Release Music Orchestra - Garuda. 1975 Germany

Release Music Orchestra is Tomorrow's Gift version 3.0 and Garuda is their second album under this moniker. By this time, the band are a well oiled machine, and they mix expert musicianship with strong melodies and complex compositions. The title track is sit-up-and-pay-attention worthy, and is a strong Canterbury styled tune similar to Hatfield and the North at their peak. When Release Music Orchestra catch a groove, the results are divine. There are 5 fully realized compositions on Garuda, and 5 "Zwischenspiel's", which translates to interludes. Each member gets a short 30 seconds to a minute to improvise. While not exactly on the same level of Yes' Fragile, I do prefer the efficiency. Of these, I thoroughly enjoyed Manfred Rurup's (keyboards) and Margit Haberland's (vocal) contributions. Overall I'd submit that Release Music Orchestra are a bit more jazzy than other German followers of the Canterbury sound such as Brainstorm and Tortilla Flat, but they would still have to be considered pioneers in the upcoming Kraut Fusion movement that was to dominate the landscape in the next few years.

Ownership: LP: 1975 Brain. The originals are on the green label, but came after the "Metronome" series. This is the version I've owned for many years. For such an important group, it's really a tragedy that all of the Release Music Orchestra's remain without a CD reissue to date. At the current time, the only CD is the archival Bremen 1978 album that Garden of Delights released in 2004. That was 14 years ago, so it would seem there is little interest to get these out.