Moondances

Stunning reissue of the first Et Cetera album, originally released on the Global Music label. Et Cetera sported quite a lineup - Wolfgang Dauner (keyboards), Sigi Schwab (guitar, sitar, flute, etc), Eberhard Weber (bass, cello), Fred Braceful (percussion), and Roland Wittich (percussion). The music could almost be described as psychedelic jazz. Many of these members had backgrounds in free jazz/experimental music. This is a cohesive effort but their past as improv players shines through from time to time. Dauner and Schwab love to use a ring modulator and everyone seems to figure out a way to invent some freaked out noises. In fact Dauner's use of the ring modulator reminds a bit of Dave Stewart in National Health. Schwab's use of various stringed instruments brings a different dimension to jazz rock that you never hear. When was the last time you heard a fusion album with sitar, lute, tamubra, and kalimba? While this first effort doesn't hit the heights that they would attain on later albums like Rischka's Soul and Knirsch, its a pretty interesting foreshadowing of things to come. Essential!"This special limited edition contains the original Et Cetera's eponymous "silver cover" album (1980 reissue on Brain titled "Lady Blue"), originally released in 1971 on Global Records and another complete LP of recordings from the same recording session. This is an extraordinary album of weirdly trippy fusion that rides somewhere between instrumental Amon Duul II, Embryo and Dauners own earlier classic "Output". Full of ethnic (Arabic and Indian) spice with lots of the ethnic colour added by legendary guitar and sitar (et. al.) player Sigi Schwab (Embryo), oddly keyboard sounds by Wolfgang Dauner, dreamy bass patterns by Eberhard Weber and driving percussions by Fred Braceful and Roland Wittich, this is spacy, crazy, Krautrock and - a bit jazzy. Alan and Steven Freeman (The Crack In The Cosmic Egg) present this album in their "The Krautrock Top 100". Maybe the album was originally planned as a double-album because there are 4 more titles from the same recording session, which really knock you out. "Kabul" (08:56) (title-name is program) is a killer, especially because of Schwabs exploding electric guitar and Webers driving bass. "Tau Ceti" (07:15) is a wonderful dreamy delight presenting Schwabs gorgeous acoustic guitar playing. Further bonus track "Behind The Stage" (06:35) connects Schwabs special electric guitar with a band atmospheric but rhythmic fundamental play. "An Open Cans" (not an the CD-Version, for the first time ever released) is a 12:35 minute piece full of experimentation and reminds sometimes to album track "Lady Blue". This album will be a masterpiece for all time. Its unique. Remastered from the original master tapes. The sound is brilliant. Double Album comes with informative four-sided insert and a reproduction of the original album (silver cover) sleeve art. Limited edition of 1000."

After spending some time battling (and winning) a life threatening disease, Andy Latimer has reactivated Camel.  The reassembled lineup consists of Andy Latimer (guitar, flute, keys), Colin Bass (bass), Guy LeBlanc (keyboards), and Denis Clement (drums).  Latimer recently took the band on a short European tour (it will be ongoing in 2014).  I'm not sure of the motivation to re-record The Snow Goose.  Perhaps it was so he had new merch to sell on the tour.  I honestly don't know but here it is.For the most part this new version is quite faithful to the original.  There are some new bits and pieces that integrate well and won't give you pause.  Of course each of the musicians add their own signature to the production.Good to see him back up and running full blast.

New reissue of the long out of print first album from this Swedish band.  This was originally released in 1984.  Tribute made four albums - the later two finds them hooking up with Pierre Moerlen.  New Views is instrumental symphonic rock highly influenced by the the melodic side of prog. Mike Oldfield is an obvious influence as is Camel.  Layers of female voice is used as an instrument evoking the spirit of Incantations.  The real highlight is the near 22 minute title piece.  Highly recommended.

This was always a weird but charming album.  Recorded on a low rent budget in 1977, Akasha made this one and done album.  The album kicks off with a lengthy track loaded with 'tron.  The rest of the album is full on prog rock with lots of wacked out twists and turns.  It literally was recorded in the bomb shelter in the basement of a hotel so it has a real primitive sound but the music does shine through.

MY BROTHER THE WIND is an improvisational cosmic rock collective consisting of members of widely known Swedish acts Makajodama, Magnolia, Animal Daydream and most notably Anekdoten, one of the more widely recognized names in the 1990s prog rock revival.Recorded live in the studio with no overdubs during a single day in January 2013, Once There Was A Time When Time And Space Were One captures the collective's progressive soundscape qualities with incredible analogue studio production. The band utilized 6 and 12 string acoustic and electric guitars, Mellotron, flute, bass, drums, congas and more to complete the task. Expect 45 minutes of the band's most succinct material to date, recorded deep in the snowy, forested, Swedish wilderness.In 2013, MBTW expanded into an even wider fanbase, having been invited to play the mighty Roadburn Festival in Tilburg, Holland, as well as at Duna Jam in Sardinia.  At the invitation of Opeth’s Mikael Okerfeldt, guitarist Nicklas Barker returned to Roadburn to perform an improv set with Dungen guitarist Reine Fiske.Those who frequent the works of Popol Vuh, Amon Duul, Sun Ra, Träd, Gräs Och Stenar, Albert Ayler, Ash Ra Tempel, Gong, Pink Floyd and other visionary, psychedelic rock artists are advised to investigate this act. "Lush and instrumental for its duration, My Brother the Wind‘s third full-length, Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One (released by Free Electric Sound/Laser’s Edge), rolls out of the speakers much easier than its title rolls off the tongue, though both title and the work itself satisfy rhythmically. The Swedish four-piece — they now seem to be a bass-less trio with Nicklas Barker (Anekdoten) and Mathias Danielsson (Makajodama) on electric/acoustic 12-strong guitar and Daniel Fridlund Brandt on drums, but Ronny Eriksson plays bass on the album — reportedly recorded live to two-inch tape on a vintage machine, and the passion they put in bleeds readily into the nine-song/45-minute outing, fleshed with liberal splashes of Mellotron courtesy of Barker to play up a ’70s prog feel in a piece like the 12-minute “Garden of Delights.” That’s hardly the only point at which those sensibilities emerge, but even more than that, the primary vibe here is one of gorgeous heavy psych exploration, the band adventuring and feeling their way through the material as they go.On peaceful moments like the title-track, which arrives as the penultimate movement before “Epilogue” leads the way back to reality — accordingly, “Prologue” brings us in at the start — that exploration is positively serene, the 12-string complemented by spacious electric tones spreading out across vast reaches, but Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One offers more than drone and psychedelic experiments. Subtly pushed forward by Brandt‘s drums, pieces like “Into the Cosmic Halo” and even “Epilogue” enact classic space rock thrust, and even “Song of Innocence Part 1,” the first part of the journey after the backward atmospherics of “Prologue” introduce, has some cosmic feel amid its echoing solos. Its subsequent complement, “Song of Innocence Part 2,” swells to life on an even more active roll, waves of amp noise up front while drums and bass groove out behind, waiting for the guitars to catch up, which they do in a suitably glorious payoff, relatively brief but masterfully engaging, setting a momentum that continues well into “Garden of Delights,” a focal point for more than its length.Because the songs flow so well one to the next, some directly bleeding, others giving a brief pause, and because later cuts like “Thomas Mera Gartz” — named in honor of the drummer for ’70s Swedish proggers Träd, Gräs och Stenar — and the title-track have a quieter take, it’s tempting to read some narrative into the shifts of Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One, but with the material not being premeditated, I’m not sure that’s the intention so much as a signal it’s well arranged. In any case, the album offers an immersive, resonant listen, with tonal richness to spare and the presence of mind to keep a sense of motion even in its stillest parts and a balance of organic elements — Danielsson‘s recorder and Brandt‘s percussion on “Misty Mountainside,” the 12-string, etc. — amid a wash of effects and swirling psychedelia. This attention to sonic detail makes Once There was a Time When Time and Space were One more than just a collection of jams, and adds further purpose to the already worthy cause of My Brother the Wind‘s thoughtful musings, wandering and not at all lost." - The Obelisk