*300 copies* Since their founding during the early years of the new millennium, the Italian imprint, Holidays Records, has stood at the vanguard of forward-thinking sound, building a carefully curated catalog of releases that collectively build context and conversation across numerous avenues of exploration - contemporary and historical sitting side by side - within the wider field of experimental and improvised music. In the last year or so alone, we’ve witnessed incredible LPs by Sun Ra, Walter Maioli, Henry Krutzen, Andrea Penso, Luigi Nono, and others, building on already remarkable catalog that includes releases by Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble, Jean-Yves Bosseur, James Rushford, Delivery Health, Henning Christiansen, Four Horsemen, Maria Monti, and numerous others. Hot on the heals of their recent releases of Ezio Piermattei’s “Gran trotto” and Acchiappashpirt’s “Ninulla” (which were only briefly proceeded by Luigi Nono’s “Fragmente – Stille, An Diotima” and Andrea Penso “Oh! Uomo”) they’re back with an absolute stunner: “Requiem for the Snake of Maidan”, an astounding body of archival recordings made by the German polymath - musician, composer, writer, journalist, playwright, and filmmaker - Hartmut Geerken on a stony ridge in the Hindukush mountains of Afghanistan during the 1970s, encountering the artist locked in a sprawling performance on a self-made “percussion environment”, weaving intermingling textures and polyrhythms with the sounds of the natural environment. Nothing short of an absolute revelation that’s essential for any fan of Geerken, Michael Ranta, Max Neuhaus, or Christopher Tree / Spontaneous Sound, this stunning vinyl edition of 300 copies is issued by Holidays, accompanied by a wealth of photos or the artist at work. Our minds are blown.

Hartmut Geerken (1939 – 2021) was a remarkable figure in German culture. Born in Stuttgart, before embarking upon studies of philosophy, comparative religion, and oriental disciplines, he spent a considerable number of years outside of his home country, working across various fields, researching and drafting ethnomycology texts on the historical uses and sociological impact of fungi / mushrooms, among other subjects as well as organising arts events and working as a musician, composer, writer, journalist, playwright, and filmmaker, while living for extended periods in Turkey, Cairo, Kabul, and Athens, and made significant contributions as a concrete poet.

While Geerken remains relatively obscure to most audiences, as is often the case with true visionaries who forge their own path across the globe rather than staying home to cultivate careers and legacies, a cursory glance at his discography, which features extensive collaborations with Sun Ra, John Tchicai, Michael Ranta, The Art Ensemble of Chicago, The Cairo Free Jazz Ensemble, The Cairo Jazz Band, Famoudou Don Moye, and numerous others. However, with the exception of a small handful of releases (including Holidays’ first ever pressing of the artist’s “Orpheus” in 2016) very little is available to the public ear of Geerken’s solo efforts. “Requiem for the Snake of Maidan” takes great lengths toward filling in some of the gaps and illuminating what a truly singular artist he was.

“Requiem for the Snake of Maidan” is the byproduct of a film for German TV that was made about Geerken while he was living in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the 1970s. Many years later, the artists recalled the work’s becoming: «In order to find a venue for my music that is typical for Afghanistan, it was agreed that my “percussion environment”, a tubular cube of 2x2x2 meters including the associated instruments, would be transported on a barren, stony ridge in the Hindukusch mountains… While a couple of men dragged the frame pipes and the instruments up the hill, I decided to carry my large wuhan gong (100cm diameter) up the mountain, in a kind of ritual. Michael Ranta sent me this gong from wuhan/china to Kabul. With slow and careful steps, carrying the heavy gong like an umbrella on my head, I walked over the difficult rocky terrain without a path up. Suddenly a snake about two meters long came out of the rocks towards me and hissed aggressively at me. I could only take the gong off my head and put it like a shield in front of my legs. As I later discovered, it was a very venomous snake! Since I couldn’t go on or back without her attacking me, I had to bring myself to kill the beautiful animal. I managed to smash her skull with a rock that I threw at her while standing behind my gong. Finally I hung the lifeless body around my neck, put the gong back on my head and continued my way up, with a pounding heart. When the percussion environment was set up, I hung the dead snake between my instruments and spontaneously decided to name my solo performance “Requiem for the Snake of Maidan”.»

Over the course of the ensuing six hours, Geerken played his percussion arrangements (augmented by a handful of stringed instruments) continuously, letting a portable tape recorder roll, collaborating with the wind, which played his hanging metallophones, and the sounds of the natural environment that surrounded him. Holidays’ first ever release of “Requiem for the Snake of Maidan” culls an hour and half across two full-length LPs, from the original six hour performance made by Geerken on that day. Creatively open, responsive, and filled with life, over the course of the album’s four sides we encounter a truly visionary artist unfurling ideas in real time via a striking array of resonances, overtones, textures, and tonal polyrhythms, which, despite the wide open spaces they were recorded in, feel remarkable close and intimate: rattling, humming, and pulsing across a single, engrossing tapestry of sonority.

Representing a startling and unexpected counterpoint to roughly contemporaneous tonally rooted percussion works by artists like Michael Ranta, Max Neuhaus, or Christopher Tree, “Requiem for the Snake of Maidan” offers an unprecedented immersion into the creative practice of Hartmut Geerken, unveiling an artist at the forefront of the field, working in the far-flung corners of the world during the 1970s. Issued by Holidays Records as a beautiful vinyl edition of 300 copies, accompanied by a wealth of photos or the artist at work, this one’s a love affair that we’ll be returning to again and again. Impossible to recommend enough, Holidays has done it again.