Mosaic (15)

The group known as Mosaic played for a well-rooted community of close friends and a cluster of orbiting rebounders attempting to escape the Champaign-Urbana vortex in the late 1970s. There were also visitors on extended sabbatical from cohort communities and road gigs where alternative lifestylers gathered with increasing enthusiasm, seeking respite from private burdens, like tourists with straight jobs on their first day of vacation or school kids on the first day of summer. “Mosacians” were quick to adopt the stylistic flourishes of many successful and accomplished artists, but like its namesake, the most appealing feature would be in the composite not the elements. The rough edges of each stone or tile are evident, but if you step back to appreciate the setting, then a certain sound or maybe even a unifying feel or character emerges from the song forms, pop grooves, modal jams, drones, and extended contortions of compound meter and unconventional instrumentation.