Ummagumma

Ummagumma
Pink Floyd studio album
Publication (s)	October 25, 1969
Label (s)	originally: Harvest Records (Europe) Columbia Records (USA) New editions: EMI (Europe) Capitol Records (USA)
Format (s)	CD, LP
Genre (s)	Psychedelic rock , art rock , avant-garde rock
Title (number)	LP1 (Live) - 4, LP2 (Studio) - 12
running time	86 min 11 sec
occupation	David Gilmour - guitar , vocals Nick Mason - percussion Roger Waters - bass , vocals Richard Wright - organ , piano , mellotron , vocals
production	Pink Floyd Norman Smith
Studio (s)	LP1: April 27, 1969 Mothers Club / Birmingham and May 2, 1969 College Of Commerce / Manchester LP2: 1969, Abbey Road Studios
chronology Music from the Film More (1969) Ummagumma Atom Heart Mother (1970)

Ummagumma is the fourth long-playing record by the British rock band Pink Floyd . The double album was released on 25 October 1969 a few months after the soundtrack of More . "Ummagumma" is a slang word from Cambridge for sexual intercourse .

music

The double album includes a live and a studio part. The live part consists of four recordings that were recorded at the College of Commerce ( Manchester ) and at the Mother's Club (Birmingham). It was Pink Floyd's only official live recording until 1988.

In the studio part, each band member was given half an LP side, which filled it with their own compositions and mostly without the participation of others. Bassist Roger Waters delivered a folk ballad with Grantchester Meadows, accompanied only by an acoustic guitar , alienated by the twittering of birds and the hum of a housefly , which is smacked to death at the end of the piece. The suite The Narrow Way by guitarist David Gilmour corresponded largely to the conventional psychedelic rock that the band had offered on the previous albums. The other pieces in the studio section were much more avant-garde . Waters' Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict bot Musique concrète , a melody-free sound collage . Richard Wright's four-part work Sysyphus reminded the reviewer of the music magazine Sounds of both the atonal music of the French-American composer Edgar Varèse (1883–1965) and the free jazz improvisations of the pianist Cecil Taylor . Nick Mason's suite The Grand Vizier's Garden Party featured a percussion solo lasting several minutes , framed by two shorter melodic flute passages played by Lindy Mason, the drummer's wife. Various claims have been made - unconfirmed by Mason - that Mason's Suite was influenced by Karlheinz Stockhausen's (1928–2007) work Kontakt . All four band members used electronic instruments, loops , tapes running backwards, stereo effects and other technical gadgets at the height of the possibilities of the time. Wright not only played his grand piano with the keys, but also worked the strings inside directly.

title

LP 1 (live album)

The Mothers Club was located on the upper floor of this building in Birmingham

• Page A:
  • Astronomy Domine (Barrett), vocals: Gilmour / Wright - 8:28 min
  • Careful with That Ax, Eugene (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour), vocals: Waters - 8:47 min
• Side B:
  • Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (Waters), vocals: Waters - 9:22 min
  • A Saucerful of Secrets (Waters, Wright, Mason, Gilmour), vocals: Gilmour - 12:49 min
    1. Something Else - 3:57 min
    2. Syncopated Pandemonium - 3:19 min
    3. Storm Signal - 2:58 min
    4. Celestial Voices - 2:35 min

LP 2 (studio album)

• Page A:
  • Sysyphus [Part I-IV] (Wright) - 13:17 min
  • Grantchester Meadows (Waters), vocals: Waters - 7:28 min
  • Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict (Waters), voice: Waters - 4:57 min
• Side B:
  • The Narrow Way [Part 1–3] (Gilmour), vocals: Gilmour - 12:14 min
  • The Grand Vizier's Garden Party (Mason) - 8:45 min
    • Part I (Entrance) - 0:59 min
    • Part II (Entertainment) - 7:06 min
    • Part III (Exit) - 0:40 min

reception

“Live fantastic, in the studio a lot of effort is artificial - and yet with that certain something that allows this band to be in the studio part of Ummagumma Pink Floyd.”

- Christian Rode : Baby blue pages

“Featuring the band's second lineup (ie, no Syd Barrett), the set shows off a very potent group, their sound held together on-stage by Nick Mason's assertive drumming and Roger Waters' powerful bass work, which keep the proceedings moving no matter how spaced out the music gets; they also sound like they've got the amplifiers to make their music count, which is more than the early band had. "

“With the second line-up of the band (without Syd Barrett), the pieces show a very potent group whose sound is held together on stage by Nick Mason's decisive drumming and Roger Waters powerful bass work, which ensure that it continues, no matter how crazy the music will; they also sound like they have the amplifiers they need to bring out their music - that's more than the early band had. "

- Bruce Eder : Allmusic Guide

In December 2015, a demoiselle species in the genus Umma was named Umma gumma after the Pink Floyd album by the first descriptors Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Jens Kipping and Nicolas Mézière .

literature

• Julian Palacios: Syd Barrett & Pink Floyd: Dark Globe. Plexus, London 2010, ISBN 978-0-85965-431-9 .

Web links

• www.pinkfloyd.co.uk - Official Pink Floyd band website
• Reviews of Ummagumma on the baby blue pages
• Ummagumma at Allmusic (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Mark Blake, Pigs Might Fly. The Inside Story Of Pink Floyd. Aurum Press, London 2007.
2. ↑ Sounds. Plates 66-77. Zweiausendeins, Frankfurt am Main 1979, p. 91.
3. ↑ Pink Floyd: Ummagumma : Review. Baby blue prog reviews, as of April 2010
4. ^ Ummagumma > Review. Allmusic, as of April 2010
5. ^ Klaas-Douwe B. Dijkstra, Jens Kipping, Nicolas Mézière: Sixty new dragonfly and damselfly species from Africa (Odonata). In: Odonatologica , 44 (4), December 2015, pp. 457-461, doi: 10.5281 / zenodo.35388 .
6. ↑ Scary, beautiful and bizarre . science.orf.at, May 23, 2016, accessed May 23, 2016 (picture)