STERNENMASKERADE

Luckily this Cosmic Circus Music cassette has been brought to daylight from the shadows of obscurity, revealing rustic but very sacral moment of contemplative musical devotion. The long gaze into the atavistic corridors has been conducted with serene piety, not straying to paths of insanity but focusing on yearning of unconscious divinity. This process reminds certainly the hallucinogenic masterpieces of Ash Ra Tempel, The Cosmic Jokers and Yatha Sihdra; I would associate the sound texture of the recording with the two first mentioned, but I felt the third group of comparison describing further the compact characteristics of the jam, along with the spiritual content I felt shining from this forty years old artifact. From contemporary retro groups I think My Brother The Wind have continued carrying forward this heritage of spiritual vintage psychedelic rock astral travelling.

The long opening sequence vibrates freely in rhythmless open space, string instruments searching beautiful harmonies with Tim Belbe's flute, and scarce atonal effect layers strengthen the presence of surreal aura. Bernd Diesner's guitar playing is very focused, deploying acid rock sound's effect portfolio with fine sense of style, and reaching via to moderation the latency of quiet moments' aether. Ulrich Masshöfer introduces his percussion presence after ten minutes of warming up of the melodic instruments, initiating the magic cauldron spout a powerful whirl mystic haze, elevating through the spirals circling around a constant basic key note towards infinity. Karl-Heinz Keffer's firm bass lines keeps this progression solid, and brings extra value to both rhythmic nuances and melodic charms for the epic sonic prayer. The twenty five minutes long groovy twist in krautrock dynamics return later to electrically charged void of slowly moving aural shapes, eventually rising for a final thrust of motioning sequences before disappearing past the horizon. I felt the semi-circular arrangement of this "sea of birth" holding simple but powerful universal characteristics of life and universe we humans observe trough senses, science and religious offsets; The forms of larger complexity arise from the void and chaos, mature to functional entities, and dissolve to the tranquility where they have appeared. Whatever should the position of consideration be, spiritual or logical, I find this configuration peaceful, serene and blessed.

I personally did not associate this psychedelic suite with the word "freak out" so much, but more with seriousness of searching deeper truths from spontaneous unconscious activity. The alluring developments in melodic rhythm-space really bend time, making the forty-five minutes pass in ecstatic rejoicing in spheres of imagination and reality-shadowing themes. Though the recording quality is not optimal, I personally have grown to like raw analogue bootleg sounds from my earlier King Crimson live conquest decade. Certainly from my own yet maturing and limited perspective I consider "Sternenmaskerade" as larger than life statement of spiritual musical expressionism.