John Fahey, Requia (side A)

1968's Requia has an oddly divided personality.  Side A closely resembles Fahey's other 1968 albums: The Voice of the Turtle and The Yellow Princess.  On it, he stretches his refined and developed folk playing into more extended structures.  While his guitar playing is careful and precise in defining tempo and structure, it also shifts drastically within a track, from section to section.  Tempos drastically change, and overt melodies will alternate with more droning and vaguely raga-like sections, all within one piece.  Side B, in contrast, departs radically from any of his other work in that era.  Most of the side is filled with a four-part piece, "Requiem for Molly", which is constructed primarily with found recordings.  Tape music does not fall neatly in line with Fahey's reputation or expertise, so the results resemble neither Fahey's other work nor much else in the tape music tradition.  He does play a bit of acoustic guitar to accompany this work, but its role is more accent than foreground.  The music is unusual and original, and it captures parts of Fahey's creative personality rarely heard on record.  The cover image is a portrait, but not a close-up, and Fahey holds a guitar in it — it matches side A nicely, but feels incongruous when coupled with "Requiem for Molly".