What does Oblivion Express, Vampires Sound Incorporation, Embryo, Sincerely P.T., and Amon Duul II have in common? Roland Kovac. An otherwise ordinary library incidental music composer put together an A-list of underground jazzers to create a very haunting Krautrock album. I use the latter term carefully as the atmospheres created here belong just as much to that genre as it does to jazz rock. Brian Auger is the star here, with his trademark organ all over the recording. But he's not playing in his usual melodic fashion. And Siggi Schwab's well played fuzz guitar really cements the aura of 1972 Germany. The only diversion here would be 'Sivertime' which is a somewhat ordinary organ soul jazz piece. Kovac is credited on piano, but he doesn't appear to have been sitting in the recording sessions. But he did write all the music. While this was originally intended for TV / movie incidental background sounds, the tracks are way too developed for that and work better as a cohesive album. These are not sketches of ideas.
Ownership: CD: 2002 Garden of Delights (CD). Jewel case. Full historical liners, typical of the label. Interesting to note that GoD defended themselves for not putting both Kovac albums on one CD, saying that "serious collectors" would find that "appalling". I disagree with that assertion. Serious collectors would likely find CD reissues appalling in the first place. For me, who I consider a serious collector, a two album / one CD package would have added that much more personal value to the package. I eventually will be in a position to hold onto one or the other - likely The Master Said. But that's for another day. This CD has space for some time.
Despite having heard this CD four times prior, I had no memory of the music. It's certainly not catchy but it is pleasurable. I hadn't given it the proper focus prior.
3/31/07 (first listen); 2008; 12/14/10; 4/22/16; 11/12/24 (review / new entry)
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