# Harmos > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Harmos > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Harmos.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmos > Source revision: 1217597101 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{Infobox album | name = Harmos | type = album | artist = [Barry Guy](/source/Barry_Guy) and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra | cover = Barry_Guy_and_the_LJCO_Harmos.jpg|border=yes | alt = | released = 1989 | recorded = April 4–5, 1989 | venue = | studio = Radio Studio DRS, Zürich, Switzerland | genre = [Free jazz](/source/Free_jazz) | length = 43:48 | label = [Intakt](/source/Intakt_Records)
CD 013 | producer = Patrik Landolt, Rosmarie A. Meier | chronology = [Barry Guy](/source/Barry_Guy) and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra | prev_title = [Zurich Concerts](/source/Zurich_Concerts) | prev_year = 1988 | next_title = [Double Trouble](/source/Double_Trouble_(Barry_Guy_and_the_London_Jazz_Composers'_Orchestra_album)) | next_year = 1990 }} '''''Harmos''''' is an album by [Barry Guy](/source/Barry_Guy) and the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra that features a recording of a large-scale, 44-minute composition by Guy. It was recorded in April 1989, just before the LJCO's 20th anniversary, in Zürich, Switzerland, and was released later that year by [Intakt Records](/source/Intakt_Records).{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/harmos-mw0000917282 |title=Barry Guy / London Jazz Composers' Orchestra: Harmos |first=Thom |last=Jurek |website=AllMusic |access-date=October 1, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.jazzmusicarchives.com/album/barry-guy/harmos-with-london-jazz-composers-orchestra |title=Barry Guy - Harmos |website=Jazz Music Archives |access-date=October 1, 2022}}{{cite web |url=https://www.intaktrec.ch/guy-a.htm |title=Barry Guy / London Jazz Composers' Orchestra: Harmos |website=Intakt Records |access-date=October 1, 2022}}{{cite web |url=http://www.efi.group.shef.ac.uk/labels/intakt/int013.html |title=Intakt 013 Harmos |website=EFI Group |access-date=October 1, 2022}} Guy interpreted the Greek title in its original meaning of "coming together,"{{cite book |last1=Cook |first1=Richard |last2=Morton |first2=Brian |title=The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings |publisher=Penguin Books |year=2008 |pages=906 }} and the work attempts to find solutions to the challenges surrounding the coexistence of improvisation and composition.{{cite web |url=https://www.allaboutjazz.com/barry-guy-london-jazz-composers-orchestra-harmos-live-at-schaffhausen-barry-guy-by-john-sharpe |title=Barry Guy / London Jazz Composers Orchestra: Harmos Live At Schaffhausen |first=John |last=Sharpe |website=All About Jazz |date=18 November 2012 |access-date=October 1, 2022}} In a retrospective interview, Guy recalled the LJCO's financial difficulties, and reflected: "Luckily, things went very well for me in the baroque music business. I bought instruments, strings and bows so that I could perform the Mozart symphonies as adequately as possible. And when I needed money for improvised music, I'd sell one or two instruments. The first CD I made for Intakt, ''Harmos'', was financed by selling one of my basses."{{cite book |last=Broecking |first=Christian |translator-last=Bishop |translator-first=Jeb |title=This Uncontainable Feeling of Freedom: Irène Schweizer — European Jazz, and the Politics of Improvisation: The Authorized Biography |publisher=Broecking Verlag |year=2021 |pages=226 }} A version of "Harmos" also appears on the 2001 trio recording ''[Odyssey](/source/Odyssey_(Barry_Guy%2C_Marilyn_Crispell%2C_and_Paul_Lytton_album))'' with Guy, [Marilyn Crispell](/source/Marilyn_Crispell), and [Paul Lytton](/source/Paul_Lytton).{{cite web |url=https://www.allmusic.com/album/odyssey-mw0000657327 |title=Barry Guy: Odyssey |first=Brian |last=Olewnick |website=AllMusic |access-date=October 1, 2022}} In 2012, Intakt released a DVD documenting a live performance of the work by the LJCO.{{cite web |url=https://www.intaktrec.ch/151-a.htm |title=Harmos - Schaffhausen Concert: A Film by Jürg and Marianne Rufer |website=Intakt Records |access-date=October 1, 2022}} ==Reception== {{Album ratings | rev1 = [AllMusic](/source/AllMusic) | rev1Score = {{rating|4|5}} | rev2 = ''[The Penguin Guide to Jazz](/source/The_Penguin_Guide_to_Jazz)'' | rev2Score = {{rating|4|4}} }} In a review for [AllMusic](/source/AllMusic), Thom Jurek called the piece "a work of deft imagination, powerful technique, and wild interplay," and wrote: "The most beautiful thing about Guy is that as a composer he is not hung up on resolution, he's more concerned with the notion that everything in the palette be viewed, everything that's in the box should be rolled out and put on display. If a particular series of ideas do resolve themselves timbrally or in modal invention that's fine, but it's not necessarily the end intent." The authors of ''[The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings](/source/The_Penguin_Guide_to_Jazz_Recordings)'' awarded the album a full 4 stars, and stated that the recording confirms "what was to become a regular feature of Guy's LJCO work, a mutuality of effort between a single solo voice and the ensemble." Writer [John Corbett](/source/John_Corbett_(writer)) described the album as "the band's most consummate disc," and "a sparkling recording that can serve as a smart way to ease a neophyte into the pleasures of improvised music and satisfy the appetites of devoted free fans as well."{{cite book |last=Corbett |first=John |title=Extended Play: Sounding Off from John Cage to Dr. Funkenstein |publisher=Duke University Press |year=1994 |pages=325 }} ==Track listing== # "Harmos" (Barry Guy) – 43:48 == Personnel == * [Barry Guy](/source/Barry_Guy) – bass, conductor * [Evan Parker](/source/Evan_Parker) – reeds * [Paul Dunmall](/source/Paul_Dunmall) – reeds * Peter McPhail – reeds * Simon Picard – reeds * [Trevor Watts](/source/Trevor_Watts) – reeds * [Henry Lowther](/source/Henry_Lowther_(musician)) – trumpet * Jon Corbett – trumpet * [Marc Charig](/source/Marc_Charig) – cornet * Alan Tomlinson – trombone * [Paul Rutherford](/source/Paul_Rutherford_(trombonist)) – trombone * [Radu Malfatti](/source/Radu_Malfatti) – trombone * Steve Wick – tuba * [Philipp Wachsmann](/source/Philipp_Wachsmann) – violin * [Barre Phillips](/source/Barre_Phillips) – bass * [Howard Riley](/source/Howard_Riley_(musician)) – piano * [Paul Lytton](/source/Paul_Lytton) – drums ==References== {{Reflist}} {{Barry Guy|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}} Category:1989 albums Category:Barry Guy albums Category:Intakt Records albums --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Harmos](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmos) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmos?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.