Cien Fuegos present a reissue of Schlippenbach Quartet's Three Nails Left, a classic mid-1970s originally released on FMP in 1975 and showing Schlippenbach is in sublime form. It features a stellar line-up, with  Evan Parker - soprano and tenor saxophone; Peter Kowald - double bass and Paul Lovens - percussion. Side A was recorded live at 3rd Jazz Festival Moers June 2nd, 1974 by Michael Krause. Side B was recorded live at the Quartier Latin Berlin, February 2nd, 1975 by Jost Gebers with the FMP Mobile Recording Unit. The group has a great sense of dynamics, and the set ebbs between some great textural passages, full on energy and trading staccato statements. 'There was an optimistic mood among us all," Schlippenbach recalls. 'A feeling that we had found somethingthat was truly our own, that was new and that was wen kind of successful. For a while we had some regular workshops together, thanks to the money that we managed to press out of cultural administrators. Kowald was always good at that. We founded FMP in order to get the music out ourselves, and we started to establish performance platforms like the Workshop Freie Musik and the Total Music Meeting. But all of this activity wasn't unique to Germany. It was happening simultaneously in Holland and in the UK. It was certainly a revolutionaryperiod, but I was less affected by any of the political aspects than by the actual music we were making."
Produced by Jost Gebers. Remastered by Martin Siewert in 2019. Design by Paul Lovens; photo by Nick Leidner and Dagmar Gebers. 180 gram vinyl. Killer.