Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic

Erik Lindgren, a prodigy of electronic keyboards, has been one of the driving forces of Boston’s avant-garde scene since 1979, when the EP Maximum Contrast (Sounds Interesting) was released under the name Space Negros—a collection of six synthesizer and tape experiments. The Space Negros lineup fell apart after half the group (including the young Roger Miller) left to form Mission Of Burma. Lindgren, left essentially on his own, continued performing for a few years, producing two more EPs in the span of two years in the vein of Kraftwerk-style techno-pop: Go Commercial (Arf Arf) and Have A Lousy Xmas.

The albums Do Generic Ethnic Muzak Versions, still under the Space Negros name, and Polar Yet Tropical (Arf Arf), under his own name, both released in 1987, collect covers recorded during and after those EPs.

Meanwhile, Lindgren had already abandoned that project to focus on Family Fun, from which only the EP Record (Eat) was released in 1981. This work continued in the vein of techno-pop and instrumental late intellectual disco music (EZ Listening Music).

Although these early works were infinitely more original than the average (British-style synthpop dominated the scene at the time), Lindgren had to resign himself to general incomprehension.

He returned to the scene as the leader of Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic, formed with guitarist Roger Miller (already a member of the original Space Negros), who had just disbanded Mission Of Burma (the first composition of the new group, Pulse Piece, had already appeared on a 1981 compilation). Combining electronic avant-garde, 20th-century classical music, and free jazz, Birdsongs forged a “progressive” language that finally updated the styles of early King Crimson and Colosseum. The classic lineup was one of the most original quartets in progressive rock history, with Roger Miller on piano, Rick Scott on keyboards, Martin Swope on tapes (also a Burma veteran), and Lindgren on electronics.

From the EP Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic (Ace Of Hearts, 1983), the ensemble positioned itself at the forefront of American progressive rock. Their sound vaguely recalled the languid harmonies of the Penguin Café Orchestra (especially in The Orange Ocean), transplanted onto a minimalist fabric, and Zappa’s orchestral overtures (Sound Valentine, Transformation Of Oz), strengthened by humorous themes, paradoxical ideas, and a jazz-influenced approach, but always with a strong emphasis on Miller’s piano. This chamber-rock form triumphed in the lush piece Triassic Jurassic Cretaceous, among the interlocking keyboard patterns, the driving tribal pulse of maracas and tam-tams, Swope’s bird calls, and Lindgren’s electronic hisses. In that exuberant flood of sound, the postmodern idiom of rock was forged.

The album Magnetic Flip (Ace Of Hearts, 1984) instead revealed affinities with the hammering dissonances of twelve-tone music (Shiny Golden Snakes), Reich’s minimalist fanfares (Ptoccata, Terry Riley's House, Final Motif, The Tyger), the grotesque dances of industrial music (The Arousing), and certain aestheticized jazz-rock (Bridge Underwater). The sound of the three keyboards (Miller’s “treated” piano, Erik Lindgren’s electronics, and Rick Scott’s organ) was more percussive than melodic, giving the music a barbaric, tribal pulse, with peaks of frenzied bacchanalia à la Branca in Fundamental (but with keyboards instead of guitars).

The EP Beat Of The Mesozoic (Ace Of Hearts, 1985) offered five more chameleonic instrumentals, notably the harrowing title track (seared by the leader’s incandescent guitar, driven by a pounding electronic rhythm, dizzying with African tribalism, and ripped apart by treacherous keyboard dissonances), the romantic sonata Waterwheel, and the classically-styled rondo Excavation. Meanwhile, the album Faultline, following Miller’s departure, would expand its sources of inspiration to include new age and free jazz.

Birdsongs owed much to the keyboard sounds of jazz and classical musicians, via Carla Bley and Karlheinz Stockhausen. Bastard children of minimalism, fertilized by psychedelic distortions and free jazz improvisation, they arrived at a rawly cacophonous instrumental genre. At the same time, their work marked the rebirth of progressive rock, now matured through the assimilation of new avant-garde and jazz vocabularies, as well as a greater mastery of electronic instruments.

In 1985, Miller once again showed signs of restlessness and began a solo career. Lindgren, who had just completed the score for a film, collected along with other suites on Soundtracks (Arf Arf, 1987), took two years to reassemble a lineup. In place of Miller, two wind players joined, including saxophonist Ken Field. Only in 1993 were the tracks recorded in 1986 and 1987 released on Fossil Record (Cuneiform), including the overwhelming and chaotic Laramide Revolution, Carbon 14, which “deconstructs” the melody into glissandi and clusters, Lqabblil Insanya, a piano sonata for grotesque timbres (all by Miller), and Biff The Brontosaurus (by Lindgren), a variation on a circus theme. The most ambitious of the unreleased works is the monumental soundtrack To A Random, their most fragmented, conceptual, and ambitious composition.

Faultline (Ace Of Hearts, 1989), again credited to Birdsongs, is Lindgren’s most mature work: a relentless sonic assault, a fantasia of styles and themes that can only be compared to Soft Machine’s third album. The overture, The True Wheelbase, is composed in the style of 1970s classical jazz-rock, simply updating the harmonic structures with minimalism, but retaining the same penchant for grotesque fanfares, lyrical melodies, driving rhythms, and sunny saxophone solos; it is unsurprising that the title track also features “Zappa-like” nuances, since Zappa was, after all, the originator of this “total” instrumental genre for mini-rock orchestra. The major innovation compared to previous records is the wind section: Steve Adams and Ken Field on saxophones often form the backbone of the sound, as in Coco Boudakian, with a style that is indefinable, on the border between the “fat” sound of rhythm and blues and the intellectuality of bebop, between exotica and circus music, culminating in the tempestuous dances of There Is No One, like an industrial and heavy-metal version of the pantagruelian suites of the Art Ensemble Of Chicago.
The cohesion of this quintet is sensational: it can launch into breakneck minimalist raids like I Don’t Need No Crystal Ball (by Adams), tackle a glacial and sinister “industrial” dance full of metallic cadences and electronic effects like They Walk Among Us (by Swope), indulge in the dissonant fantasia of Slo-Boy, which is nevertheless so well-structured it feels like a new age piece, balance between classical chamber music and free jazz in Maybe I Will (Scott), and reveal a tender, romantic side in On The Street Where You Live (Swope).
Whatever the idea, the execution is always peppered with irregular episodes, harmonic inventions, and alternative sound lines, but never at the expense of overall fluidity. Every minute of the work contains surprises and should be savored slowly, even though the exuberant, avalanche-like progression of sonic events tends to overwhelm the listener. In terms of both quantity and quality of ideas, the album is a tour de force of impressive proportions and ranks among the greatest instrumental rock records ever.

The long period of silence had raised fears that the group had disappeared, but the progressive-rock revival of the 1990s unexpectedly brought Birdsongs back into the spotlight, giving them the opportunity to record Pyroclastics (Cuneiform, 1992). The album further shifts the center of gravity of the sound toward progressive rock, particularly in the style of early Roxy Music, with Lindgren acting as Brian Eno (notably in the jazz variations on the theme of Tomorrow Never Knows in Tomorrow Never Came) and saxophonist Ken Field as Andy Mackay (responsible for the heavy-metal bossa nova Why Not Circulate). Shortly afterward, however, Swope retired from the scene and was replaced by guitarist Michael Bierylo.

Dancing On A'A (Cuneiform, 1995) is the first Birdsongs album without Martin Swope, the last original member remaining alongside Erik Lindgren. The new four-piece lineup (Lindgren on keyboards, saxophonist Ken Field, guitarist Michael Bierylo, and percussionist Rick Scott) has the merit of achieving a seamless, rounded, clear, and aristocratic balance. The well-lubricated rapport among the musicians allows them to make any harmonic feat flow smoothly, in a middle-ground style that no longer seeks dissonant adventures but focuses on consolidating itself.
The newcomer, Bierylo, seems to have brought a playful verve as well as a swinging impetus, which often overshadows the experimental inclinations: A Band Of Deborahs is elegant, ironic, and romantic Canterbury-style jazz-rock (particularly reminiscent of Caravan), filtered through the exuberant, rocambolesque, and pan-stylistic symphonism of Frank Zappa and Field’s urbanly neurotic saxophone; Birdgam recalls the exuberant themes of Zappa’s Burnt Weeny Sandwich, with the synthesizer always quick to double the lively and playful saxophone motifs, despite Scott’s sophisticated stick work.
Lindgren is much more restrained in his experimental pieces: the title track draws inspiration from early 20th-century classical music, from the tumultuous symphonies of composers like Charles Ives, translating the city’s images and noises in frenetic motion into sound; Ptinct luxuriates in an atmosphere of suspense and mystery, punctuated by saxophone laments and the piano’s menacing figures, worthy of a western soundtrack. His specialty remains pieces that flirt with minimalism, such as the blend of bolero, music box, and romantic sonata that is Sirius The Scorching.

Through all its transformations, Lindgren has established himself as a leading figure in the universe of the new “progressive.” Not only has he been able to reclaim the most creative aspects of that genre, but he has surpassed them by introducing approaches and techniques from avant-garde music into rock.

Saxophonist Ken Field has a busy career of his own that took off with Subterranea (OO, 1997), a solo saxophone album recorded in an underground cavern.

It was followed by Tokyo in F (sFz, 2000), a live improvisation with three Japanese musicians (violin, guitar and piano) and Pictures of Motion (sFz, 2000), that features compositions for alto saxophone trio and quartet with guest musicians including Seattle saxophonists Amy Denio and Jessica Lurie, percussionist Will Dowd, drummers Ethan Meyer and Eric Paull, and bassists Mike Rivard and John Styklunas. His style has progressed towards a creative blend of ambient, hip hop, minimalism, swing, acid-jazz and world-music

Erik Lindgren, who premiered his concerto Rude Awakening in march 1999, has released two collections of his austere chamber music. The acoustic chamber pieces of Scores (SFZ, 2000) nod to British minimalist Michael Nyman and ambient guru Brian Eno. Stimuli (SFZ, 2000) is a pretentious collaboration with electronic musician Lauri Des Marais.

The Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic's first album in five years, Petrophonics (Cuneiform, 2000), is performed by the unchanged quartet of Lindgren, Field, Bierylo and Scott. Scott is now second keyboard, having surrendered all drumming duties to a trio of outside musicians. However, Field's horn arrangements are so creative and (loudly) upfront that the music is far from being keyboard-driven. Often, keyboards establish merely a geometric pattern, that sets the abstract tone for the piece but hardly interferes with the horns' emotional outbursts. It is the saxophone that colors the landscape and creates movement. Keyboards do indulge in erudite techniques, mostly derived from contemporary classical music but also from jazz. While their experiments with dissonance and minimalism demonstrate the musicians' prowess (Nevergreen is a loose group improvisation that features Hendrix-style glissandoes and Zappa-style fanfares as well as discordant counterpoint and concludes with a saxophone merry-go-round in the manner of early Anthony Braxton), it is the keyboards' brisk, forceful, hard-rock edge that constitutes the most intriguing trait of the album. That is not to say that the music is too demanding or impenetrable. Quite the contrary. The album opens with the joyful ouverture of Petrophonics, introducing a wildly percussive keyboard style that permeates the whole work, a driving, heavy-handed, minimalistic patterns of the keyboards that contrasts with the warm and epic melodies of the saxophone. Field's moments of glory come with the exuberant paean of One Hundred Cycles, possibly influenced by Gato Barbieri's latin jazz, and with the romantic and impressionistic vignette of Allswell That Endswell In Roswell. This is music of great maturity and depth.
The album also includes two suites composed by Lindgren, 1001 Real Apes and The Insidious Revenge Of Ulma Thule. The former displays his skills at merging classical, rock, jazz, and minimalistic traditions in a coherent and smooth continuum. Again, what stands out is his fierce, rhythmic approach to the keyboards. The latter leans towards abstract chamber music.

The Iridium Controversy (Cuneiform, 2003), performed by the same quartet of Petrophonics (Lindgren, Field, Bierylo, Scott), delivers a few more Lindgren masterworks, whether the atmospheric, mesmerizing polyphony of Primordial Sludge or the Frank Zappa-esque circus music of True Iridium - After or the menacing, percussive Lost In The B Zone. Bierylo contributes the Michael Nyman-esque minimalist dances of Make the Camera Dance and the Canterbury-ian jam of Sherpas On Parade, proving that he has the credentials to stand up to his senior colleagues.

Ken Field's Revolutionary Snake Ensemble plays New Orleans-style brass-driven funk-jazz music on Year of the Snake (Innova, 2003) Forked Tongue (Cuneiform, 2008), mostly devoted to traditionals, I Want That Sound! (Innova, 2016) and Serpentine (Cuneiform, 2025).

The Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic released Extreme Spirituals (Cuneiform, 2006), a collaboration with Oral Moses, their first album with vocals and entirely devoted to traditional music.

The double-disc Dawn of the Cycads (Cuneiform, 2008) collects the EPs Birdsongs Of The Mesozoic (1983) and Beat Of The Mesozoic (1985) and the album Magnetic Flip (1984) as well as 45 minutes of unreleased material.