Ptarmigan - Ptarmigan

Limited vinyl LP-only repressing of this 1974 album that has been rated by many as the best Folk/Progressive and/or Folk/Psych album ever made. Ptarmigan recorded the basic tracks for what would eventually become their only album in 1972. It then took the band's producer and manager, renowned flautist Paul Horn, more than a year to find a label willing to release such unusual music. Finally, in 1974, Columbia Records released Ptarmigan's album to critical acclaim, and minimal sales. The music of Ptarmigan is deep and authentic and intimate; it's reflective sounds are well suited to meditating on a landscape, an emotion, a bottle of wine, or maybe while staring at a flickering candle. Sometimes it is free-flowing and jazz-oriented; at other times it has the mystical feel of a shamanistic ceremony, fueled by Eastern-tinged harmonies. But in the end, this album is about the sea: Ptarmigan was, after all, from Vancouver Island, and the musicians were well-versed in the contradictory moods of the surrounding ocean.