Nightmare Fuel / Henry Cow

• From the 2009 and 2019 boxed sets, the two volumes of Trondheim, a recording of an entire live performance from Norway in May 1976, when the band was temporarily reduced to a quartet, bassist John Greaves having left and singer Dagmar Krause being too ill to tour. The band decided to improvise their entire set except for the last track, and to play in complete darkness, and to accompany themselves with tapes that they'd prepared beforehand and could fade in and out as they wished. The result is 110 minutes of improvisation, weird voices coming in and out, guitar noise, percussion, shrieks from the woodwinds and snatches of melody interrupted by unearthly noises. It's deeply unnerving.
  • Norwegian musicologist Trond Einar Garmo, author of a book-length study of the band’s music, only saw them live once, and it was this very gig: he called it "my most confusing concert experience ever."