Don Hunerberg / Peter Gillespie - Phase Murmur LP

Label: Modern Harmonic

Release Date: January 31st, 2025

First-time reissue of this ultra rare 1974 private-press LP by American sound engineer Don Hunerberg and multi-instrumentalist Peter Gillespie.

Over top of Gillespie's nimble, pointillist drumming (he also plays piano and harpsichord), Hunerberg employs flute, organ, bass and balloon (that's not a saxophone on "Cucumber"). The disorienting opener "Cro Magnon/Two" recalls Kraftwerk precursor the Organisation or contemporaries like Faust. There's a strange, disconsolate atmosphere to the proceedings, almost as if the air had been sucked out of a recording session booked for some avant-garde jazz heavies. Instead of Impulse, Phase Murmur should have been bound for ESP-Disk. Alas, the duo were experimenting out in the relative vacuum of southwestern Ohio. Far from any bustling metropolis or curious record labels, Phase Murmur was truly a DIY affair. Not only did the duo press the LP up themselves (down the road at Cincinnati's Rite Record Productions), but the evocative and mysterious photo on the cover is by Gillespie, while the layout, with accompanying poem on the back, was assembled by Hunerberg. It was on Phase Murmur where Hunerberg first found his voice, and the rest is the sound of history, unspooling on a reel-to-reel tape machine.