Master QSH by Master QSH

LAL-12
Cassette, released in 2003

”In the mountains, inside a cave lived a hermit; he was lonely and frankly a bit bored, so he started to make what he tought was music (he couldn’t remember exactly what that meant, it had been so long since he had actually heard any). He left his cave at dusk and killed a sleeping goose with a stone. He turned its still warm flesh into a crude bagpipe. Using obsidian, he cut flutes from the reeds by the river that ran past the mouth of his cave, and in a big pot he boiled a large turtle he caught and turned it into a drum. He trained albino bats (his only companions) to flutter about and tap stalagmites with their fangs in rhytmic patterns. The hermit documented their sessions on a 4-track and mailed it to an address somewhere in Finland, with a note that read simply, ’TO LAL LAL LAL, I AM THE MASTER QSH, THIS IS MY MUSIC.’” - Glenn Donaldson / Broken Face #18

"Who is Master Qsh and where does he come from? The answer, typically, is shrouded in mystery, but his music bears a resemblance to Sun Ra’s more cosmic excursions. Recorded outdoors, side A sounds like a Cosmic Tones for Mental Therapy outtake. Nasal, snaking horns, thickets of whistles, skittering chimes and bells, and an ominously distorted bass drum converge in pounding, primal celebration. Side B’s nine-piece percussion jam rumbles, crashes and taps its way to a thundering climax, then dissipates with shakes, bent tones and subterranean rustling. The free pulse makes the piece feel more like an experiment in percussive colors than rhythm, and the effect is more ethereal than primal." - Matthew Wuethrich, All About Jazz

Tracklist