a Theme By Haydn: He is extending the story from his heart.

"The album has two additional 'Moonbonus' sections:  The first one is called 'Before the Moon' and includes three tunes that I composed when still shaken by the intensity and emotion of my new adventure.  The second one is titled 'After the Moon' and was composed after the reinterpretation of Mike's tunes, and at the end there's a tune named "Moon Geezers', dedicated to Hugh Hopper and Elton Dean, from my heart."
~ Beppe Crovella

I don't hear any of his math or schematics, dials or slide controls. This album is the inside story of a conversation between two composers establishing a common vision of the music just out of reach. These two are joined together by common chords to a setting for the melody we would like to hear in a dream. Beethoven was known to use his improvised "variations" as a lethal weapon in an early example of the "cutting session." Beppe's work is much more of a spiritual exploration. He's damn delighted to be playing these tunes. He wrote a song in the style as a celebration of this project. He's stoked.

"My approach to Mike's [Ratledge's] compositions has been totally free, following my own vision, as the spirit of the original tunes was, in a new unity of time."
~ Beppe Crovella

You can hear it in the choices he makes, and even in his limitation of the instrumentation to exclude a synth. Maybe he wanted to show what that song could do without special effects unavailable to Ratledge back in the 70's. He sure does know that Mellotron well, but fair is fair, that's an anolog synth of a sort, but it's wonderfully mechanical. Beppe tips his hat to the simplicity of his choices by ending the album on the close trusted friend in his Rösler grand piano. This album wouldn't be the same with newer toys. It's not about the dazzle. This one is from the heart.

"I've painted the moods of these songs using the colours generated by some close friends:  Hammond, Mellotron, Rhodes, Wurlitzer, Hohner Pianet, Clavinet, and Farfisa Professional."
~ Beppe Crovella

 Maybe it's a meditation. I can't feel my body. This is a beautiful place. This is the Streets of Gold where everything is music. It's a peaceful place on this rattlin' moonscape. I have to do the dishes, but I'm not really working. I'm elsewhere in a celebration somewhere and even the dishwater feels like forgiveness. I am not alone in this music. My life is shining like a freshly scrubbed spoon drying next to the sink. This is my life on music. I'm smiling while quietly doing the chores. Those songs are alive and growing. Mike played them on a keyboard with a band. This album is nothing but keyboards. The tribute is to Mike Ratledge as a composer and a keys man. This Moon is a world of subtle, reflected light.  Beppe abandons the rock, but embraces the roll. Many of these songs live as tone poems without the danceable cadence in order to trigger a little dancing from ear to ear. 

"In making this album, my first rule has been to make no rules!  My second rule has been to take molecules of the original Mike and Softs idiom and, while preserving their DNA, to seed them in a new field with the courage of freedom.  It has been my land of adventure, my moon and mindscape path."
~ Beppe Crovella

Pour out your presence, O delight, cascading

The falls of the knee and the weirs of the spine,

Our climate of silence and doubt invading;

You, alone, alone, O imaginary song,

Are unable to say an existence is wrong,

And pour out your forgiveness like a wine.
~ from the poem "The Composer" by W.H. Auden



THE SONGS

1.  Tarabos (5:10)
2.  Chloe And The Pirates (7:56)
3.  All White (6:24)
4.  The Man Who Waved At Trains (3:54)
5.  As If (4:14)
6.  Hibou, Anemone And Bear (3:28)
7.  Out-Bloody-Rageous (8:36)
8.  Pig (4:28)
9. Esther's Nose Job (6:04)
10. Slightly All The Time (9:32)

...before the Moon

11. Leonardo's E-Mail
12. Moonvision (2:17)
13. Many Moons, Many Junes (3:05)

...after the Moon

14. Lunar Impression (1:17)
15. Circular Lines In The Air (2:46)
16. Moon Geezers (to Elton & Hugh) (3:27)

LINKS

"WHAT'S RATTLIN' ON THE MOON" AT MOONJUNE

OTHER REVIEWS OF "WHAT'S RATTLIN' ON THE MOON"
Mindawn review
All About Jazz
All Music
EJazzNews
Fame Review
CD Review

INSTRUMENTS USED ON "WHAT'S RATTLIN' on the MOON"
(Beppe's note: "No analog or digital synthesizers or other digital keyboards were used on this recording.")
Mellotron
Wurlitzer E200 Electric Piano
Fender Rhodes Stage 73 Electric Piano
Hammond Organ M102
Hohner Electric Piano and Clavinet D6
Farfisa Professional
Rösler Grand Piano

SOFT MACHINE ON YOUTUBE
(These links are to Soft Machine versions of the songs on "What's Rattlin' on the Moon")
Tarabos
Chloe and the Pirates
All White
Man Who Waved At Trains
As If
Hibou, Anemone And Bear
Out-Bloody-Rageous
Pig
Esther's Nose Job
Slightly All The Time

CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO READ AN INTERVIEW OF BEPPE CROVELLA ABOUT HIS ALBUM "PIANOVAGANDO" (57 PIECES FOR ACOUSTIC PIANO):



CLICK THE IMAGE BELOW TO READ A REVIEW OF BEPPE CROVELLA'S "PIANOVAGANDO" AT BILLY'S BUNKER (MUSIC REVIEWS):