William S. Fischer - Circles (Black Ice Vinyl)

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 woodsheddingwith 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 utterlymindblowing mix of Sly Stone funk, heavy Hendrix-y metal, Southern soul, jazzfusion, and Stockhausen-esque explorations on the Moog synthesizer, Circlesenlisted 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 drummerBilly Cobham and a five-piece cello section. With a line-up like that, it's littlewonder that the artistic reach of Circles is breathtaking, but it somehow manages to cohere according to its own internal, crazy logic; it remains one of the most adventuresome and collectible releases of its day. For this, its first-ever vinyl reissue, we've pressed 2000 copies in black ice vinyl, preserved the original circle cut-out stencil cover, and added liner notes by Peter Relic that feature quotes from Fischer himself. For the intrepid listener!