After many years of mystery, turns out Zakarrias is an alias for an obscure Austrian singer slumming in London named Bobby Haumer, and most of the material came from a former power trio known as Salt. That band featured Hawkwind's Huw Lloyd-Langton on guitar and future Steamhammer member John Lingwood on drums. After Salt fell apart, Haumer was surprisingly offered a deal with Deram, where he re-purposed the material with a makeshift band including winds player Geoff Leigh (later of Henry Cow) and Peter Robinson (Quatermass) on keyboards. There's way more to the story of course, as told in great detail with the Cherry Red CD, but in effect that's the backdrop. The album wasn't promoted, and as such it barely sold any copies, hence its incredible rarity today. The music is certainly an odd mix of folk, blues, hard rock, and progressive. Haumer's vocals really do possess a Robert Plant tone, and thus the Led Zeppelin references are credible (think LZ III). And knowing these tracks were initially written with a hard rock band in mind, the compositions do make more sense. But given all the acoustic guitars, piano, and flute, the material seems just a bit off from the presentation. And that's the charm I guess. An album I definitely enjoy and recommend, but certainly lower-tier stuff when talking 1971 progressive rock from the UK underground.
Personal collection
CD: 2010 Cherry Red
This is one of the real biggies, and originals are truly scarce, with demand extremely high. Originals usually sell for well over $1K and have sold for as much as $3,500 (within the last year). Why anyone would pay that much for a good, not great, album with a single sleeve cover that looks like Howard Stern is anyone's guess. I'm kidding of course. Certainly I understand the collecting mentality, and for those who want every UK Deram release, this album will prove to be an obstacle. I didn't hear Zakarrias myself until about a decade ago, and only via a CD-R someone sent me, as even the first Japanese CD was extinct by that time. The Cherry Red CD is the definitive version to own. From the master tapes, with a much needed history to tell (see notes below). Cherry Red is the parent of Esoteric, and the material is similar to what Esoteric would normally reissue, so not sure why it wasn't to be honest.
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