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Para 2

from Brexit means Toxic by Officer!

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  • Record/Vinyl + Digital Album

    Packaged in a full colour spined cover,
    with printed inner sleeve.
    Pressed at Optimal.
    Independently released by Life and Living,
    Mick Hobbs' own label - buy direct!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Brexit means Toxic via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 1 day

      £6 GBP or more 

     

  • Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album

    CD single, packaged in a slimline wallet,
    includes a folded printed inner with sleeve notes.
    Enhanced CD portion includes the music video
    to Brexit means Toxic by Leo Hobbs.
    Independently released by Life and Living,
    Mick Hobbs' own label - buy direct!

    Includes unlimited streaming of Brexit means Toxic via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
    ships out within 1 day

      £5 GBP or more 

     

about

A Forthcoming Release!

Officer! is pleased to announce: Its next full-length album will be “Paragraphs and Principles”. This will be available in various media.
“Paragraphs and Principles” is a tribute to the work and ideology of the progressive composer Cornelius Cardew, who was killed in murky circumstances in 1981.

Cardew was probably the foremost British composer of experimental music of the late 1950s and 1960s. He studied at the ground-breaking Studio für elektronische Musik des Westdeutschen Rundfunks and uniquely assisted Karlheinz Stockhausen on his masterpiece Carré, for 4 Orchestras and 4 Choirs in 1959.

Stockhausen said of Cardew: “As a musician he was outstanding because he was not only a good pianist but also a good improviser and I hired him to become my assistant in the late 50s and he worked with me for over three years. I gave him work to do which I have never given to any other musician, which means to work with me on the score I was composing……”

Having continued making experimental music in the 1960s and joining the improvisation group AMM, he began to question the social meaning, relevance and use of his music. In collaboration with others, he formed The Scratch Orchestra to be peopled by both professional and amateur musicians as well as non-musicians. The focus was to be the realisation of his epic piece “The Great Learning” based upon texts by Confucius.
Yet ultimately, Cardew was still dissatisfied and realised that the way forward was radical left-wing politics. Essentially, this entailed putting his art in the service of the class struggle and entering a period of intense political and social self-criticism. Hence, “Stockhausen Serves Imperialism”, a book he wrote and published in 1974, denouncing his own participation in the avant-garde.

And so, as Cardew continued to make his art and actively participate in the political struggle, he was suddenly knocked down and killed by a car one winter night in East London. The driver remains unidentified.
Various pieces by Cardew himself will be included on “Paragraphs and Principles”, encompassing both his experimental and radical political periods, and all realised anew by the members and international guests of Officer! Some are arrangements of Cardew’s piano pieces, themselves based on Chinese tunes from the era of the Cultural Revolution, such as “The East Is Red” and “Sailing The Seas Depends Upon The Helmsman”. Others stretch the boundary lines further, including a new version of a punk rock song first thumped out by Mick Hobbs and Felix in 1977.
As previously accepted socio-political mores and structures begin to be called into question, Cardew’s music takes on a new relevance and now needs to be heard afresh.

“A single spark can burn the whole land”, as they say.

And so finally……

We present a track by Officer! called ’Para 2’,
inspired by Cornelius Cardew,
rather than actually written by him.

credits

from Brexit means Toxic, track released September 9, 2019
Para 2

Cornelius Cardew made music as part of the struggle to make the world a better place. 'Para 2' is composed in homage to his ideals.
The present forms the future.

Flora Tunesberg – voice, piano
Mick Hobbs – voice, guitar, bass, percussion
Bill Gilonis – alto clarinet
Rick Wilson – tibetan bowl
Felix Fiedorowicz – keys, programming, edition and sedition

Ben Hobbs – Mastering
Andrew Jacques – special services

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about

Officer! London, UK

Officer! has always been around, from its inception in 1984 to the present day. Invariably Mick Hobbs is at the thick of it, with an ever-increasing range of collaborators, participants and guests. Due for release in 2021 is Officer’s next big item – a rousing set of thumping tunes that pay hommage to the unforgettable and unforgotten Cornelius Cardew. ... more

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