REVIEW: Tim Motzer's 1k Recordings label just released an extremely cool recombinant album titled Caravan by the collective known as Secret Voices.
It brings together Philadelphia luminaries, including Tim, Julie Slick, G. Calvin Weston, Ursula Rucker, Hprizm, Elliott Levin, Olivier Tarpaga, Chloe Marie, and Rich Brown, under the banner of exploring and meshing myriad worlds of sound.
Art rock, jazz, dub, fusion, psychedelia, ambient, and spoken word come together with a griot-inspired overlay of positivity, empowerment, and owning your life and experiences independent of what imbecilic and myopic politicians and tech bro half-wits try to ram down your throat.
There is a lot going on here. It takes a few listens for it to all coalesce in your head. But once it does, it feels seamless and interconnected.
Anil Prasad, Innerviews

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Secret Voices - Caravan (1k076)
Secret Voices is an all-star collective of Philadelphia poets and musicians that together have created an immersive concept album of songs entitled Caravan. The music was created at 1k studios in Philadelphia, in a series of sessions by the core team of guitarist/vocalist Tim Motzer, bassist Julie Slick, and drummer/trumpeter G. Calvin Weston, with vocal/poetry contributions by Ursula Rucker, Elliott Levin, Hprizm (Antipop Consortium), Olivier Tarpaga, and Chloe Marie. Throughout, the songs from Caravan take the listener on a mind-bending journey through a post-apocalyptic desert somewhere in the future, somewhere else.

Secret Voices - Caravan evokes a musical affinity not unlike some of Bill Laswell’s mix translations, the frenetic bass-infused music of Jah Wobble, Jon Hassell’s Fourth World, the Eno-Byrne experiment ‘My Life in the Bush of Ghosts’ or the stretched-out hallucinogenic improvisations of the Miles Davis '70's electric period.

The project’s sprawling palette features the album’s core trio featuring Tim Motzer’s atmospheric prepared guitar, vocals, & synths, remarkable virtuosic bass playing throughout from Julie Slick, and drummer Calvin Weston’s one-of-a-kind feel and elastic grooves. Weston is also featured throughout the album on echoplexed pocket trumpet.

“The album began in 2018,” according to producer Tim Motzer, “and was lost amongst various hard drives during COVID times. Rediscovered and as timely as ever, I felt an urgency to release this music. Caravan was made even more special by the addition of the Caravan short story which rounds out the experience.”

The poets and musicians, mostly from Philadelphia, have worked together in many live and recording scenarios over the years. Some of the artists, namely: Ursula Rucker, Tim Motzer, and Elliott Levin, were featured on Secret Voices – No Time for Silence released on 1k in 2005.

Bonus material features 'Caravan - an audio short story' inspired by the music. Written by co-producer and mix engineer Eric Bogacz, and narrated by Ursula Rucker, the story threads the feeling of the album into a journey painted with evocative prose giving the listener another point of view into the music from Caravan.

Weston, Slick, and Motzer began the recording process with a series of improvisational sessions, with the original intention of releasing an instrumental record. But that idea soon changed.

Upon hearing some of the tracks, legendary Philly poet Ursula Rucker, suggested she’d like to record on a particular piece, which became the prophetic ‘Write Your Own Refrain.’ Ursula’s urgent guidance calls on listeners to action in this spellbinding track propelled by sublime brushwork from G. Calvin Weston. The music continues long after Ursula’s resounding words linger, leaving the listener to reflect and be carried away by the mesmerizing sound and motion of this piece.

The idea to bring back the concept of Secret Voices came about after Hprizm from Antipop Consortium contributed the stirring ‘The Trance Has Ended.’ His profound words anchor the cosmic track as it continues into the kaleidoscopic foray. Deep beats, mbira-like guitar punctuations and percolating synthesizer ignite this song as the trumpet announces Hprizm’s entrance. Alongside Motzer’s funk-wah stratocaster and Westons’s stratospheric trumpet, Olivier Tarpaga’s rhythmic chanting, vocalizations, and percussion propels the tune into a dark, adventurous, cinematic middle section. Julie Slick rides her solid walking bassline into the track’s glorious finale: “The Trance Is Ending, We’re Transcending.”

Celebrated beat poet, saxophonist, flautist Elliott Levin (Cecil Taylor) appears on two memorable pieces: ‘Memorandum-able Acts of Kindness’, and ‘It’s Your Turn.’ The latter is a collaborative track with Tim Motzer about unrequited love. The lengthy closing improv features spacious trading from Levin’s flute, Weston’s trumpet, and Motzer’s guitar into the coda ‘Everybody knows the score.’ The only rocker on this set, ‘And the Moon, It Always Rises,’ brings the heat, amply sung by Tim Motzer with a full tilt power trio workout. ‘Desert People’ features African harmony vocals and percussion by Olivier Tarpaga from Burkina Faso, with gimbri intro played by Toronto bassist Rich Brown. The album is filled with a restless stylistic wandering from track to track as the journey through the desert arrives at a 'Spaceship in the Sand 'with Chloe Marie’s computer-like voice asking us ‘How can I stop time?’

It’s a spellbinding album that needs to be in your ears, hearts, and mind. Once you hear it, you'll never forget.