Liliental - Liliental (1978/2007 Remastered Edition)
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Album: Liliental - Liliental (Remastered Edition)
Released: 1978 (2007)
Genre: Electronic Krautrock
Gnosis Rating: 8.96
Brain/Revisited Records - SPV 49862 CD
First time ever on legitimately CD from master tapes for this Brain title!
Electronic music pioneer Dieter Moebius (Cluster, Harmonia) wanted to record an album together with his musical soul-mates, Okko Bekker and Asmus Tietchens, at Conny Plank’s studio in 1976. In the event, Plank himself even participated in the recordings as a musician. Two other musicians also joined the fold: bassist Helmut Hattler and saxophonist Johannes Pappert (both from Kraan) had just finished working on an album and were happy to stay on at the studio. Suddenly, there were six musicians with six different personalities who had never worked together before. But what could easily have gone wrong turned into a great document of electronic music, which was rather atypical for its time and conveyed a certain lightness, revealing complex structures on closer inspection. - Wayside Music
A supergroup project that bought together some amazing talents, namely Dieter Moebius from Cluster, top engineer Conny Plank, Kraan musicians: Johannes Pappert and Helmut Hattler, and a couple of free radicals: Asmus Tietchens and Okko Bekker. An odd combination indeed! Dieter had worked with Okko and Asmus on the Cluster & Eno album, Conny's involvement was also logical, but the Kraan connection dates back to their previous collaborations with Cluster on the Mani Neumeier and Ax Genrich projects a couple of years earlier. Such a meeting of varied talents resulted in an extraordinarily odd cosmic album, beyond Harmonia's "Sehr Kosmische", kind of betwixt early Cluster and The Cosmic Jokers, but with a couple of very different twists added by the strange jazziness from the ex-Kraan duo and also Asmus' rummagings inside pianos! Industrial space music indeed! Full of weirdness and innovation. Dieter Moebius (ARP, guitar, percussion), Asmus Tietchens (Moog, piano), Okko Bekker (ARP, keyboards, percussion, vocals, guitar), Conny Plank (ARP, guitar, vocals), Johannes Pappert (alto sax, drums, bass, flute), Helmut Hattler (bass) - "The Crack in the Cosmic Egg"
LILIENTAL is the side project of Dieter Moebius after Cluster’s momentary break. To accompany the artist in his new musical adventure, the band includes two members of the famous jazz rock band KRAAN: Helmut Hattler (on e-bass guitar) and Johannes Pappert (on alto sax parts). The musical engineer Conny Plank who participated to the publication of many Cluster’s albums helps the band for guitar, synth, and manipulated voices parts. Their album was recorded in 1978 for the Brain records label. The tracks range from “ambient” synth experimentations fusing to rock, jazz, “exotic” elements. Liliental is more various, colourful than most of late Cluster albums from its ambient era. liliental guides the listener into a cunning, pleasant, intricate musical world with lof of "weird" experimentations, electronic patterns, loops and nice floating guitar harmonies. This recording is built as one long title. After this amazing project, Dieter Moebius and Conny Plank will record many others imaginative albums together, always putting the emphasis on “electronic”. - ProgArchives.com
Dieter Moebius side project with the prolific Conny Plank. "Liliental" is in the progression of kraut/electronic publications from Harmonia and Cluster late 70's. Consequently the music is a delicate hybridation between pure ambient synth-scapes and post-rocking arrangements. "Stresemannstrasse" delivers a beautiful, meditative little piece for minimal piano, guitar experimentations, rhythmical electronic. With long, monotonous bass lines, guitar effects and deep synth chords, "Adel" is a charming electronic experimentation that can remind some Cluster / Eno stuffs. The last minutes of synth chorus are deeply emotional, almost angelic! "Wattwurm" is a pop orientated composition in the genre of Kraftwerk, cheesy electronic textures with a discreet "exotic" vibe. "Vielharmonie" is an atmospheric psych ambient composition with floating sax parts. "Nachsaison" is an eclectic taste of proggy synth lines mixed with fantasist, melodic pop accents. A nice album but nothing essential. Highly recommended for fans of Cluster, Brian Eno and Harmonia's family tree. - Philippe Blache
In the latter half of the 1970s, Dieter Moebius was involved in two formations. He was a member of Cluster, a duo with Hans Joachim Roedelius, and of Harmonia, a trio with Roedelius and Michael Rother. Round about this time, all three embarked on their own, individual projects. Unlike his two Harmonia colleagues, Dieter Moebius concentrated on an ensemble. By the beginning of 1976, the plan was hatched for him and myself to go into Conny Plank's studio with Okko Bekker in the summer.
Plank was much more than a mere engineer and sound wizard, he also played a vital role in the musical success of the recordings. Two further musicians joined in at the drop of a hat -bass player Helmut Hauler and saxophonist Johannes Pappert (both from Kraan), who had just completed an album at Plank's studio. They were more than happy to stay on for the Liliental sessions. What started out as a threesome had suddenly become a group of six very different musical personalities who had never played together before. How could it possibly work? Moebius and company had just six days in which to record, as another band had booked the studio for the period immediately thereafter. There was no particular musical plan, nor any prepared compositions. Thus, one fine Monday morning, Liliental began from scratch. Within the space of a few hours, however, a miracle seemed to be in the making, as the musicians' varied ideas blended swiftly and sweetly into collective music, worlds away from the chaos or impasse one might have feared. A solid 12 to 14 hours per day of intense work led to six pieces of music in six days. Recording went right down to the wire, with the last track of the final piece committed to tape late on Saturday evening. The running order on the LP/CD matches the chronology of the recording sessions.
These sessions represent the entire life span of Liliental - six days in 1976. There were no plans to perform live. Somewhat surprisingly, experimentation with electronic sound devices such as synthesizers, sequencers and rhythm machines played a relatively minor role. Whilst such instruments were an integral part of the proceedings, Liliental headed into untypical, uncharted territory for German electronic music of the period. It resisted the epithets hitherto associated with the genre neither "cold" nor "spaced out", it was not meditative and most definitely neither atonal nor abstract. In fact, one could not even call it Krautrock. Its ambiguous airiness could drive a superficial listener to distraction. Yet beneath this apparent simplicity lay something much more complex, which only revealed itself when listened to again (and again). The musical angles which converged here could not be more diverse.
Dieter Moebius, a founder member of Cluster/Kluster and Harmonia, as well as the instigator of Liliental, came from the improvised electronic live circuit of the late 60s, playing an early and significant role in the emancipation of experimental sound in pop music. Helmut Hattler and Johannes Pappert had created their own brand of jazz rock with Kraan. They excelled on their instruments, they took composition to another level and they had an acute sense of pop compatibility. Okko Bekker was a professional multi- instrumentalist and film composer. Following a more disciplined methodology, he had his own studio and electronic arsenal of tricks, systematically giving form to transient ideas. The author of these notes had, at this moment in time, little concept of the wonderful world of electronic music awaiting him. Under the auspices of his mentor Okko Bekker, however, he had four years in which to study experimental sound in his studio. Then there was Conny Plank. One cannot rate his influence on the development of German experimental music too highly. Virtually all important musicians and pop groups spent time in his studio, drawing inspiration from him and his innovative approach. His endless enthusiasm also acted as a catalyst for Liliental. The entire studio was his instrument. He was the first to arrive in the morning and, at the end of the day, it was he who turned out the lights. In between, he would sometimes play electric guitar in his own, inimitable fashion.
The Liliental album only appeared two years after its inception, a fact that can, in all likelihood, be attributed primarily to the record company's bafflement as to how to market an album which did not conform to any contemporary trends. Liliental defies convention and categorization today as steadfastly as it did back then. Stylistically bisecting the space between two stools, one might say, occupying a unique place amongst the numerous solo projects of the Harmonia members. Thirty years on, Liliental still shines brightly as a beacon of difference, albeit in the context of several decades of refined listening experience. - Asmus Tietchens
1 Stresemannstraße (05:12)
2 Adel (05:50)
3 Wattwurm (04:08)
4 Vielharmonie (07:41)
5 Gebremster Schaum (08:36)
6 Nachsaison (03:02)
Moebius: Arp, Gitarre, Percussion
Asmus Tietchens: Moog, Schlagflügel
Okko Bekker: Arp, Keyboards, Percussion, Vocals, Singende Säge, Gitarre
Conny Plank: Arp, Gitarre, Vocals
Johannes Pappert: Altsaxophon, Schlagzeug, Bass, Flöte
Helmut Hattler: Bass
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