The 4th album from Achim Reichel's experimental phase is regarded by many to be his best work. I too had it rated highest even though, oddly enough, it was the album (of the 6 classics) I was the least familiar with. It was also the last one for me to acquire, and I discuss that below.
After absorbing the album for two straight listens, I can now say with conviction that my instincts were correct. This is the one I enjoy best. It takes the same concept as AR 3, but adds a crispness, clarity, and intensity not found there. In this way it's more like Die Grune Reise, yet it's far more psychedelic, creating hypnotic patterns similar to what Gottsching would do two years later on Inventions for Electric Guitar. As I said on AR 3, Reichel's music is something one needs to immerse themselves in, and absorb, rather than seek for melodic hook lines or to sit back and await being blown away. Reichel and his band - along with his machines, namely tape decks - have created their own musical world. One that only existed with them, and never reappeared again after 1975. Essential.
Ownership: LP: 1972 Zebra. Single sleeve. Acquired at a record store in Boise, Idaho (1998). See below for more about that encounter.
CD: 2017 BMG/Tangram. As part of the 10 CD set The Art of German Psychedelic. Here are my notes for the CD box.
Unlike the other five Reichel albums, IV had eluded me in my initial quest. AR 3 and Die Grune Reise were secured before I exited college in 1987. Echo and Erholung were both found a couple of months later, and Autovision not long after that. Though I didn't have it, I wasn't actively turning every rock over for it either (not realizing at the time how great it might be). In the fall of 1998 (still pre-ebay, at least for me), I was in a long term consulting gig at Boise State University. One evening, lacking anything else better to do (and we usually had group events, so solo nights were rare), I headed over to a record store near downtown. And there it was! Nothing else in the store of note, just AR IV for all of $5.
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