Vita Nova. 1971 Germany

Vita Nova were an international trio based in Munich, who’s sole album was released in Austria. Featuring Eddy Marron (Dzyan) on guitar, who frequently plays with a psych edge. Also plenty of great fuzzed out Clavinet, Hammond, and pipe organ provided by Sylvester Lavay. Truly inventive rock with no real obvious comparisons. Vita Nova could be seen as the followup to Os Mundi’s psych influenced Latin Mass album.

The liner notes reveal perhaps the biggest surprise: That Lavay was behind the mid 70s disco group Silver Convention, best known for their hit 'Fly, Robin, Fly' among many others (and a group, by pure happenstance, that we just featured recently here on UMR).

CD: 1995 Penner

The above features 2 bonus tracks that were to be released as a single but never materialized, and are of the same high quality as the album proper.

Silver Convention - Save Me. 1975 Germany

One of my favorite music trivia tidbits is that the leader and founder of Silver Convention was a gentleman named Sylvester Levay. What was he doing 4 years prior? He happened to be a member of one of the more underground Krautrock bands of 1971: Vita Nova. Clearly an enlightened businessman, he traded art for jack. One cannot blame him for this...

I was all of 10 when 'Fly Robin Fly' was a hit. I was just beginning my foray into music, and of course AM radio was my entrance point. Honestly, it was one of my favorites at the time, perhaps only bested by The Bee Gees 'Nights On Broadway'. And listening to this album again, the song certainly is quite good. Repetitive yes, but still satisfying.

The liner notes on the back of the US release states more or less that Silver Convention represents a new generation of artists looking to break from what is perceived as "German" music. Whether they were referring to Faust or schlager music, I cannot say. One presumes the latter...

The music itself is a kind of classy disco, with orchestral strings raising up in constant dynamic shift as the steady disco beat carries on. The trio of gals provide the sultry sounds of the oncoming pervasion (double entendre word of the day) that was to come via the Studio 54 set. 'Save Me', however, makes one want to roller skate (note: skate) along the Santa Monica beach, hoping to meet girls that look like... well, the Silver Convention I would imagine.

The covers are of the US version, which sports different art work. The German original also contains a nude lady poster, similar to a Playboy shot. That would not happen in 1975 America, no sirree.