The Pentangle and Shell plc. 💫

 

Whaaaat? 

Yes: the beloved ‘60s folk supergroup and a multinational oil company… there is a subtle connection, if you’ll patiently read the following…

I recently bought a just published new remastered 2-disks boxset on Cherry Red label of the classic, marvelous “Solomon’s Seal”, the last Pentangle’s masterpiece before they split back in 1972 and it’s sure worth the expense also if I already own the original LP I’ve enjoyed for the last half-century.

The remastering is really great, but what makes this 2 CDs special are something contained on Disk 1: after the original recording as we all know it, are a magical string of BBC sourced live recordings of some songs from the original record… and they’re of seldom-heard quality and beauty… recording is wide, open and rendered a bit differently from originals, but “The Cherry Tree Carol” sounds soooo lively in my Studio that I already listened to it more times to be sure of what I heard.

Jacqui and Bert and John and Terry and Danny in my room, wow!

The above BBC’s live versions makes the box-set worth, already… yet, another master stroke from Cherry Red, even more amazing: they were able to find in the dusty shelves, the original master-tapes of “Music from on Any Day” , a soundtrack previously unreleased to a Shell plc’s commissioned movie!!!

A dry yet interesting sparse commentary is interwoven by incredibly cool Pentangle’s instrumentals and they sound so modern and timeless.

Furthermore, well captured sounds and noises of the oil industry, seagulls and waves and docking in an Italian port (Circeo), with voices in Italian and English of giant oil tankers docking! 

Fantastic, really!

The Disk 2 is of purely historic value, only as here we find an average, lo-fi quality recording of last Pentangle’s gigs.

… but Disk 1 already’s worth twice… aehm, no! thrice the cost of the box-set.

Amazing, I love it… my suggestion - also if you barely know Pentangle and you’re not a completist as yours truly (I also own 4 tracks 7,5” tape on Reprise) - to buy and enjoy this awesome 2 CDs box! 

You won’t regret doing so!

💫