SÜNDENFALL II

Is there no end to the parade of re-releases on the aptly named Garden of Delights label? I am simply in awe of all they have accomplished, for it's one thing to reissue a previously well known and worn chestnut, and quite another to scour old attics, newspaper listings, etc for ultra limited edition productions and, against all odds, orchestrate a tryst with somebody who actually holds a salvageable tape, let alone an original master. Yet time and again they find a way. Today I'm going to talk about this idealistic prog folk group SUNDENFALL II and their sole release from the halcyon days of 1972.

First of all, the band placed a premium on cooperation and equality of contribution. While the largely acoustic music is at times free ranging and improvised, the band forms a stalwart unit, best illustrated on the first of 3 "Prae" interludes and especially "Duftes Ding" with its jazzy piano and brass. While this instrumental is atypical, the same cohesiveness is apparent in even the more structured songs like the opener "Warning" that plays to their strengths with plaintive harmonica, flute and vocals, and hypnotic acoustic guitar. It's not far stylistically from some of the more reflective Alan Hull penned LINDISFARNE tunes. Sometimes, as on "How to Get on", the trip is a lot more forgettable, being little more than a setting for the mantra like chorus.

Ultimately, it's the band's predilection for fully realized opuses that reach their destination faster than a three minute egg that is most impressive. The best of these is "Suddenly Sun", powerfully sung by Kerstin Fleischhammer with male backing, and incorporating flutes in the service of a trad styled melody that TULL might have used a few years later. Another uptempo tune "Montpellier" includes fascinating facets such as a rhythm not unlike those adopted by the likes of RUPERT HINE 10 years later with the benefit of more sophisticated electronica, and sensibilities of INCREDIBLE STRING BAND and FOREST. Other low dose high potency tunes include the MOODY BLUESish "Bloody Birds" and the AMAZING BLONDEL like closer "Soldier of the North".

To answer the opening question of this review, I doubt it, and I look forward to discovering more modest jewels that capture the fragile innocence that we now believe we once had, and for which we tirelessly strive.