Sing a Song Fighter and Oma333 proudly present the first ever vinyl release of "Amos and Sara Sing The Private World of Amos" the avant DIY pop masterpiece by Amos and Sara which was originally put out on tape in 1981, and features members of a bunch of iconic British post punk bands such as The Homosexuals, Tesco Bombers and Sara Goes Pop. Powered by a mix of determination and passion we tracked down Jim/Amos and he thankfully agreed to entrust this project into our happy hands. Ever since that moment we've been working hard to rise to the occasion. We asked artist, musician and A&S fan, Lotti Sollevi to recreate the tape's original back cover with her typewriter, hired Timothy Stollenwerk, the expert ears behind many of the Mississippi Records releases, to re-master the tracks and brought aboard Swedish artist Peter Larsson to bring the album's title back to life, design us a sticker and help piece it all together.
Amos and Sara were one of the twentieth century’s greatest musical polymath duos, equally adept at composing, conducting, performing and theory. Their style was similarly varied, ranging from the dense expressionism of their early one-act operas, to the vast symphonies of their maturity. Like several important composers of the period, they were opponents of bourgeois culture, with a political commitment to making ‘useful’ music (Gebrauchmusik) that was direct in its appeal, and in which they succeeded with high creative intelligence. Their standing, as seminal figures of modern music, was partly undermined by their diversity, but their reputation never really declined, and has undergone a huge reappraisal in recent years.
Amos and Sara Sing The Private World of Amos (1981) represents what was, at the time, a distinct move back towards traditional melody, but which is contradicted by discomfiting messages to a nightmare world, and depictions of struggles of personal and political power. Its various presentational structures include laments, subjugations, and expressions of the peasant’s hatred of their lords, in the context of a sometimes overwhelming multiplicity of subject themes: moral negotiation, mistrust, social class, distress, comedy, wild adventure, chemical derangement, as well as anarchic joy, and love.
The work shows great technical expertise, but it is far from being a didactic display of classical orthodoxy, as everything here is subjugated to deeply felt personal expression. There are moments of sonorous beauty, but also atonal punctuations – as well as contrapuntal moments – all of which are radical departures from the orthodoxies of then traditional forms, such as punk. The lucidity and rhythmic expression of this recording, and its remarkable themes, ensures ongoing recognition of this work as one of Amos and Sara’s finest achievements. - Neal Brown (Tesco Bombers)