Chris Newman – Sad Secrets / New French Tunes
SAK 4610-5
   
     
 
Chris Newman defies description. "He is one of the most extraordinary profiles in new music", composer, poet, performance artist, painter – and singer. In this concert recording he lets us in on the Sad Secrets of his youth, like New French Tunes to the meaty piano accompaniment by Henrik Löwenmark. These songs are as disturbing as they are touching, as pungently personal as rooted in the classical tradition, Schubert meets Captain Beefheart. "...for me it's important what I really have inside me – not what I think I might have, not what I'd like to have..." Chris Newman is not a master of compromise. Chris Newman defies description.
     
SAD SECRETS (1981/82) (29:20) Live recording
We must move on through the world (8 Nov. 81) (3:01)
Sad Breakfast (16 Nov.) (1:34)
O so sorry (21 Nov.) (1:35)
The Moss (23 Nov.) (1:45)
Hanging about (30 Dec.) (2:06)
Sad (13 Jan. 82) (1:35)
Hoffnungsloser Himmel (24 Jan.) (1:43)
Bend in the Road (obscured view) (27 Jan.) (1:04)
Consider conception (piece antique) (14 Feb.) (1:32)
The Lamb (17 Feb.) (2:01)
Proud of my flowers (10 May) (1:33)
Obscured Youths (3:35)
The Dead Man (15 Oct.) (1:06)
My Love (17 Oct.) (1:50)
Fatty ist tot (sie hat schwer gelitten) (4 Nov.) (2:22)
Look & Learn (for M. Kagel) (21 May) (0:55)

NEW FRENCH TUNES (1988) (36:32)
No. 1 (6:55)
No. 2 called French Tune on French Paper (1:07)
No. 3 called Fish Enter Through Head (18:43)
No. 4 called Opening (Your Mouth in the Morning) (an illusionary piece) (1:42)
No. 5 called Satie & Easter Hymn (1:35)
No. 6 called Repos sur le lit* (for Michael) (6:32)

All first recordings, except *
Total time 66:20