Third Ear Band -

Third Ear Band was an English free-folk band that released the 1969–70 albums Alchemy and Third Ear Band and the 1972 soundtrack Music from Macbeth on Harvest.

Members: Glen Sweeney (percussion), Paul Minns (oboe, recorder, 1968-88), Richard Coff (violin, 1968-70, 1971), Mel Davis (cello, 1968-69), Ursula Smith (cello, 1969-70, 1988-89), Paul Buckmaster (cello, bass, 1969, 1971-72), Denim Bridges (guitar, 1970-72), Simon House (violin, 1971-73), Mick Carter (guitar, 1976-93), Allen Samuel (violin, 1988-89), Lyn Dobson (saxophone, flute, 1989-90, 1991-93), Neil Black (violin, 1989-93)

Background

Third Ear Band evolved from Giant Sun Trolley, a free music act assembled by reedist–violinist Dave Tomlin for after-hours improv sessions at the UFO Club, London’s main psychedelic haunt.

National-Balkan Ensemble

In 1968, a lineup comprised of cellist Benjamin Cartland, percussionist Glen Sweeney, oboist Paul Minns, and violinist Richard Coff recorded three songs as the National-Balkan Ensemble for one side of the multi-artist album Comedy Links and Bridges, released in 1970 on the Standard Music Library label.

1. “Cosmic Trip” (5:45)
2. “Jason’s Trip” (6:17)
3. “Devil Weed” (3:41)

Carltand cleared for People Band pipist–cellist Mel Davis.

Alchemy

Third Ear Band released their debut album, Alchemy, in June 1969 on Harvest. It features seven tracks joint-composed by Coff, Minns, and Sweeney and one (“Lark Rise”) by Dave Tomlin.

Alchemy presents eight untitled instrumental excursions rooted in modal repetition and tonal suspension, jointly composed by oboist Paul Minns, violinist Richard Coff, and percussionist Glen Sweeney, with one piece (“Lark Rise”) by guest violinist Dave Tomlin. The arrangements center on interweaving string textures—violin by Coff, cello and pipe drone by Mel Davis—threaded through Minns’ oboe and recorder, with percussive accents from Sweeney’s chimes, tabla, and hand drums. Minns and Coff exchange lead and support roles throughout, shifting harmonic tension between bowed sustain and shrill melodic outline.

Alchemy unfolds as a sequence of long-form acoustic pieces built around modal suspension, limited thematic material, and small-scale textural shifts. Much of the album unfolds at a moderate tempo with percussionist Glen Sweeney maintaining a cyclical rhythmic base over which the strings and winds—violinist Richard Coff, cellist Mel Davis, and oboist Paul Minns—layer lines of staggered length and density. “Mosaic” introduces the pattern with violin and recorder circling each other in a darting duet, gradually overwhelmed by upper-register strain and fluttering dissonance. “Ghetto Raga” sustains that tension over ten minutes, pacing its development through slow accelerations, bowed drones, and counter-inclined wind motifs that intersect without resolution.

“Stone Circle” offers a brief release with lighter pacing and more clipped phrasing, while “Egyptian Book of the Dead” narrows the tonal range into a colder, sparser register, leaning on percussive resonance and high-register string scraping that accumulates pressure without melodic relief. On “Area Three,” John Peel’s jew’s harp cuts through the ensemble’s circular motion with an intermittent twang, creating a brief shift in character before “Lark Rise” closes the album with a more structured pulse and clearer instrumental separation. The cumulative effect is both ritualistic and uneasy, driven less by harmonic progression than by slow mutation and density shifts across the ensemble.

A1. “Mosaic” (6:31)
A2. “Ghetto Raga” (10:32)
A3. “Druid One” (3:49)
A4. “Stone Circle” (3:28)

B1. “Egyptian Book of the Dead” (8:55)
B2. “Area Three” (8:33)
B3. “Dragon Lines” (5:33)
B4. “Lark Rise” (2:46)

The album was produced by Peter Jenner and engineered by Ken Scott and Peter Mew at EMI’s Abbey Road Studios. Dave Loxley supplied the mystical hand-drawn artwork and sleeve design, with photography by Ray Stevenson. BBC Radio 1 host John Peel contributes harmonica and Jew’s harp on “Area Three,” recorded during a spontaneous session with the band. “Lark Rise.” Alchemy appeared as one of the early non-rock entries on EMI’s Harvest label.

On July 5, Third Ear Band played the Hyde Park Festival, a free concert event at London’s Hyde Park with sets by Battered Ornaments, Family, King Crimson, Roy Harper, and The Rolling Stones.

In late August, Third Ear Band played the second Isle of Wight Festival, a three-day weekend event (29–31) with sets by Blodwyn Pig, Blonde on Blonde, Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band, Edgar Broughton Band, Joe Cocker, Aynsley Dunbar, Eclection, Fat Mattress, Gary Farr, Free, Gypsy, Heaven, Marsha Hunt, Marsupilami, Mighty Baby, The Moody Blues, The Nice, Pentangle, The Pretty Things, and The Who.

Third Ear Band

Third Ear Band released their self-titled second album in June 1970 on Harvest.

The album presents four extended instrumental pieces titled after the classical elements, performed by the same core lineup as Alchemy, with cellist Ursula Smith replacing Mel Davis. Oboist Paul Minns and violinist Richard Coff lead the melodic interplay, shifting prominence across sustained and sliding phrases, while Smith anchors the harmonic structure in unison or counter-motion. Glen Sweeney’s hand percussion frames the improvisational arcs without imposing fixed pulse or meter.

Each piece arises from a core pulse established by Glen Sweeney’s hand percussion, which rarely deviates in tempo but allows space for the other players—Paul Minns on oboe and recorder, Richard Coff on violin and viola, Ursula Smith on cello—to develop intersecting linear threads. “Air” opens with staggered entrances and long-toned swells, creating tension through the layering of bowed dissonance and irregular reed phrasing that dissipates before settling. “Earth” begins with pizzicato motion and accelerates into rapid interplay, its strings gradually moving from staccato jabs into slurred phrases that fold around the droning woodwinds.

“Fire” heightens the density through high-register friction and pointed counterpoint—each instrument jostling for surface space, yet never abandoning the circular momentum beneath. “Water” closes with the gentlest ascent: slow bowed intervals drift across a persistent background tone, the ensemble thinning in texture but retaining the forward pull. Across all four tracks, the band avoids resolution, instead building emotional weight through incremental variation, instrumental proximity, and carefully paced collapse.

A1. “Air” (10:30)
A2. “Earth” (9:53)

B1. “Fire” (9:19)
B2. “Water” (7:04)

Andrew King produced the album during sessions that emphasized spontaneous arrangement over fixed composition. Recorded live in studio with minimal overdubs, the material took shape through repeated takes, guided by the group’s process-oriented approach. The record appeared on EMI’s Harvest label as a continuation of the ensemble’s exploration of elemental form and acoustic ritual.

“Water” appears on the 1970 Harvest compilation Picnic – A Breath of Fresh Air, a multi-artist double album with cuts by Bakerloo, Barclay James Harvest, Deep Purple, Forest, Kevin Ayers, The Greatest Show On Earth, Michael Chapman, Pink Floyd, Quatermass, Syd Barrett, Tea & Symphony, and Pete Brown & Piblokto!

Necromancers of the Drifting West

In mid-1970, Third Ear Band recorded a soundtrack to Abelard and Helois, an animated film by Herbert Fuchs. The music remained unreleased for nearly three decades until archivists Sonic Book issued the recordings in 1997 on the CD Necromancers of the Drifting West.

The soundtrack retains the elemental acoustic chamber format established on the band’s self-titled second album, with Paul Minns (oboe), Richard Coff (violin and viola), and Ursula Smith (cello) weaving modal motifs over Glenn Sweeney’s sparse percussion. Minns and Coff alternate lead statements and harmonic grounding, shifting tension through sustained intervals and rhythmic suspension.

1. Untitled (13:42)
2. Untitled (4:39)
3. Untitled (3:21)
4. Untitled (3:18)
5. Untitled (4:12)
6. Untitled (7:42)

The band recorded the soundtrack on July 2–3, 1970, in Munich, capturing all material live to tape in sequence with Fuchs’s visual cues. No titles were assigned to the pieces, which align with narrative scenes from the film, though the film itself has not seen wide distribution. Sonic Book released the sessions from archival reels in 1997 as part of a compilation devoted to rare and unreleased Third Ear Band material.

Music From Macbeth

In 1971, Third Ear Band recorded soundtrack music for Roman Polanski’s Macbeth, a historical drama based on Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Macbeth. The soundtrack album appeared in March 1972 on Harvest.

The band adapted their acoustic ritual style to fit the film’s medieval setting, drawing from chamber instrumentation, drone forms, and atmospheric tension. Oboist Paul Minns leads the ensemble’s melodic pacing in tandem with High Tide violinist Simon House, who also plays VCS3 synth across transition cues. Paul Buckmaster adds depth through cello and electric bass guitar, intersecting with Denim Bridges’ guitar textures while Glen Sweeney provides shifting accents on hand percussion.

Music From Macbeth fractures Third Ear Band’s earlier long-form improvisations into a sequence of condensed vignettes—sixteen miniature pieces tailored to shifting scenes and moods—without sacrificing the group’s core fixation on modal tension, ritualistic pacing, and acoustic density. Several tracks, including “Overture” and “Dagger and Death,” push into harsher territory, where stuttering violin figures and bowed dissonance circle in disjointed layers against brittle percussion and drone-laced electronics. “Inverness” and “Ambush/Banquo’s Ghost” twist through rapid transitions: brief classical motifs collapse into chaos, then reassemble into curt, chant-like cadences.

“Court Dance” and “Grooms’ Dance” offer momentary symmetry through circular string phrases and martial accents, though even these feel hollowed by unease. “Fleance” emerges as the most conventionally structured piece, built on a slow acoustic guitar figure and faint recorder lines beneath a boy soprano vocal that drifts above the ensemble, offering one of the album’s few sustained moments of consonance. Elsewhere, the band distorts its chamber palette with VCS3-generated textures, jagged interjections, and broken counterpoint, forming a soundworld as episodic as the film it scores, yet darker and more fragmented than either of their previous albums. Even at its quietest, the music breathes in shallow pulses, haunted by absence and confined within its own suspended spaces.

A1. “Overture” (4:20)
A2. “The Beach” (1:54)
A3. “Lady Macbeth” (1:47)
A4. “Inverness: Macbeth’s Return/The Preparation/Fanfare/Duncan’s Arrival” (5:00)
A5. “The Banquet” (1:21)
A6. “Dagger and Death” (2:49)
A7. “At the Well/The Princes’s Escape/Coronation/Come Sealing Night” (3:03)
A8. “Court Dance” (2:28)

B1. “Fleance” (4:02)
B2. “Grooms’ Dance” (4:21)
B3. “Bear Baiting” (1:10)
B4. “Ambush/Banquo’s Ghost” (2:27)
B5. “Going to Bed/Blind Man’s Buff/Requiescant/Sere and Yellow Leaf” (3:04)
B6. “The Cauldron” (2:39)
B7. “Prophesies” (1:53)
B8. “Wicca Way” (1:24)

Sessions occurred at AIR Studios, London, with production shared between Andrew King and the band. Roger Dean painted the original cover artwork, marking a rare collaboration between his visual aesthetic and a historically themed soundtrack. Each track was shaped to match pre-edited sequences from Polanski’s cut, with instrumentation tailored to scene pacing rather than standalone composition. This soundtrack marks the only Third Ear Band release linked directly to a feature film and reflects their adaptive capacity within cinematic form.

Macbeth is a 1971 historical drama directed by Roman Polanski and co-written with Kenneth Tynan. Based on Shakespeare’s original tragedy, the film traces Macbeth’s descent from decorated war hero to paranoid tyrant after a prophecy foretells his kingship. Jon Finch plays Macbeth opposite Francesca Annis as Lady Macbeth, with Martin Shaw as Banquo. Filmed across the British Isles in harsh conditions, the production was funded by Playboy Enterprises after Polanski’s difficulty securing studio support in the wake of his wife Sharon Tate’s murder.

The story begins with Macbeth and Banquo’s victory against invading Norwegian and Irish forces. Upon encountering three witches, Macbeth learns he will become king. Urged on by his wife, he murders King Duncan and seizes the throne, but guilt and fear drive him to further violence, including the assassination of Banquo and the slaughter of Macduff’s family. Haunted by apparitions and deceived by the witches’ riddles, Macbeth faces revolt as English forces led by Malcolm and Macduff close in. In the final battle, Macduff reveals he was born by Caesarean section and kills Macbeth, crowning Malcolm king. In Polanski’s ending, Donalbain approaches the witches, suggesting the cycle of bloodshed will continue.

The Magus

In late 1972, Third Ear Band recorded a followup album to the Macbeth soundtrack but Harvest rejected the effort. In 2004, archivists Angel Air Records issued the lost album as The Magus.

The sessions marked a shift toward electric instrumentation and structured compositions, driven by guitarist Mike Marchant, who contributes both lyrics and lead lines across most tracks. Simon House expands the tonal range with VCS3 synthesizer, sitar, piano, and violin, interplaying with Paul Minns on oboe and recorder. Ron Kort introduces additional textures on percussion and “doom piano,” while Glen Sweeney maintains pulse on drums and Dave Tomlin supplies electric bass.

1. “The Key” (5:35)
2. “Cosmic Wheel” (6:24)
3. “The Hierophant” (4:38)
4. “The Magus” (8:13)
5. “New Horizon” (6:13)
6. “The Phoenix” (3:57)
7. “Kozmik Wheel” (3:49)

Ron Kort produced, engineered, mixed, and mastered the recordings at the time of their creation, but they remained shelved for more than three decades. The tapes surfaced through archival work by Angel Air Records, which released the material on CD in 2004 with new liner notes by Steve Barker and Dave Tomlin. The sessions reflect a transitional phase for the band, incorporating vocals and electric instruments in contrast to their earlier acoustic modal works. “The Phoenix” and “New Horizon” credit all five players as co-writers, while Marchant authored the remaining tracks, including the closing “Kozmik Wheel,” a shorter variation on the album’s second piece.

Discography: