Gunter Schickert (& related) ~ Germany

Eiszeit (1978 / 2005)

---2006

Even though the liner notes state that Eiszeit was a completed album that never was released during its day, it seems more like outtakes and random studio recordings (noting sound quality and style differences). The best tracks are the ones you would expect to involve Schickert, the echo guitar rave-ups with great soloing. But there are other songs covering industrial, rock, ambient, and even a strange vocal number. Catching an early Ash Ra Tempel vibe on two of the cuts as well. My favorite is the eight minute 'Ich Bin Ein Teil' which closes the album in monster fashion.

---10/31/23

In hearing this release again last night (for the first time since), it becomes apparent that while the album is most certainly inconsistent, it does feature a few super tracks, notably 2, 6, and the aforementioned closer 7. The album gets lost a bit in the middle, but it does demonstrate an uninhibited creativity that is a hallmark of the Krautrock genre. Speaking of said scene, this is a superb example of a group of like-minded individuals successfully creating the vibe long after Germany's underground had moved onto other realms. +1 overall.

Ownership: 2005 Cosmic Egg (CD). Historical liner notes. Acquired in 2006.

2006 (review); 10/31/23 (update)

GAM (1976 / 1986)

GAM was the group that guitarist Gunter Schickert formed after his landmark Samtvogel album from 1974. Joining him here is Axel Struck on guitars and Michael Leske on drums. The first letters of their names make up the acronym. Though the group was active throughout the late 70s, they never formally released anything in their day. It wasn't until 1986 when the budding UK research team of Alan and Steve Freeman befriended Mr. Schickert, when it was discovered that some archival tapes existed, and were worthy of release on cassette.

In effect, GAM 1976 is a rehearsal jam session, and the music is somewhat like a full band effort of Schickert's solo work. The additional guitar adds a unique call and response component, and drums are always welcome for this type of music. 'Apricot Brandy' is an extended but familiar take on Samtvogel's opening track. 'GAM Jam' is the highlight here with a killer sequence that closes off the final 3rd of the track. Clearly a fully developed composition could have emerged from this riff.

The downside of course is the rough recording quality and the lack of focus. Both of which can be forgiven since that wasn't the initial purpose. So a point-in-time Krautrock jam, that sounds a few years earlier than 1976.

Former ownership: 1986 Auricle (MC). Acquired in 1990.

1990; 2/22/19 (review)

Somnabul (1980-1994)

Obscure and uneven archival recordings from Gunter Schickert circa 1980 to 1994. On the plus side, it's worth the price of admission just to hear 'Arabische Nächte', which is Schickert at his absolute best, with fast paced sound on sound guitar, and molten psychedelic soloing layered on top. And the Middle Eastern theme gives off a big whiff of early Agitation Free (and would you believe Michael Gunther himself was involved on this project?). Also of note are the 'Dig It' segues which propel the album forward in an exciting way. Other notables are the extended version of 'In der Zeit 1' from Uberfallig, the haunting Voice of Eye styled studio manipulation of 'Sirenen', and the muddled psychedelic title track. On the down side is the brooding electronik 'Töchter der Neere' which isn't Schickert's forte at all. Also 'Monkeys' sounds like a GAM reject, whereas 'Now' is pretty dull to be honest.

Manuel Gottsching is credited with remastering. If only Achim Reichel could have been involved, then we would have had all the pioneering German sound-on-sound electric guitarists in the same room!

Ownership: 1995 Musique Intemporelle (CD). Part of the "Rainbow Collection" that also featured an archival Agitation Free album. One of the series' trademarks was the addition of a "multimedia" track at the beginning of the disc (this is what they mean by CD ROM on the cover - it is a factory pressed CD), which comes across as loud static if you don't remember to start with track 2. There are no liner notes to speak of, so the origin of these songs is hard to determine. Acquired in 1995.

1995; 9/27/15 (review)

Kinder in der Wildnis (1983)

Gunter Schickert's Kinder in der Wildnis was itself an archival release compiled between 1981 and 1983 and released on the obscure York House Tapes due to a recommendation from the Freeman Brothers (Ultima Thule / Audion). As such, the music has a variety of styles, but all based on the patented cosmic sound-on-sound guitar style that Schickert had been performing since his Samtvogel album. There's a bit more of a rock element here, with nods to the NDW sound that was dominating the German underground at the time. The rockier sound also points to his days with the GAM ensemble he had formed in the mid 70s. As usual, there are all kinds of echoed vocals, from various sources. These augment the non-stop psychedelic guitar patterns, for a truly hypnotic experience. One of Germany's most innovative artists - quite a compliment considering the fertile scene from which he came from. The CD offers two very good and relevant bonus tracks.

Ownership: 2013 Bureau B (CD). Liner notes and bonus tracks.Acquired in 2013.

12/19/13 (review)

The Schulze-Schickert Session (1975)

Two legends of 1970s electronic music came together for one "living room" session, and produced the 45 minute+ piece presented here - an album that was oft-bootlegged until the Mirumir label of Russia finally settled the score in a legal manner. For those doubters that remain, the reissue received the blessing of Klaus Schulze on his own website. And the CD features unique liners from long time biographer Klaus Muller. And while the music is not exactly Timewind meets Samtvogel, the characteristics of their individual styles remain intact. Schickert is primarily on acoustic guitar, with nylon strings it appears - played in his trademark sound-on-sound style. Klaus has his usual field day with his sequencers and synthesizer solos. And so it goes for 45 minutes, a pleasant excursion into the minds of two of Berlin's finest e-musik pioneers.

While I'm not 100% certain of this (the liners do not clarify), but it seems to me the final two pieces are Schulze solo works tacked onto the end to fill the CD - perhaps from the same time frame, sans Schickert.

Ownership: 2013 Mirumir (CD). Acquired in 2013.

6/22/13 (review)

 

Samtvogel (1974)

Gunter Schickert was one of the pioneers of the sound-on-sound guitar based electronik musik movement along with Achim Reichel (AR & Machines) and Manuel Gottsching (Ash Ra Tempel). An intense, burning, cyclical pounding of the senses, as Schickert tries to resolve the angst of the Cold War Berlin world he lives and breathes. A psychotic aural vision that is so perfectly realized.

Ownership: 

1976 Brain (LP). Acquired in 1989.

2013 Important (CD) Digipak. Acquired in 2013.

1989; 8/07/09 (review); 5/17/13 (update)

5/17/13 (new entry)

Mike's Top 30 Unreissued Titles (Part 1 of 6)

I think periodically some of us old timer collectors with fetishes for lists need to sort out various things and it seems one of our old time favorite topics is the albums left unreissued on CD to date, in fact my cohort's got a pretty nice site of his own that covers this topic in a great bit of detail. My list's going to have a great deal of crossover with Tom's, although perhaps the main difference is that mine will verge a little more in the electronic and jazz directions. I'd have probably done something like this eventually, but it's been bumped up due to some ... talk. But anyway I thought I'd list my top 30 by fives. Almost the entire list is what we at Gnosis call "12s" except for this first 5 made up of two 14s and three 13s.

1. Lightwave - Ici et Maintenant

Ici et Maintenant was sort of an underground electronic music show in France and this Lightwave cassette, originally released by Audion's Auricle label was the third of three cassettes before they were signed to Erdenklang for their first original CD, Nachtmusik, and then went on to hop labels for their career. Lightwave have always exhibited a combination of 70s tendencies and musique concret sounds and always managed to pull off a lot of really dark and sequence driven music. Perhaps of all their work, this live, approximately 80-90m cassette music, is the most Berliner/70s sounding of their work, each phase of the music sort of segueing into the next in what always sounded to me like one long suite with some very notable sequencer sections. I'd always found ordering overseas in the 90s to be somewhat treacherous so had friends in Britain mail me this cassette at the time and I think I probably got a flawed copy with some tape warble towards the end of the first side/beginning of the second side, so to say this is my #1 reissue list even with those flaws is probably saying something. I think even those who might think of Lightwave more in the musique concret direction (and in this direction the cassete Cites Analogues is probably closest from these early days) might go for this. I don't know what's holding up any of these cassette releases, the band, the original label or whoever, but they all really deserve to see digital in more than CD-R format.

2. Gunter Schickert - Samtvogel (Reissued by Important 2013)

I always think of Schickert as the third in the trilogy of German guitarists with a thing for the echo pedals including Manuel Gottsching and Achim Reichel and really only Gottsching has managed to get all of his stuff out on CD. With Reichel and Schickert we've just had a smattering of activity, and this debut release (which started as a private release and then got released on Green Brain) is perhaps what I'd call the second best echo guitar album after Manuel's classic Inventions for Electric Guitar. This album's a lot darker though with huge swathes of music that seem a lot more abstract and thus maybe a step aside from the normal connection you'd make with the hippie era. I've always loved that all three of these guys have their own personalities with the style but find it sad that Schickert's most notable groundbreaking effort is still in the vaults. And will the SPV series not be able to include this due to its initial private release? Curious and curiouser. 

3. Atila - Reviure  (Reissued by Belle Antique 2019)

The recent reissue of Intencion with a live version of Reviure really speaks volumes for the absence of the true Reviure on a digital CD and it seems we may never see it, in what I refer to as "major level oblivion." (I think there's some comments about why in the Intencion CD but I'm not near my copy). This is not only a high want for me on the unreissued list but it might be the best Spanish progressive rock album of all time, if not top 5. It's not really part of all the folk/flamenco-influenced rock of the 70s and more like a jammin' space rock masterpiece. And even though the vocals can occasionally make me wince, the music's still too good for them to overwhelm it. In some ways Spain's answer to Gong and Hawkwind, four nearly perfect tracks. Although I must say, given the vinyl quality, that I probably wouldn't suffice with more than going back to the masters, so if they're gone then we probably have the best we're going to get.

4. Ma Banlieue Flasque - st

Word was that Musea had this one in their reissue plans, but then they've always started their reissue lists earlier than everyone else with some albums seeing as much as a decade from the original mention to when they actually show up. From what I understand this is because albums like this do a pittance in the community and thus funds are needed to collect before what is virtually a labor of love is needed to release it. In fact given so many French/Belgian rarities are starting to show up in Japan now, such as the Speed Limits, Art Zoyds and Julvernes, maybe this one will finally follow. It's part of the whole rippin' delirium tradition, roughly in the vein of Zappa, Komintern, early Gong and Etron Fou, with a lot of crazy words mixed in with some thoroughly complex and highly energetic playing. Another one where I don't see what the hold up is at this point. My guess this is the least problematic of the items in this post.

5. Chris Hinze Combination - Mission Suite

The newest entry on my list and I suppose this could sink a bit after the initial excitement, this early 70s jazz rock combo really did a number on this release working those rise and fall dynamics like the pros they were, starting off quietly with loads of wondrous flute and then bringing up the energy like kundalini to peak over and over again. It just goes to show you there's still a crazy number of early 70s jazz rock albums to do, again probably part of the major label hold up. And apparently Hinze has a bunch of em.