Here's an album I've owned since the CD first hit the shelves, and one I was unfamiliar with prior to that. I never knew quite what to make of it at the time. Even had it on a sale pile at one point. But times have changed...
One gets the impression that had Claus Clement Pedersen chosen the traditional path of obtaining a business degree, cutting his hair while working in corporate Europe, that he would have been your classic vice-president/CFO. Instead he takes on the Carpenter Claus image, and creates a do-it-yourselfer empire inside of Europe's most notorious hippie commune: Christiana. This background helps shape the impression of the music itself. It's a throwback to a bygone era. I would have thought something more progressive rock oriented by 1978, but Tømrerclaus (Tomrerclaus) was anything but conventional. Much of the album has the ghost of Jimi Hendrix within, and the old term "acid rock" comes to mind here. At other times, Tømrerclaus is mumbling in Danish on some sort of folk blues type number. Then there's 'Cellokarma',which is the highlight of the album for me, and one of the most interesting psychedelic tracks ever. It's basically a solo piece for cello. Jacqueline du Pré this is not. Rather the cello is fuzzed out and psychedelic to the maximum. It captures the imagination wildly and begs the question why isn't there more of that in music? Anywhere! The CD comes with no less than 8 bonus tracks, mostly in the style above (and much of it excerpted from a cassette called Snydt, released one year prior).
Overall such a unique album really - and one that has aged well for me.
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