Fischer, William S. "Circles" [Limited "Black Ice" Color Vinyl]

Limited black ice colored vinyl LP pressing. For this, it's first-ever
vinyl reissue, we've preserved the original 'circle' cut-out stencil
cover and added liner notes by Peter Relic that feature quotes from
Fischer himself. 1970 was a time for heady experimentation in popular
music, but very few records - and even fewer on major labels - come
close to matching the stylistic ground covered by William S. Fischer's
album Circles. African-American
composer/arranger/keyboardist/saxophonist Fischer grew up woodshedding
with the likes of Ray Charles, Fats Domino, Muddy Waters, and Percy
Mayfield'and then took a sudden left turn by studying electronic music
in Vienna during the mid-'60s. There, he met Joe Zawinul, and ended up
penning five of the six tunes on Zawinul's groundbreaking 1968 album The
Rise and Fall of the Third Stream. Fischer went on to arrange for
Herbie Mann, who signed him to his Embryo imprint for Atlantic Records;
Circles was Fischer's one and only release for the label. And he didn't
waste the opportunity; an utterly mindblowing mix of Sly Stone funk,
heavy Hendrix-y metal, Southern soul, jazz fusion, and Stockhausen-esque
explorations on the Moog synthesizer, Circles enlisted the same band
(bassist Ron Carter, guitarists Eric Weissberg and Hugh McCracken) that
Fischer had worked with while acting as Musical Director on Eugene
McDaniels' underground classic Outlaw, complemented by drummer Billy
Cobham and a five-piece cello section. With a line-up like that, it's
little wonder that the artistic reach of Circles is breathtaking, but it
somehow manages to cohere according to it's own internal, crazy logic;
it remains one of the most adventuresome and collectible releases of
it's day.