"Thirties (30's)", a bonus track not on the original album, is very different: it's a pulsing, shifting, droning organ and percussion "jam" of sorts with sort of a laid back Krautrock-ish groove to it, believe it or not. (New Music luminaries Gavin Bryars and David Rosenboom happen to be among the many people beating rhythmically on various things in this live performance.)
Two Solo Pieces, the other Chatham Square reissue (from 1977), was included on Alan Licht's notorious list of obscure recordings in the debut issue of Halana magazine: the coveted Minimal Top 10. This is the most immediately "accessible" of these albums, and probably the best introduction to Jon Gibson's music for the uninitiated. "Cycles" is for solo organ, and its slowly shifting harmonic textures may remind you of Charlemagne Palestine's epic solo pipe organ drones, only it's much shorter and more "action-packed" (relatively speaking — very relatively speaking). "Untitled" (the second of the "Solo Pieces") is for solo alto flute (a sadly neglected instrument) and it's a captivatingly simple and lovely exploration of pure melody.
We also get three wonderful previously unissued bonus tracks: "Melody III" is another, more "busy" solo organ piece. "Melody IV, Part 1" is composed for a larger ensemble including brass and strings, with gorgeous tone colors and consonant harmonies overlapping and fading in and out — listening to it is a little like watching clouds slowly drifting above desert mesas. "Song 1" concludes the CD, and it's a livelier, repetitive, almost Celtic-sounding piece for strings (featuring revered eccentric composer/performer/avant-disco producer Arthur Russell performing on cello).
I first heard a tantalizing sample of Gibson's music when Criss X Cross #3 was included on the amazing collection, From the Kitchen Archives Vol. 1: New Music, New York 1979. Now, John Zorn's alternately brilliant and maddening (but still a national treasure) Tzadik record label has issued a live concert (recorded at a cathedral in Paris in 1979) documenting a more substantial chunk of Gibson's solo work. Criss X Cross #3 is there, along with #1 and #4, which are all performed on solo soprano saxophone. While the notes played are apparently derived from numerical systems (represented by that cool image on the cover of the CD, also by Jon Gibson), there is nothing mathematical or clinical sounding about this music. In fact, Criss X Cross sounds a little like a La Monte Young/Paul Desmond-ish hybrid with its jazzy intervals and loose improvisational rhythmic feel.
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