George Harrison - Wonderwall Music (2014 Remaster) (2023) [Hi-Res]

The compositions on this album were written for the unreleased film "Wonderwall". The first Beatle solo album -- as well as the first Apple album -- was a minor eruption of the pent-up energies of George Harrison, who was busy composing this offbeat score to the film Wonderwall as Magical Mystery Tour raced up the charts. With the subcontinental influence now firmly in the driver's seat, the score is mostly given over to the solemn, atmospheric drones of Indian music.

Yet, as a whole, it's a fascinating if musically slender mishmash of sounds from East and West, everything casually juxtaposed or superimposed without a care in the world. Harrison himself does not appear as a player or singer; rather, he presides over the groups of Indian and British musicians, with half of the cues recorded in London, the other half in Bombay.

The Indian tracks are professionally executed selections cut into film cue-sized bites, sometimes mixed up with a rock beat, never permitted to develop much. Touches of Harrison's whimsical side can be heard in the jaunty, honky tonk, tack piano-dominated "Drilling a Home" and happy-trails lope of "Cowboy Museum," as well as a title like "Wonderwall to Be Here." Occasionally, the overt footsteps of a Beatle can be heard: "Party Secombe" is a medium-tempo rock track that should remind the connoisseur of "Flying"; "Dream Scene" has Indian vocals moving back and forth between the loudspeakers over backwards electronic loops. As this and Harrison's second experimental release, Electronic Sound, undoubtedly proved, pigeonholing this Beatle was a dangerous thing.“ (Richard S. Ginell)

George Harrison, piano, Mellotron, electric and acoustic guitars
John Barham, piano, flugelhorn, harmonium, orchestral arrangement
Colin Manley, electric and acoustic guitars, steel guitar
Tony Ashton, tack piano, organ, Mellotron, piano
Philip Rogers, bass
Roy Dyke, drums
Tommy Reilly, harmonica
Eric Clapton, electric guitar
Ringo Starr, drums
Big Jim Sullivan, bass
Peter Tork, banjo
The Fool, flutes, reed instruments
Aashish Khan, sarod
Mahapurush Misra, tabla, pakavaj
Sharad Kumar, shehnai
Hanuman Jadev, shehnai
Shambu Das, sitar
Indril Bhattacharya, sitar
Shankar Ghosh, tabla
Chandrashekhar Naringrekar, surbahar
Shivkumar Sharma, santoor
S.R. Kenkare, bansuri
Vinayak Vora, tar shehnai
Rijram Desad, harmonium, tabla tarang

Recorded from November 1967 – February 1968 at Abbey Road Studios, London; HMV Studios, Bombay Produced by George Harrison

Digitally remastered