The Birds of Marsville
Friendly Rich
We Are Busy Bodies (friendlyrich.bandcamp.com/album/the-birds-of-marsville)
Richard Marsella, well-known as Friendly Rich, releases his 17th album, and his second on the indie label We are Busy Bodies here. Marsella performs solo on a custom-built mechanical street organ equipped with contrasting effects built by Henk Degraauw. Marsella is joined on some tracks by Gregory Oh (organs and piano), Nick Fraser (drums), Nichol S. Robertson (electric guitar), Ed Reifel (orchestral percussion), and Tom Richards (trombone and tuba).
Marsella presents 76 imaginary birds from the fictional town of Marsville. Each is represented by a separate musical track in varying lengths and contrasting stylistic flavours on Side A (Birds 1-39) and Side B (Birds 40-76). Side A opening Overture encompasses musical ideas which reappear throughout like waltzlike rhythms, high pitched bird squeals, fast melodic ascending lines with held notes, short fragmented fanfares, and “bird sounds.” It leads with no break to Bird One: Songwriter with more short fragmented ideas, rhythms and ascending lines. High-pitched lines in Bird Five: The Marsvillian Farm Bird. Slight jazz feel with shorter higher pitched lines and repeated basslike notes in Bird Sixteen: The Honker.
Side B’s contrasting tracks are intensely orchestrated, tonal to atonal and mostly seconds long. Percussion and drums add “noisy” colour. Closing longer Finale has snippets of ideas again, to the ending “flying away” fade.
Marsella’s detailed experimental, very soft to blasting loud, inspirational “musical bird” masterpieces incorporate such styles as vintage dancing, rock, jazz, new music and synthesizer. From fun to challenging listening, this is perfect, wacky music, tweet tweet!
