My first encounter with Tyndall's albums was at a specialty import store in Dallas known as The Record Gallery. It was the summer of 1985, and I was working as an engineering intern (see Pink Floyd Meddle entry for more on that), and as such I had some money to spend on my fast growing record collection. It was like walking into a parallel universe, where all the albums were completely different than anything I'd ever seen before. This is where I loaded up on the Pop Import reissues of Ash Ra Tempel, Popol Vuh, and others while looking at dozens of other albums that looked very intriguing. I still had a limited budget so deciding what to buy was not easy. I had no guideposts, no internet links to sample. Just pure gut instinct. And despite the beautiful cover, I was thinking this was probably going to be a bit too much "80s electronic" and not enough psychedelia and rock that I was craving. Now some 36 years later, I find it again at a record store. Of course I'll buy it.
My instincts proved correct. There's no way I would have kept this past the mid 90s LP purge. It's rudimentary electronic music made by two German dudes who possess a pretty good setup for the time. It had already been done by 1980, and would be done countless more times afterward. But for whatever reason - probably nostalgia - I'm loving this sound today. Rather than go for the side longers, Tyndall offers up 7 solid compositions in the Berlin School tradition. There are no fat Modular Moog sequences, the keyboards are more common variety than that. You can probably image the sound in your head without hearing it, but if you're like me, and you can't get enough of that distinct late 70s and early 80's electronic music, then of course Tyndall's debut Sonnenlicht would be a welcome addition. Not one to start with though.
Ownership: LP: 1980 Sky. Single sleeve with an eye catching cover. This was part of the Baltimore store pickup, and priced not much more than a thrift shop (despite being nearly perfect mint), similar to the Gandalf albums. Easy to find online, and not that expensive (though more here in the States than Europe).
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