The Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble - 1976 - The Neptune Collection

The Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble

1976

The Neptune Collection

01. Neptune Rising (5:31)

02. Druid Dance (3:28)

03. Euphoric Bells (2:29)

04. King's Birdcage (2:41)

05. Nature Spirits (6:14)

06. Incantation For The Death Of Self (3:41)

07. Days (4:37)

08. Space Needle Suicide (4:30)

09. Tar Box Poltergeist (4:46)

Joe Clark - E-flat and B-flat Soprano Saxophones, Acoustic Piano, Electric Keyboard and Gong

Wall Matthews - Acoustic and Electric Guitars, Electric Keyboard, Dulcimer and Temple Bells

Rusti Clark - Viola, Acoustic Guitar, Gong, Bird and Rabbit

Michael Smith - Assorted Percussion Instruments

Recorded at Silver Springs, Maryland, May 1975

An epigraph to the liner notes of The Neptune Collection, the second album by the Entourage Music and Theatre Ensemble, reads, “We are a group flexible in size and temperament. Our purpose is to create original works in a collective manner. We utilize music, dance, poetry, and theatre skills.” Plainly stated, this dictum represents the core of the dynamic, multi-medium approach the group employed in the mid-70s when the album was recorded. The music on The Neptune Collection traces through-lines between jazz, folk music, and various forms of traditional music from around the world, and is a precursor to the expansive sounds of Six Organs of Admittance, Bill Orcutt, and Sun City Girls. This is curious music, lithe and free, but endlessly listenable.

In his review of The Neptune Collection, Russell Shaw of Crawdaddy! magazine wrote, “When Michael Smith of Entourage accentuates the eerie “Druid Dance” with a series of fists, knuckles, and finger pops, he becomes the device the pacing is voiced through. All this is part and parcel of the framework in which Entourage operates; an often sinister, but more often frighteningly intricate series of compositions adaptable for dance purposes. On their own, without visual aid, the recordings are awesomely imagistic; a maelstrom of impressions..”

In New London, Rusty Clark and Matthews were sharing an apartment and working on the music that would become the group's second album, The Neptune Collection. Its most famous track, "Neptune Rising," was composed during this time. It was sampled by Kieran Hebden for Four Tet's 2003 single "She Moves She." Hebden's sample was initially uncleared, but not for lack of trying. Matthews discovered its use from Laurie Cameron, who danced with the Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble between 1976 and 1978. She'd recognized it when one of her students used Four Tet's single in a performance. The copyright settlement netted Entourage more money than any of the group's original recordings.

Joe Clark went back to Asch and Folkways in 1975. The label boss offered a budget of $300 for a second Entourage album -- The Neptune Collection. Performances by the group often included modern dancers. After the second album's release, a permanent trio of dancers, Ara Fitzgerald, Cameron, and Wendy Goldman were recruited. This version of Entourage performed across the United States. Shortly after the tour's completion, Fitzgerald left to pursue a solo career, and Martha Moore and Cindy Alper joined the group. Based on the strength of their recordings, choreographer Murray Louis commissioned Entourage to compose a score for the Royal Danish Ballet's production of a new version of Cleopatra. Entourage utilized electronics and a large variety of percussion instruments to create music that was darker and more atmospheric than anything they'd done before. In 1977, the Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble were commissioned to create a series of works commemorating the Bicentennial Highway in Nebraska. That event was made into a half-hour film for NETV called A Ceremony of Dreams with an accompanying soundtrack. While they carried on for a time afterwards, the group informally called it quits. It was officially over when Joe Clark died of pancreatic cancer in 1983. Rusty Clark was killed in an auto accident three years later. Michael Smith was also claimed by cancer in 2006, while former bassist Plumeri was murdered during a home invasion in 2016. Matthews is the lone remaining founding member of the Entourage Music & Theatre Ensemble; he is the group's historian and legacy holder. In 2018, he teamed with Josh Rosenthal's Tompkins Square label to collate a three-CD/one-LP box set entitled Entourage: Ceremony of Dreams, that presented the group's recordings outside their two Folkways albums.