The Oregon collective—comprising Ralph Towner (guitar, piano, synthesizer, trumpet), Paul McCandless (soprano sax, oboe, English horn), Glen Moore (double bass, violin, piano), and Collin Walcott (percussion, sitar, tabla)—was not formed in a vacuum. They first came together while playing in the Paul Winter Consort, a group exploring a new "earth music" that integrated global traditions.
– Written by Ralph Towner, this opening track sets the spiritual tone of the album. Towner’s shimmering 12-string guitar intertwines with McCandless’s haunting oboe lines, creating an immediate sense of vast, open spaces.
: FLAC preserves the massive shifts between Walcott’s delicate sitar plucking and the group’s rhythmic swells. Oregon Music of Another Present Era 1972 FLAC
Classical and 12-string guitars, piano, mellophone . Paul McCandless: Oboe, English horn . Glen Moore: Double bass, piano, flute . Collin Walcott: Sitar, tabla, percussion, piano . Essential Tracklist
The opening track, "North Star," establishes the album's democratic and serene atmosphere. As one review notes, when Glen Moore begins his bass solo, "it doesn’t reach for transcendence, instead his fluttering notes have a relaxed mischief to them". The up-tempo "Sail" showcases the group's more energetic side, driven by Walcott's sprinting tablas and Towner's frenetic 12-string guitar. The short, poignant "Children of God" and the meditative "The Silence of a Candle" reveal the group's ability to create profound meaning in minimalist spaces. Perhaps the most representative track is "At the Hawk’s Well," which Spectrum Culture describes as the album’s best, a piece where "the piano slowly spiraling downwards like leaves" evokes a distinct and powerful autumnal feeling. Paul McCandless: Oboe, English horn
Opening Pieces (themes and tone setting): The album opens with music that immediately establishes Oregon’s aesthetic restraint: spare motifs, modal or pedal-centered harmonies, and slow to moderate tempos that allow timbral detail to breathe. Towner’s classical-guitar-derived fingerings and delicate 12-string voicings create a harp-like shimmer; McCandless’s reed playing often supplies cantabile lines or plaintive drones that double as sustained harmonic anchors.
In the quiet space between the final pluck of the guitar and the first rattle of the tabla, you will find Oregon. You will find 1972. And you will realize that perhaps their "present era" was more advanced than our own. dull approximation. A 1972 FLAC file
Listeners will discover themes of peace, love, and social commentary, reflecting the era's cultural and artistic zeitgeist. The ensemble's music serves as a poignant reminder of the power of art to transcend time and circumstance, speaking to universal human experiences.
The album utilizes diverse instrumentation including sitar, tabla, oboe, and 12-string guitar to create "transcultural" soundscapes that bridge classical precision with jazz improvisation . Core Lineup & Instrumentation
The album consists of 14 distinct pieces that alternate between tightly structured compositions and fluid, avant-garde improvisations. Oregon - DownBeat Reviews
Music of Another Present Era was recorded at Vanguard's 23rd Street Studios in New York in 1972. Every detail in the recording is crucial, from the delicate touch on the tablas to the natural reverb of the piano and the full-bodied resonance of Moore's double bass. A lossy MP3 file would discard the high-frequency nuances that give this music its airiness and space, flattening the rich instrumental textures into a compressed, dull approximation. A 1972 FLAC file, by contrast, preserves the original dynamic range, allowing quiet passages to remain soft and detailed, and louder moments to swell with their full acoustic power.