Locust Music
O.W.L. : Of Wondrous Legends (US,1971,2008)****'
This album presents one of those wonderful moments when a songwriter has a constant flow and focus of inspiration, a mood which takes him to write, arrange and perform with a sort of concentrated conceptual greatness. Stephen Titra had been a member of the traditional folk band Uncalled Four, of the Byrdsy garage rock band Rhythm’s Children and the Grateful Dead jam band, Mountain Bus (with one LP) before he commissioned himself to this project, with the help of Jim Snyder on electric bass, Al Keeler on vibes and John Knudson on flute for live acts. Having started live with folkrock background songs, Titra in the meanwhile built up a world of visualisations, materialisations (his house looked like a museum) and song expressions of epic strength based upon the mysticism of the Carmelites, inspirations from Blake to Bergman and Victorian romanticism. When in after-hours he had recorded 20 demo sessions, Universal records became interested so the head gave him unlimited time in studio and a free choice of studio musicians. After six months of works it is obvious that the result had something majestic, like a song symphony, while describing visions of the world where everything passes by like in a roundabout play, and life remains that of the pilgrim where he sees images rather than inspiring evolutions. The singer becomes the minstrel seeing something of the king’s world. The paintings on the album expressing this as well were done by Stephen also.
The songs are slightly dreaming of romantic vision, with some overdub feedback effect, and are well arranged (with 12-string guitars, cello and horn arrangements, marimba, moog, timpani, pianos, flutes and percussion). There are some folk flavours in melodies, but the concept remains epic in nature. A wonderful to listen to album, and a great discovery.
