Jimi Tenor: This album was huge for me when I was about 19 to 20 years old. I love the synth sounds here. It sounds like they had some expensive gear in the studio and I think that's exactly what they had in reality. I did some research and found out that they had some custom made samplers and stuff. I love the simplicity of the vocals and lyrics. It must have been a great hurdle for them to figure out English language lyrics. My favorite track is »Gradated Gray«. I listened to that over and over. The magical synth wind instrument is just sooo good. Perhaps it is a sample of some exotic wind instrument… I don't know.

Jimi Tenor: This one I actually had on CD. I think it's on vinyl as well. I owned the special package of the VHS tape, CD and postcards that came out from Blast First. I love Sun Ra and have listened to all kinds of albums from him. But I think early 70's was the greatest period in his career. He had the Moog and Farfisa, the songs were catchy but very challenging the same time. June Tyson was in the band singing in that theatrical almost Brecht-type of voice. I actually remember first hearing her and it was too artistic for me. But then I got used to her style and have loved it ever after. I saw Sun Ra in NY around 1990. That was a life changing experience for me. In that concert the warm up big band was one of the legendary pro big bands. They were also great....but when Sun Ra came on stage people went wild. The difference was too much! In Sun Ra's favor.

Jimi Tenor: Foetus was a big influence for me. I loved his big band samples. His music was also very much sample based. Quite industrial. I can imagine his music has influenced a lot of these electronic industrial acts, like Nine Inch Nails. Who knows… Anyway, this album was huge for me as a late teenager. I loved the cover art..all the japanese texts. It was hard and mysterious.

Jimi Tenor: I remember buying »Zombie« and »Nail« back to back. A good week. I knew what I was looking for anyway. A friend had told me about Fela »who's intros last 10 minutes«. Classic saxophone melody and solo start this record. Fela was a trumpet player but learned to play saxophone later on to replace a great player in his band who passed. I know some sax players don't like his sound, but I like. He plays with energy and actually is very innovative. A genius. With Africa 70 I think his show was the best show on earth.

Jimi Tenor: Great energy starting from the first bass notes. I actually have two copies of this album. In the mid 90's I was obsessed by Pharoah Sanders' sound. »Colors«, »Creator Has a Master Plan«, »Thembi«… great composer by the way. I aslo love his alto flute playing on Alice Coltrane's »Blue Nile«. Ooh, I wish had a sound like Pharoah Sanders! But that is not the case. But I guess it's OK to sound like myself. A lot of people don't like free jazz, but I think albums like this could be a good starting point to get used to improvised music. This album has good beats, great ideas and also good melody line. I find a melody line makes free improvised music more complex and appealing. It created surprising order in the noise. Without the order the noise can get gray and simplistic.

Jimi Tenor: Ah, this is too comfort food kind of an album! I actually think about this album quite often when I try to find direction in my art. When I have a feeling that my saxophone playing sucks. Then I think about The Moldy Peaches. When the studio engineer wants to put 10 mikes in the drum kit I refuse because that not what the Moldy Peaches would have done. I find a lot of parallels to my own music. My best material was recorded at home with very simple set ups. I had to turn off the fridge to avoid pops in the recording. The phone might ring in a middle of a take.

Jimi Tenor: I would be lying if this album wasn't huge to me. It was Big! My favorite track is »We Will Fall«. John Cale plays the violin. I love 60's hippie music and this track belongs to that genre… if they want it or not. Of course this music has a bit more sinister vibe. Is Suicide's »Frankie Teardrop« a distant relative of »We Will Fall«? I think so. I read somewhere that The Stooges were fans of Harry Partch's music, which I find quite an impressive fact. But on the other hand it all makes sense.

Jimi Tenor: Roland Kirk is for me one of the most amazing saxophonists. Seems to me he could have blown anybody out of the water! And I guess he did. I haven't listened to many of his recordings because some of them are a little too middle of the road musically for me. But Inflatable Tear is an exception. Especially the title track is amazing. There's a good behind-the-scenes story about the track in the liner notes. Of course Kirk was also a top flutist. I have seen pictures of his flute. He had the area around the mouthpiece taped, maybe to help him find the blowhole, since he was blind. On the other hand, some people put blue tape around the blowhole to get a certain kind of flute sound.

Jimi Tenor: OK, I don't know which recording I'm referring to. There must be thousands of recordings of this piece. But I'm listing here albums that had a big influence on me. I used to listen to this at the Töölö library in Helsinki. The library had these wonderful listening rooms overlooking the park that surrounded the library. The library also had a good collection of scores and mini-scores that I could read while listening to the music. I didn't have much experience reading scores at that point, and boy did I pick the wrong piece to try to figure out how to follow a score! Anyway, I loved the music. I admit that certain pieces of music are just too popular. But there's always that first time you hear an incredible composition and nobody can take that moment away from you!

Jimi Tenor: This would be the Pierre Boulez version. I recently went to see this live. I was totally blown away. I was sitting right behind the 14 person percussion section. And all those 14 players were busy! These kind of compositions, like Rite of Spring might leave you feeling very small indeed. But these are challenging pieces I admit. Varese didn't write that many pieces during his career but what he wrote was great. I remember playing the flute solo composition Density 21.5 when I was studying music. It's a tough one, but I loved playing it. I guess I go to library and get the sheet music right now