4 out of 5

Produced by: ensemble 0? (recorded live)

Label: Murailles Music

This is a rather brilliant assortment of layered sounds and vocals, with moods varying from the playful dulcet tones of opener Wind River Powwow, to the stirring chants of Westward Ho!, the minimalist beat of Suite Equestria, the winding, jazzy horns of Fujiyama, the celebratory horns of Marimbo Mondo 2, and up through the slow-burn ambient noise explosion of Introduction and Overtone Continuum & Cosmic Meditation. It’s a genius piece of mostly instrumental work (some vocals and spoken word are employed), painstakingly composed from bits and pieces looped and modulated, and yet somehow processed and presented as an incredibly organic whole. If the song titles are any indication, the project has an intentional theme of nature; according to the bandcamp page (https://muraillesmusic.bandcamp.com/album/ensemble-0-elpmas-revisited-composed-by-moondog) there’s also commentary in there about the mistreatment of aboriginals… but, frankly, I’m not getting that. The nature bit, though, absolutely sticks out and comes through, which is astonishing given the ‘digital’ nature of how this came together, as well as how varied in tone and style the tracks can be, wed together by much of marimbas.

I’m skipping over something, here, which is that the above words mostly apply to the Moondog original. Ensemble 0 have remade the album live, and it’s damned pitch perfect to its source material, which is insane. Played one after another, you’d be hard-pressed to spot differences; played side-by-side, perhaps Ensemble 0’s rendition has a slightly looser, more up-front feel to it, but I can only say that knowing that the two are different. In a blind sample, I’d likely have no idea.

Which is two-fold praise and criticism: having first been exposed to this material via Ensemble 0, then going back to listen to Moondog, I’m happy owning the new version. But if I owned the Moondog recording, while I’d be interested in hearing the new version, I’m not sure if there’s an incentive to own it. Perhaps sensing this, label Murailles Music went to town on the packaging, offering the release as a 2 x 10″ with a gigantic 84 page art book.

The star is docked to note that. But it’s a stunning piece of work, regardless of which edition you own.