Slartibartfast
The Singles Collection title is a bit of a joke. Unless, I'm very much mistaken, Terje Rypdal has never had any singles. True the tracks are shorter in length than the typical TR track. I do think the material offered here is his most "accessible" material, both in terms of a typical progressive fan and even a wider audience in general. It may have a bit too much of that '80's sound, which will probably put off fans of his earlier stuff. Not me, I picked it up around the time of it's release in 1988, having already been a fan of TR and really liked it. It's really nice blend of many of his influences, a bit of a departure from his previous material, but still distinctively Terje Rypdal.
Even though this is listed as a Terje Rypdal release, he actually had formed a guitar, bass, and drum trio in 1984 called The Chasers which had toured some before the keyboardist was added in 1987.
A quote from the liner notes (a very long essay) by Steve Lake: "The band premiered some of the material that would make up The Singles Collection at the Molde Jazz Festival, Terje's dissatisfaction with the state of contemporary jazz . giving the performance a confrontation air. By now the rock reference was unequivocal. Jazz people could take it or leave it. The Chasers were burning it up, having a ball, trying to cram Rypdal's bizarre chain of influence into vigorous little tunes alternately streamlined and swollen with ideas."
Unfortunately as I write this, the CD is out of print. There is an LP version apparently released just this year, so I'm hoping there will be a CD re-release in the near future and maybe those of you interested in this one will get lucky.
