01	Maya						06:16
	02	Mountain In The Clouds						04:56
	03	Morning Lake						07:20
	04	To Be Continued						09:10
	05	This Morning						05:22
	06	Topplue, Votter & Skjerf						03:46
	07	Uncomposed Appendix						01:50

Terje Rypdal - electric guitars, flute
Miroslav Vitous - acoustic and electric bass, piano
Jack De Johnette - drums, voice

Recorded January 1981, Talent Studio, Oslo.

"Rypdal/Vitous/DeJohnette" (ECM 1125) (1979) and "To Be Continued" (ECM 1192) (1981)

Review by Jeff Gower

If you are willing to devote some "quality time" (haha) to these two recordings, preferably listened-to back-to-back, you are in for a magical experience, the rewards of which do not come readily but with repeated listenings and devoted attention. These are some of the most original and unique performances I've ever heard. Not only are the three performers (Terje Rypdal on guitar, guitar synth, and organ; Miroslav Vitous on doublebass and piano; and Jack DeJohnette on drums) virtuosic genuine originals, but somehow they managed a selfless-egoless-and-completely-musical symbiosis on these recordings that is hard to describe adequately. This music (with a few exceptions) is elusive, esoteric, atmospheric, free, and could have easily ended up sounding like a mushy glob of self-centered wanderings - but such is not the case here - total sympathy and genuine musicianship is what you find with these recordings. I am not saying that every track is a personal favorite or that I find every minute personally interesting, musically-speaking, but while these recordings took some getting used to for me, here I am 20+ years later, still hearing new things and falling under the spell of these performances.

I am combining the recordings Rypdal/Vitous/DeJohnette (recorded in June 1978, Oslo) and To Be Continued (recorded January 1981) for the reasons I mention above, as well as because these are often discussed together by most Rypdal enthusiasts, as if they were twin recordings, and rightly so, IMHO (despite their two-and-a-half-year difference in recording dates).

The first track on Rypdal/Vitous/DeJohnette is titled Sunrise and is composed by Terje. It begins with DeJohnette's tick-ticka-tick'ing of the cymbals (which I remember thinking was an ECM calling-card back then, haha!), and Terje on organ and Miroslav on overdubbed bowed-bass lines. When Terje comes in with the overdubbed guitars at 2:17 or so, it is one of my favorite moments on the CD - something about that entry is SO '70s Rypdal. Anyhow, this is a great track in the Waves mold, very melodic, with a unique mixture of ethereal soundscape of organ/guitar plus energetic drumming and bass.

The next track, Den Forste Sne (The First Snow) ranks as one of the very finest short works Terje has ever composed and recorded, in my opinion. Not only do you get this simple-yet-amazingly-beautiful melody mid-way through, but you get a most ingeniously composed intro, done by Terje on the guitar-synth with Vitous on bass. The main melody begins at just under 3 minutes with Vitous, then switching to Terje. Simply gorgeous stuff! And widely regarded as one of Terje's finest moments.
(To underscore the intrinsic power of this simple tune, let me say that I perform my own solo classical guitar interpretation of this tune all the time at my gigs, and it never fails to generate interest in Terje's music!)

The next two tracks, Will and Believer were composed by Vitous. Will starts off with Vitous' electric piano arpeggios (sounding somewhat dated now, I suppose, but still very effective to my ears) and overdubbed bowed/plucked bass. Vitous is a very interesting composer, it seems (I have never investigated his solo work, but I should!) - his melodicism and feel for space is great. DeJohnette deserves alot of praise here too - his playing is tasteful and never intrusive to the feel of the music. Of course, Terje's organ provides a milky backdrop at times, and his solo is perfect. Believer starts off with milky organ (man, they loved those phase-shifters and chorus effects back then, didn't they? haha - I did too), and in comes electric piano arpeggios, bass guitar lines (great!). These two tracks (as well as the rest of the CD, in fact) sounds like music made for mind-tripping. In other words, it is wonderful.

The final two tracks on the first album are co-composed by all three of the players. Flight is a freeform-like improvisation, very exciting. Seasons lists Rypdal as the "first author" and it does seem like a Rypdal composition. It starts with wild guitar synth and drums, then settles into a gorgeous tune a few minutes into the track, similar to Den Forste Sne. Beautiful!

Now on to the next CD, To Be Continued:

The first track, Maya, is one of the absolute best tracks in all of Terje's output, in my opinion. A sublime tonepoem of beautiful legato guitar over a lush bed of keyboard chords and Miroslav's inventive acoustic bass and DeJohnette's building drums. It just doesn't get much better than this for Rypdal fans.

The second and third tracks were composed by Vitous. Mountain In The Clouds (which I believe was a Weather Report tune?) is very much a Vitous-centered piece, with plucked acoustic bass and bowed bass overdubbed to a dynamic rhythmic backing by DeJohnette - no guitar in sight here, but it is an exciting display by Miroslav and Jack. I very much prefer Morning Lake, which is a great tune. Vitous plays piano here as well as acoustic bass on this spacious and beautiful tune, with the interesting melody handled simultaneously by Terje on guitar and Vitous on piano (reminiscent somewhat of Autumn Breeze from the After The Rain album).

The fourth track, To Be Continued, was composed by DeJohnette, and is a driving fusion-ish tune with some funky electric bass and a great rock solo by Terje and some cool chord sequences that I wonder if they weren't really written by Terje. Not to mention superb drumming by DeJohnette. While I kinda like this track, it kinda feels a bit out of place on this album, I think. A bit too 70s fusiony for my taste.

The fifth track, This Morning, was composed by all three performers. It is a rather free-form jam (in the Flight mold, of the previous album) with bowed bass, flute, drums - very interesting track.

The sixth track, Topplue, Votter & Skjerf (meaning "skihat, gloves and scarf"), has become quite a Rypdal "standard", and rightly so. Terje has composed several of these Mingus-like tunes that are more jazz-like than some of his other compositions. But he always throws in the Rypdal twists that make them all his own. Anyway, this tune, along with Maya, is my favorite on the album.

The final track, Uncomposed Appendix is a pretty free-form short 2-minute thing. It has DeJohnette on voice and someone (DeJohnette, Vitous?) on piano. Why it was included, I know not why, but there it is.

In conclusion, here are two albums that represent one of the great Rypdal combos, that of Rypdal/Vitous/DeJohnette. Like his other classic combos (Odyssey, Mikkelborg/Christensen, Chasers, etc.), R/V/D put out some incredibly unique and deeply musical recordings that are essential for any Rypdal enthusiast. I've seen video of Rypdal/Vitous/Gurtu doing some of this music and it is just as amazing live as it is on record, albeit a bit more sparse (no organ, etc.) - bottom line: these are musicians who know what music-making is all about, sans ego. Sublime stuff!!!
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