SEARCH PARTY Montogomery Chapel -60s acid-dripped mind expansion!)DBL CD

 "The News Is You: The Sacred & Secular Music of Nick Freund (featuring the Search Party “Montgomery Chapel” (1968) and St. Pius X Seminary Choir “Each One Heard In His Own Language About the Marvels of God” (1968)

Having left Wisconsin in the late 1960s to join a burgeoning West Coast religious scene, Freund spent considerable time in Sacramento before making their way to San Francisco in 1968 to lay down this one-off with some students of his. The result is a spooky, metaphysical trip that’s equal parts God and acid-dripped mind expansion.

Laced with haunting vocals and dreamlike passages, Montgomery Chapel is psychedelic music at its most evocative, and most spiritual.

Original copies (only 600 were pressed on the custom Century label) carry substantial price tags. The recordings released by the St. Pius X Seminary Choir were made in the year or two which led up to the recording of the Search Party album. Not only did the three St. Pius X Seminary Choir records showcase the first work by Nick Freund, but they also were the first recordings of Search Party guitarist and vocalist Peter Apps. As one of the press clips regarding the Choir stated, “The choral treatment was electrified by a few phrases sung solo by Peter Apps, who is also the lead guitar. If Apps has not already formed a folk-rock group around that voice, he should. It is rich, deep, and ringing.” Luckily, Freund and Apps heeded their advice, and the Search Party was the result. But nothing could have prepared listeners for the bizarre avant-garde (in the truest sense) electronic soundscapes backed by rock instruments which open “Each One Heard In His Own Language About the Marvels of God” (1968). The album settles down into a less out-there groove after the opening, but this is still adventurous stuff. During my conversations with Nick Freund, he told me that the electric sounds on the album were the work of composer Dary John Mizelle. Mizelle studied composition and participated in the New Music Ensemble at the University of California, Davis (the first free group improvisation ensemble); there he participated in a course led by Karlheinz Stockhausen. Mizelle is also a founding member of SOURCE Music of the Avant Garde magazine.

Two-disc set includes both albums, plus bonus tracks taken from ultra-rare early albums by the St. Pius X Seminary Choir.

The 28-page booklet is packed with information, thanks to Freund, who was gracious enough to delve into his memory, scrapbook, and photo albums to help us flesh out the portrait of one of the most potent—and perhaps one of the most unlikely—psychedelic groups to ever record an album.

TRACKLIST

                        The Search Party: "Montgomery Chapel"

1-1       –The Search Party             Speak To Me          

1-2      –The Search Party             Renee Child            

1-3      –The Search Party             Melanya      

1-4      –The Search Party             When He Calls       

1-5      –The Search Party             So Many Things Have Got Me Down   

1-6      –The Search Party             You And I    

1-7      –The Search Party             All But This            

1-8      –The Search Party             Poem By George Hall      

1-9      –The Search Party             The Decidedly Short Epic Of Mr. Alvira        

1-10    –The Search Party             The News Is You    

                        Bonus Tracks

1-11     –The Search Party             Prayer For Mercy            

1-12    –The Search Party             Kyrie And Gloria

1-13    –The Search Party             Lord, Have Mercy            

1-14    –The Search Party             Bossa Nova Mass  

1-15    –The Search Party             Kyrie From "Jazz Mass"            

1-16    –The Search Party             Love One Another            

1-17    –The Search Party             They'll Know We Are Christians By Our Love        

1-18    –The Search Party             Walking Out Song            

                        St. Pius X Seminary Choir: "Each One Heard In His Own Way About The Marvels Of God"

2-1      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Pentecost Sunday, Double Alleluia       

2-2      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          I Am The Resurrection    

2-3      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Come, Children, Hear Me           

2-4      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Who Is This Man   

2-5      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Get Together          

                        Mass For The Secular City

2-6      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Introit: Sing To The Lord           

2-7      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Kyrie: Lament Of The City        

2-8      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Gloria: Joy In The City   

2-9      –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Credo: Death In The City            

2-10    –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Sanctus: Lord Of The City          

2-11    –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Agnus Dei: Lord Of The City     

                        Bonus Tracks

2-12    –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Prelude And Fugue In G Minor

2-13    –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Hail Mary   

2-14    –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Sing Of Mary         

2-15    –ST. PIUS X SEMINARY CHOIR          Steal Away