Kalacakra
Kalacakra - Crawling To Lhasa (1972)
Kalacakra - Crawling To Lhasa (1972)
Artist: Kalacakra
Album: Crawling to Lhasa
Released: 1972/2001
Label: Garden Of Delights - CD 053
Genre: Psychedelic, Acid-Folk, Krautrock
Lineup:
Heinz Martin - Electric Guitar, Keyboards, Flute, Vibraphone, Shawm, Cello, Violin
Claus Rauschenbach - Guitars, Vocals, Congas, Percussion, Harmonica
Progarchives: A very odd band formed by the duo Claus Rauschenbach ("guitars, kongas, percussions, vocals, harmonica, slentem") and Heinz Martin ("electr. guitars, flute, piano, vibraphon, schalmi, cello, violin, synthesizer"). The band released only one album in its all career. The name KALACAKRA refers to one of the main Tantric deities of Vajrayâna Buddhism which means "wheel of time". Their sound can be called as "mantric" acid folk. Thus the compositions have a heavily eastern influence (near to "raga" rock experiences) with a lot of flute, sitar and percussions. This meditative musical background provides a few musical interludes quite charming and dreamy. The general mood of the album is dominated by solid blues guitar sections accompanied by stoned, depressive vocals (in German) and many freak out, psychedelic rock sequences. The atmosphere of Kalacakra's musical universe is rather mysterious, sinister with a few humorous accents. Consequently it is an other acid trip from the early German underground, a good mixture of prog / psych and folk ingredients. - By Philippe Blache
Cosmic Dreams At Play: If you love deranged acid folk-rock, look no further! Kalacakra certainly made one of the weirdest excursions into disjointed Eastern psychedelia on Crawling To Lhasa. This is what Incredible String Band would have sounded alike if Mike Heron and Robin Williamson suddenly became ten times more insane! Kalacakra were also a duo. Their album is recommended if you got a strong sense of humour and wish to know more about such topics as Die Schwarze Pest and all the persons named Jaceline! Naturally, this album was a private pressing...
The Crack In The Cosmic Egg: Quite offbeat and unique for a German band, Kalacakra were an obscure duo, of whom we know nothing historically, making only the one self-produced album. Their music combined various folk and Eastern influences, slightly hinting at the Third Ear Band and Popol Vuh, but closest to Clark-Hutchinson on their album A=MH⊃2;. Kalakacra's blend of mantras, blues, folk and stoned psychedelia, gained CRAWLING TO LHASA a well deserved curiosity value, yet they were an altogether more eclectic and strange band than any of their possible mentors.
Crawling to Lhasa Garden Of Delights CD Linear Notes: KALACAKRA (the "c" is to be pronounced "tch", like in "stitch") is Tibetan and means "Wheel of time", a name two friends from Duisburg in western Germany, who shared a flat in the borough of Hochfeld for one year, adopted for their musical venture, the first of its kind for Claus Rauschenbach (guitar, congas and other types of percussion, mouth-organ and vocals). Heinz Martin (electric guitar, flute, shawm, violin, violoncello, piano, vibraphone and synthesizer), who is 51 years old today, had already gained a lot of stage experience by playing with Below Three, a band in the style of Jimi Hendrix and Vanilla Fudge, who played support for The Move and others. He had also helped the Norwegian band Beatniks, who were later to be known under the name of Titanic, as guitarist in France for a month and played with Bill Brown, who joined Eiliff later on. At the time, he ran a shop of musical instruments and Indian antiques. Kalacakra was his brainchild, and he was the leader and musical head of the band. His strong inclination towards the Orient, the Far East and especially Tibet influenced his entire musical creativity. Today, he very much regrests never having been to this rough and austere country in the Himalayans, wnicn is now overrun ana oppressed by the Chinese, who have made it their objective to their objective to destroy the works of art and lifestyle of the people in order to take away their spirit of survival, ay nuw, since this inhuman work of destruction has almost been completed and hardly anything of what once used to be purely Tibetan is left. Back to Kalacakra: After a couple of demo sessions in their loft, during which the photos included in this booklet were made, they went into the Willy Neubauer Studio in Dusseldorf in 1972, where Dom had recorded their "Edge of Time" the very same year. On an eight-track equipment, they recorded the LP "Crawling to Lhasa" (ST-K 2000), which they released themselves, manufactured by Pallas of Diepholz, with a circulation of 1000 copies. The year of publication, 1972, has been backed up by convincing evidence so that sources mentioning the years 1971, 1974 and 1977 are all wrong. By the way: Lhasa is the capital city of Tibet. Heinz Martin wrote the music and Claus Rauschenbach contributed the lyrics. The above order number is to be found only on the final groove, which means that K-ST 2000, a number quoted in all books, is wrong. It seems as if everybody had adopted this mistake because of Achim Groh's rather faulty publication "Aus deutschen Landen" (Mannheim 1992), a phenomenon quite frequent even in scientific works. "ST" apparently stands for stereo, "K" for Kalacakra. The cover was not folded and glued together but consisted only of a rectangular piece of rippled cardboard, folded in the middle, similar to the first Emtidi-LP and to old Swedish 7" singles, which means that the disc would have fallen out without its transparent inside cover. Front and back of the cover feature the same black design against a white background, with the title and the name of the band only appearing on the front. The design, a Mandala, also representing the Tibetan wheel of time, is the work of an American friend of theirs. The right-hand part of the inside is purely white whereas some details on the record and the line-up are mentioned on the left. The label itself is white with black letters. The "Slentem", a musical instrument featured on the cover, does not exist; it is just a little joke made by our two musicians. Lovers of psychedelic music will particularly appreciate the first track, "Nearby Shiras", with its gloomy, secretive atmosphere. Many centuries ago, the Plague raged in this central Persian town, and that is the theme of this track. The impressive third piece, "Raga no. 11", is probably the best whereas "Tante Olga" seems to be somewhat odd as many listeners will find it too bluesy. Arapaho, by the way, is an American Indian name. This LP did not sell well; years later, a Duisburg shop disposed of piles of it for 3 deutschmarks. Although many enquiries have been made to this shop, they turned out to be futile. The main reason for this lack of demand was that the band was basically unknown since they had very few gigs, one of them as support for the Duisburg band Broselmaschine. The band themselves made a mess of their greatest opportunity to achieve a breakthrough: The Dusseldorf Academy of Art had become interested in Kalacakra and invited them to take part in an exhibition tour of London, Buenos Aires and Dusseldorf. They were supposed to play ten gigs in each town for 150 deutschmarks (US$70) a head per gig, but Claus Rauschenbach preferred to take a holiday on the island of Ibiza, which meant the end of their flat-sharing and the end of Kalacakra. When, in the course of time, record collectors realized what a psychedelic jewel there was to discover, the price of the LP surged to reach between 500 to 1000 deutschmarks (US$200 to US$400), depending on the state it is in. In his recommendable book "1001 record collector dreams" (Vienna 1997), Hans Pokora gives it three "units", corresponding to a price of between 350 and 650 deutschmarks (US$150 to US$300), an estimate which, even in his own opinion, has meanwhile increased to 750 or 800 deutschmarks (US$350). It is therefore obvious that a new production would not be a bad idea, especially since several vinyl counterfiets have meanwhile appeared on the market. The first of these illegal counterfeits was released in former Czechoslovakia in 1987 together with a lot of other bootlegs of collectors' items, mostly distributed by a dealer from Vienna. It differs from the original in so far as the cover is now folded and ] together, as has been the standard for some decades. Front picture and letter types also reflect the original, but the back cover shows the picture and details on the record of the original inside cover. The background colour of the label is the original white in part of the circulation, orange in other copies, with the letters always in black. Only the first 250 LPs had hand-written numbers in blue ink (not even water-resistant) on the front cover, the rest was unnumbered. Again, the order number (KALACAKRA HP) is to be found only on the last groove. The latest counterfeit so far appeared in 1999 (LHA 128), probably in Spain. The white background of the front cover was now replaced by a tasteless and obtrusive blue/violet (see reprint on page 12), with the back cover showing the same design as the first counterfeit, but was so badly produced that all shades of grey had disappeared. It looks as if they did not have access to the original LP. The same applies to the sound quality: Track 1 on side B has a short gap which the original does not have. Should there be further illegal repressings, the musicians will take legal action. In late 1993, a legitimate CD of "Crawling to Lhasa" (Lost Pipedreams LP 15 CD) was released with a circulation of 500 copies, which has long since been sold out. Even at the time, the master tapes had disappeared as Pallas does not bother to store things like that. Willy Neubauer died a long time ago, his studio does not exist anymore and even the band had no tapes left. This meant that the tracks had to be taken from the original LP and digitally processed to get rid of the crackling noises, but with insufficient technical means. Two bonus tracks, which had never before been released, reflect a very different style. They were recorded on a four-track system in Heinz Martin's home studio in August 1993. Since the contract between Kalacakra and Lost Pipedreams, who stopped operating years ago, had long since expired, nothing stood in the way of releasing this CD. This time, however, the LP was decrackled in the MSM Studio by means of the Cedar NoNoise system, the best available at the moment. This system eliminates all obnoxious groove noises digitally without changing the original sound in any noticeable way. The two bonus tracks are the same as on the Lost Pipedreams CD. After Kalacakra had ended, Heinz Martin continued playing music, appearing together with blind Moondog (who has died in the 1990s) at the Duisburg School of Pedagogy in 1975. He was also the singer on the LP "Unter einer Decke" by the German folk band Acapulco Gold (D 1983: Folksmusik 08-1353). In his Dusseldorf studio, he mainly engages in electronics and World Music and he even contemplates reviving Kalacakra, with a different line-up. Claus Rauschenbach today lives on social security in Duisburg, his home town. I Finally, as always, some comments on Kalacakra to be found in the two major publications on Krautrock: In "Cosmic dreams at play" (Glasgow 1996), the Norwegian record collector and author Dag Erik Asbjornsen writes: "If you love deranged acid folk-rock, look no further! Kalacakra certainly made one of the weirdest excursions into disjointed Eastern psychedelia on 'Crawling to Lhasa'. This is what Incredible String Band would have sounded like if Mike Heron and Robin Williamson suddenly became ten times more insane! Kalacakra were also a duo, consisting of Claus Rauschenbach and Heinz Martin. Their album is recommended if you got a strong sense of humour and wish to know more about such topics as Die Schwarze Pest (the black plague) and all the persons named Jaceline! Naturally, this album was a private pressing..." And in "The crack in the cosmic egg" (Leicester 1996) by Steven and Alan Freeman, owners of Ultima Thule record shop, we find: "Quite offbeat and unique for a German band, Kalacakra were an obscure duo, of whom we know nothing historically, making only one self-produced album. Their music combined various folk and Eastern influences, slightly hinting at the Third Ear Band and Popol Vuh, but closest to Clark-Hutchinson on their album A=MH2. Kalacakra's blend of mantras, blues, folk and stoned psychedelia gained 'Crawling to Lhasa' a well deserved curiosity value, yet they were an altogether more eclectic and strange band than any of their possible mentors." By the way, Alan Freeman considers the two bonus tracks in a private note to be "terribly botched pieces of synthesizer music from modern times". Well, listen to them and make up your own mind. Many thanks to Heinz Martin for his friendly help. – By Ubersetzung: M. Thurn (Taken From the CD Notes of Kalacakra - Crawling to Lhasa)
Babyblaue-seiten.de: Kalacakra ist eine der tantrischen Gottheiten des Vajrayâna-Buddhismus. Das Kalacakra-Mandala, das Meditionssymbol des Gottes, welches auch auf dem Cover der einzigen LP des deutschen Duos Kalacakra zu sehen ist, ist das Zeitrad, das die kosmischen Rhythmen und den Ablauf der Zeit symbolisiert. Ihre einzige LP nahmen Claus Rauschenbach und Heinz Martin anfang der 70er Jahre auf und veröffentlichten sie 1972 im Eigenverlag. Vinyl-Originale der Scheibe erreichen in Sammlerkreisen Höchstpreise, so dass das CD-Reissue von Garden Of Delights (es gab allerdings schon 1993 eine CD-Version des Albums auf dem Label Lost Pipe Dreams) für viele die erste Möglichkeit sein wird, der Musik des Duos zu lauschen. Wie man nach dem Titel dieser Scheibe, dem Coverbild und dem Namen der Band schon vermuten wird, bieten Kalacakra auf "Crawling To Lhasa" eine Musik, die man kurz als ethno-psychedelischen Krautrock bezeichnen könnte. Die beiden Protagonisten sind hier an einer ganzen Anzahl von akustischen und elektronisch verstärkten Instrumenten zu hören und erzeugen damit eine entspannt-bekiffte, folkig-meditative Atmosphäre, wie sie in den späten 60ern und frühen 70ern wohl sehr in Mode war. Vergleiche bieten sich gleich eine ganze Reihe an. Da wären einmal die dilettantischen Psychedelik-Folkalben der Incredible String Band, doch klingen Kalacakra deutlich elektrischer (zumindest teilweise) und sind doch etwas durchgeknallter unterwegs. Dann wären da die freieren Klangschöpfungen auf dem ersten Album von Älgarnas Trädgård zu nennen und die ähnlich gelagerten Exkurse der deutschen Kollegen von Limbus 3 bzw. 4. Im Vergleich zu diesen ist die Musik von Kalacakra aber wieder etwas einfacher gestrickt und weist eine etwas solidere rhythmische Basis auf. Dann wären da die britischen Acid-Folk-Bands wie Jan Dukes de Gray oder Comus. Doch geht es bei Kalacakra nicht ganz so schräg und ausgeflippt zu. Zu guter letzt kann man dann noch die ersten Scheiben von Hölderlin und Bröselmaschine aufführen. Dagegen sind Rauschenbach und Martin wieder psychedelischer und "indischer" zu Gange, obwohl z.B. das Stück "September full moon" durchaus an die Gruppe von Peter Bursch erinnert. Kalacakra schrammeln auf "Crawling To Lhasa" meist leicht abgehoben vor sich hin, rhythmisch vorangetrieben von Akustikgitarre oder Handperkussion, klanglich und solistisch ergänzt von verschiedenen Blas-, Zupf-, Klopf- und Streichinstrumenten, ab und zu auch von einem Sy
thesizer. Letzterer kommt vor allem in "Raga No. 11" zum Einsatz, in dem er für einen hypnotisch an- und absteigenenden Klangteppich sorgt. Dazu kommen noch diverse vokalen Lautäusserungen, die meist aus mehr oder weniger sinnvollen Textrezitationen - in "Nearby Shiras" gibt es z.B. verschiedenste Variationen des Textes "morgen kommt die schwarze Pest, ob sie uns am Leben lässt, feiern wir ein grosses Fest" zu hören -, aber auch aus rein "klangmalerischen" Lauten bestehen. Ob aber das kraftvolle Husten in "September full moon" zum Konzept gehört oder einfach nur "passiert" ist, ist etwas unklar. Die ersten drei Nummern sind ganz nett anzuhören, wenn man denn "Trippiges" mag. Mit dem schon erwähnten "September full moon" wird es dann aber etwas langweilig. Das Stück bietet lahmes Gitarrengeschrammel mit Flötenbegleitung, was über 10 Minuten kaum zu ertragen ist, ohne ständig ein herzhaftes Gähnen zu unterdrücken. "Arapaho's Circle Dance" und "Tante Olga" bewegen sich dann in schrägen Bluesgefilden, wobei zweiteres Stück mit ständigem Hintergrundgeschwätz unterlegt ist. Zudem versucht sich jemand an einem Captain Beefheart-Imitat. Kommen wir zum Klang der Aufnahme. Der ist nicht so furchtbar toll. Entstanden mit recht primitiven Mitteln hat das Ganze einen etwas mülligen Lo-Fi-Charme, der aber ganz gut zu solcherart Musik passt. Dazu kommt, dass das Album offenbar von einer LP gemastert wurde, was für zusätzliches leichtes Knistern und Rauschen sorgt. Die beiden Bonusnummern stammen vom Anfang der 90er und wurden von Heinz Martin in seinem Heimstudio aufgenommen. Der Sound ist hier natürlich um einiges besser, doch ist dieses Ethno-Rock-Newage-Gemisch aus Midiklängen ansonsten ziemlich belanglos.
Wer krautig-psychedelische Seltsamkeiten schätzt und auch einige der weiter oben erwähnten Vergleichsbands, der könnte an "Crawling To Lhasa" durchaus Gefallen finden. Mir selbst ist das Ganze etwas zu dilettantisch und unausgegoren. So richtig schlecht ist das Album, insbesondere die erste Hälfte, allerdings auch nicht. - By Achim Breiling
Album Reviews:
#1: KALACAKRA (the C is incidentally tsch spoken) was a Duisburger Duo which is a single album was delivered in 1972. Damals völlig unbeachtet, gewann es über die Zeit einen Ruf ein besonders obskures Kleinod aus dem Krautrockbereich zu sein. At the time, completely unnoticed, it was about the time a call is a particularly obscure gem from the Krautrock area. Und es ist. And it is. Psychedelic-Folk, durchgeknallt, schräg und mit deutschem Humor wie es auf diese Art eben nur in den seligen Kraut-Zeiten zu veröffentlichen ging. Psychedelic folk music, without a slanting and with German humor as in this way only in the blessed herb-Times declined to publish. Since there is the eerie opening track "Shiro Nearby, the over 9 minutes menacing mood builds, as achieved by the frenzy whispered, and then, at times louder made headlines" tomorrow is the black plague. This is repeated over and over, then there's also a few other lines and musically this is the acid-folk. The next piece is normal on the musical track, but lyrically totally gaga. A song about all sorts of people "Jaceline" hot (still wrong). Lied 3 heißt so und ist ein indisch angehauchter Raga. Song 3 states, and so is an inspired Indian Raga. Then comes a rather lyrical pieces, then two bluesartige pieces, "Aunt Olga" then textually totally gaga again. The musicians play and brabbeln everything possible to herself, as if she simply in the studio had started talkin. The last two pieces then, are the bonus tracks recorded in recent times and were not quite fit for the album, but I might like. Kalacakra is really showing an angle and an enriching experience for my herb collection. - By Jerry, Musikzirkus.eu:
#2: A German 70s oddity for sure, Kalacakra perform an eastern-tinged, heavily psychedelic, dreamy music. Undoubtedly, the hand percussion-based meanderings infused with instruments both strange and familiar will bear comparison to cross-ethnic groups like Ossian, Aktuala and Clivage, although, in this group, Limbus 3/4 would be the closest comparison due to the psychedelic vibe. However, Kalacakra never approach the bizarre, totally free terrain of Limbus 3 or 4, and there is always some grounding mechanism, even if it is a straight percussion and drone. Tracks like "Raga No. II" show their predilection for this Indian-flavored drone music, while on the more pastoral side is the album's longest piece "September Full Moon" which is based on a melodic, "Norwegian Woods"-like acoustic guitar vamp. Kalacakra also bring vocals into the mix, which are often bizarre interjections - even laughing and croaking. Overall, the production is pretty primitive, and musically, they never approach the sophistication of some of the comparisons mentioned earlier. But it's still fairly interesting to hear this type of musical fusion with an underground vibe. (The out of print CD reissue on Lost Pipe Dreams includes bonus tracks from a 1993 reformation.) - By Mike McLatchey,Gnosis
#3: One of the great underground kraut rock albums sure to please fans of Popul Vuh. Garden Of Delight reissue filled with unreleased material. A mega-dollar album that is actually as good as it is rare - Lasercd.com:
#4: Kalacakra were a German psych duo that played a very heady mix of percussion, flute, drones, and effects. But that short statement doesn't really aptly describe what Kalacakra sounded like. While perhaps and idealized (or romanticized) image, if you were imagine yourself stoned in the 70s, listening to two equally stoned musicians follow their muses, somehow managing to make it all work together, then you have at least a bit more info to go by. Throw into that mix the Lollipop kids from The Wizard Of Oz (equally stoned out of their minds) speaking in tongues, and to themselves, off in some hallucinogenic fantasy world ... then this is the additional element that...doesn't quite work for me. I mean, it's all part of the music and all, but... it's not the attractive element. That's just "Nearby Shiras," the first piece (misspelled on the sleeve as "Naerby Shiras"). The speaking/voicings in "Jaceline," the next track, are much more pleasing, and leads into the much more interesting core of the album, including "Raga No. 11" and the acoustic, mellow, lyrical "September Full Moon," with its gentle, warm flute tones and rich guitar. This latter track has a very intimate, live feel. If there are any drawbacks, it lasts a just a little bit too long.
Psychedelia returns with "Arapaho's Circle Dance." The 4/4 circular rhythm is both mesmerizing and very evocative of dancing. "Arapaho" is a Native American word, and the music reflects this very same heritage. The album proper closes with "Tante Olga," which takes nearly the same rhythm as "Arapaho," but speeds it up a bit, and adds vocals -- you are in the center of party (even down to what sounds like pop-tops spitting open). The vocals have a bluesy cadence. Other than some interesting guitar leads lifted from classic blues-rock (though no track in particular), this track pretty much stays in one place. Percussion comes in to change the vibe, but this only makes the track dissolve into what would result if the guests were taking up the band's instruments while the band were on a break ... only some how finding a groove towards the end. Vocally, it sounds as if Van Morrison were holding court, but not making much sense.
Two bonus tracks are included, "Vamos" ("We Go") and "Déjà Vu." which date from 1983 and were recorded by Heinz Martin in his home studio. The difference in feel is immediately evident... "Vamos" is more new agey in feel. I thought of James Reynolds's in particular (The Mind's Eye "soundtrack"), but many other synthesists come to mind as well, including early Steve Roach and Tangerine Dream (yes, that would be 80s TD). Synths, drum machines, guitars cutting across the instruments, but not in a lead role, ethnic percussion. All the right elements in the right place, but not a great deal of warmth, though it doesn't sound bad. "Déjà Vu." is more of the same, though it has more of a dark edge than does "Vamos." Crawling To Lhasa is the only release that Claus Rauschenbach (guitars, congas, percussion, vocals, harmonica and "slentem") and Martin (electric guitar, flute, piano, vibraphone, schalmei, cello violin, and synthesizer) produced. Kalacakra, where the "c" is pronounced "tch" as in "stitch," means "Wheel Of Time" in Tibetian (Lhasa is the capital of Tibet). It is the rhythms and patterns of the music from that region and surrounding regions, that informs the music. Sans vocals, and released today (for the first time) this would have likely been placed in the same bin as Steve Roach, Robert Rich, Vidna Obmana, etc. (to name the usual "suspects"). As it was, when originally released, this album didn't sell well. It is only in the "after market" that interest was piqued. Today, depending on the condition, a vinyl copy can fetch up to $350 USD. As you expect, because this is a carefully tended Garden Of Delights release, there are informative and extensive liner notes, which detail the duo's brief history, as well as the release history -- official and unofficial -- for the album. Taken from an LP, as the master tapes were lost, the GoD production is crystalline, as they employed the Cedar NoNoise system to clear out the clicks.
Overall, it's a very interesting archival release, mainly for the middle four tracks. If you are into German psyche and/or "third world" musics, you will find either or both tastes satified. Recommended. - By Stephanie Sollow, Progressive World
#5: The flood of compact disc reissues of obscure krautrock albums has been constant and overwhelming in recent years, but few discs are truly as cosmic and inspired as collector hype claims make them out to be. Usually an album's rarity is confused with "classic" status. But every once in a while, we get pleasantly blown away by an unexpected unknown. Kalacakra is one such album that deserves its mythical, mystical reputation (and $300 price tag on the collector's market). Reissued in 2001 (but not heard by us until more recently, due to the glut of such reissues alluded to above), Kalacakra's "Crawling To Lhasa" contains eight tracks of mantric acid-folk self-released in 1972 by the apparently drugged-out duo of Claus Rauschenbach ("guitars, kongas, percussions, vocals, harmonica, slentem") and Heinz Martin ("electr. guitars, flute, piano, vibraphon, schalmi, cello, violin, synthesizer"). Their strange, hippie sense of humor and obsession with the culture of Tibet (the name Kalacakra is the Tibetan term for "wheel of time") results in some fantastically nonsensical, eastern-influenced psychedelia (nonsensical? well, that "slentem" that Claus plays is in fact a non-existent, made-up instrument!). The album begins with the dark, hypnotic "Nearby Shiras", a song about a plague-ravaged town in olden Persia, which features some totally sinister and maniacal whispered German-language vocals, reminding us a bit even of Comus. As their crawl to Lhasa continues, Kalacakra venture into zones of lovely folk-strum and raga-rock as well, before the album wraps up with a deranged and damaged blues stumble called "Tante Olga". Oh, then there's two "bonus" tracks, recorded by Heinz in 1993, that are perhaps best ignored: electronic "world music" unfortunately lacking the mystery and insanity of his 1972 output, inoffensive but an unnecessary addition to this reissue for sure. Claus, we're told, still lives (on social security) in Kalacakra's home town of Duisburg, but does no recording. Good for him. Some folks we know (who often make music under the name Thuja) got so inspired upon hearing this disc that they determined to start their own hippie psych side project, to be called "The Ways Of God To Man", drawing upon Kalacakra as well as the similar sounds of Yahowah 13 and Maru Sankaku Shikaku and Faust's "Tapes" as influences. We'll let you know if they manage to actually record anything!
Garden of Delights did their usual thorough job with this reissue, which boasts a thick booklet full of liner notes (in German and English), reproductions of label art from the original LP *and* from bootleg versions, plus photos of Claus and Heinz looking about as weird and long-haired and hippie-ish as it's possible to get!
Albums like this make us worry about overlooking other hidden gems amid the multitude of kraut/psych/prog reissues that we're blessed/cursed with every month, so we'll do our best to try and check 'em all out, eventually...whew..." - By Musicgnome, artofthemix.org
#6: A legitimate reissue of this great spacey, psychedelic album from 1972. A duo perform, & the final result is lots of guitars, flute, electric piano and old synthesizers & percussion plus some additional instrumentation, & lots of creepy spoken recitation. This is a CLASSIC! - Waysidemusic.com
#7: One of those rarities that came from early 70's German rock presenting a psychey-hippy folk-blues laced with eastern wisdom. The Garden Of Delights label did as usual a very fine job of reissuing this under the cd format , to soothe many collectioners's curiosity . This album was counterfeited a few times and still fetched astronomical prices, due to this album's reputation.
The music developped here is certainly very worthwhile if you enjoy acoustic psychadelia lacing in folk , blues , strange eastern ranting, relatively poor recording techniques (nowadays we called this Lo-Fi), but good instrumental interplay. This album is certainly worth a few spin to any progheads, but I doubt that they will want to spin this more than a dozen time throughout their lifetime , because of the limited progressive content in this album. The musicianship is excellent but too many times the indulgent jam-like musical extrapolations will annoy very hard-to-please progheads.
The two bonus tracks are somewhat different-sounding to the rest of the album (much better produced) but remain within the psychey folk-blues spectrum of the album, adding up real value to the original album. Something rare enough to point out. Hardly essential for demanding proghead but nevertheless quite pleasant and worth hearing at least once in your lifetime. - By Sean Trane (Hugues Chantraine, Progarchives)
#8: Really gorgeous eastern psychedelic kraut (related) improv in the mood of Siloah, Parson Sound, Lamp of the Universe, Dom…Some sections contain primitive, blues damaged folk jams. The result is astonishing, highly mysterious and luminous. “Naerby Shiras” is an acoustic, repetitive, dreamy and druggy little piece, dominated by simplistic but efficient guitars motifs, some dancing flute lines and discreet narrations at the end. Really warm & acid stuff. “Jaceline” is a percussive, floating ballad within a forest ambience, accompanied by voices and words, violin contrasts and vibraphone. The “pastoral” acoustic guitar parts always prevail. “Raga no 11” features an intense, chanting like raga improvisation with rhythms and “mantra” sonorities. “September full moon” contain folkish strings and rhythms for a rather light, bucolic composition. “Arapaho's dancing dance” is bluesy like tune with circular rhythms, evasive guitar parts and kinda folky harmonica arrangements. A charming artefact with some tripped out moments! - By Philippe Blache, Progarchives
Tracklist:
1. Naerby Shiras 9:20
2. Jaceline 6:19
3. Raga No 11 5:36
4. September Full Moon 9:39
5. Arapaho's Circle Dance 2:32
6. Tante Olga 7:35
7. Vamos 6:51
8. Deja Vu 5:38