A Principle of Moments

I occasionally keep an eye on Amazon’s Marketplace in case some second hand bargains come up for sale. Recently, I noticed Robert Plant’s “Now and Zen” album popping up for 24p plus postage. That’s not bad, in fact it is a very good album although I don’t often listen to it as I only have it on vinyl and that doesn’t work too well in the car’s CD player. Like a dog watching a sausage I thought, “I’m having that” and with a few magic clicks of Amazon’s website it was on its way to me. Whilst I was at it I thought I’d have a quick look through some of Plant’s other albums that I only have on LP and so begins yet another sorry story of why it is a bad idea to go online shopping whilst slightly inebriated.

As far as Robert Plant’s back catalogue was going I seemed to be in luck as there were quite a few of his old albums going for pennies. I picked up his first solo effort, Pictures At Eleven, for just under a pound and whilst it isn’t my favourite of his albums it is worth having. I then saw “The Principle of Moments” going for only 35p. This was plant’s second solo album and one of his better ones. The production now sounds hideously dated to the mid-80s but it has some great songs on and even gave him a hit single and an appearance on Top Of The Pops at the time.

The next morning I checked my emails and noticed that “The Principle Of Moments” had an odd name next to it: Romeo Vendrame. I quickly checked and discovered that this was not, in fact, Plant’s “The Principle Of Moments” but another “Principle Of Moments” by someone I had never heard of. I tried to cancel but was informed by the second hand disk seller in Germany that he had already dispatched it (or more likely he was finally rid of the thing – so tough). Oh well, I’m always one for a voyage of musical discovery so what would this unknown wonder sound like?

I do have a fairly broad palate of musical tastes. I’ll listen to Classical, Rock, Jazz, Folk, weird electronica and even, on occasion, the odd pop song. I’ve listened to Ligeti’s micropolyphony and enjoyed it. I’ll listen to late-60s Musique concrete and Stockhausen’s Elektronische Musik. I’ve listened to Free Jazz that sounds like a fight broke out and the drummer was kicked downstairs. I’ve listened to Norwegian folk ensembles. I’ve listened to Death Metal that sounds like someone has filled a washing machine with rubble, put it on a 1600 rpm spin cycle and gone “AARRRGGHEUTTHH!” all over the top of it. So what would Romeo Vendrame sound like?

Well, I put the CD on and it sounded like nothing I had ever heard before. Literally nothing. As in nothing, no sound, not a peep. I turned it up and I could hear a faint rumble in the background. OK, there was something. I suppose the nearest I would have in my collection would be some very early Tangerine Dream but possibly the outtakes from the studio after they were packing up the oscillators and left the tape machine running. So it turns out to be a very Avant-garde electronica in which very little appears to happen and often nothing at all. I don’t suppose that I can be too critical as it is not entirely removed from music that I already have in my collection but whereas I could happily listen to Tangerine Dream’s Zeit or Ligeti’s Atmosphères over and over I don’t think this one will be escaping from its jewel case that often.

Anyway, the Robert Plant album of the same name has now appeared so I’ll go and listen to him singing about his Big Log – whatever that is…