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TOUR DE TRANCE

Emma Myldenberger

Krautrock


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Emma Myldenberger Tour de Trance album cover
3.80 | 25 ratings | 4 reviews | 24% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 1978

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Ein Bißchen (4:00)
2. Regenreigen (19:21) :
- a) Schalamezomai
- b) Esterhazy's Eigenleben
- c) Törödekek I
- d) Fiona Dagda
- e) Törödekek II
3. Lenyas Fantasie (6:53)
4. RAA (8:24)
5. Wassensteyns Hochzeitsnacht (4:59)

Total Time 43:37

Bonus tracks on Garden of Delights reissue, recorded live at Quartier Latin, Berlin 8/4/1979:
6. RAA (6:40)
7. Ein Bißchen (4:17)
8. I Know You Rider (5:07)
9. Stromberger Siebensprung (2:03)

Line-up / Musicians

- Biber Gullatz / winds, guitars, glockenspiel
- Gaby Kinscherf / vocals, glockenspiel, percusssion
- Reines Pauker / guitars, percussion, vocals
- Michel Meyer / guitars, mandolin sitar, voices
- Anne Gosslau / banjo, voices, flute
- Topsi Tkacz / contrabass, guitar, vocals

Releases information

Private Label MINOS & STELIS 1011
Garden of Delights CD 127

Thanks to Philippe Blache for the addition
and to projeKct for the last updates
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EMMA MYLDENBERGER Tour de Trance ratings distribution


3.80
(25 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(24%)
24%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(52%)
52%
Good, but non-essential (20%)
20%
Collectors/fans only (4%)
4%
Poor. Only for completionists (0%)
0%

EMMA MYLDENBERGER Tour de Trance reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by avestin
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars The soundtrack to your daydream

Joviality, peacefulness and hallucinations... All of those are portrayed in Tour De Trance, which might be inferred from the name.

It is not only calm and peace that are conjured through their music. Being a folk band, you'd expect only that. But being as diverse as they are, their music is also rhythmic, catchy and entertaining. It's also as beautiful as can be, haunting even at several points. And indeed, they can induce inner calm with their serene parts. The music in this album has all of those.

Another aspect that adds to the beauty of their sound and to it being special is the combining elements of ethnic music from east and west. The instruments they use help them make this blend. This is a good place to mention the variety of instruments they use which is another reason their music sounds diverse. In their songs and music they swing between more quiet and slow parts to more dynamic and fast tempo, adding more breadth to their compositions. They also have some great catchy and rhythmic tune such as Ein Bißchen, where the mandolin gives a great rhythm and the band members sing together, all resulting in a wonderful, cheerful and memorable melody.

A trance might indeed be induced upon you while listening to Regenreigen with its almost 20 minutes of a mesmerizing trip. As it starts, with an eastern flavour (percussion wise) and the mandolin and flute contrast it, giving it a special sound. The music gains speed and power slowly and then diminishes again not leaving this pattern they are playing all the while. The vocals join in, sounding ethereal and the flute then takes center stage, backed up by a mellow sounding violin, and the melody evolves into a slightly different path but not too far away from the starting point. At around 8 minute into the track it picks up pace and goes into another direction entirely, though they later on connect it with the previous part and go back to it as well. This shows how as musicians, they like to develop one idea into several branches; to find more venues out of that main theme, finding more musical places that are related to that original composition. This is too long a piece to describe all of it, but the intricacies that Emma Myldenberger put into their music and the beauty of it, doesn't get bored at all. RAA is another fantastic example to their creativeness and their ability to do magic with their music.

This is an excellent album to sit down and relax to (the atmosphere it spreads is soothing), contemplate with and even sing with in Ein Bißchen. If you prefer, it can also be excellent to go to sleep with, or read while it plays. It is excellent music to close your eyes to and fly away with your imagination, making this the soundtrack to your daydream.

For a beautiful, mesmerizing and fun folk album, this is an excellent choice. For those looking, I would definitely try and get the Garden Of Delights re-issue with the bonus track and the informative booklet.

Review by Sean Trane
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog Folk
4 stars 4.5 stars really!!!!

This second album is the real reason of this group's presence into the rock almanacs or encyclopaedias and into our beloved Archives. After the release of their debut album, the group toured extensively Germany and made trips to Switzerland, Luxembourg and Ireland (several gigs a day over there), and were joined temporarily (actually he just stepped on stage uninvited and stayed) by Israeli percussionist (tabla, mostly) Rammy Mizrachi and he gave the group's original tracks a fairly different sound and direct the band to another direction than trad folk. Around the mid year of 79, the group started recording in their hometown this second album, which would be their definitive statement.

Starting out on the rather Ougenweide-style folky number, Ein Bisschen, that rides on a great banjo line and a myriad of small flutes. Closing the first side of the album is the almost 29-mins Regenreigen (rain round dance), easily the album's tour de Force and tour de France as well as tour de Trance. The lengthy tracks takes through a myriad of climates and rzegions exploring middle ages and more recent jigs, sometimes oscillating between Third Ear Band and East Of Eden Jig-A-Jig. Ranging from mid- Eastern (Arabian) to Indian classic music (though a raga) to semi-Spanish-sounding ambiances and much more, Gullatz's oboe getting a big share of the spotlight.

The flipside is made of three mid-length pieces, the first of which Lenyas Fantasie (Lenyas is Anne Gosslau's daughter pictured in the interfold of the vinyl the community photo) has a definite Spanish-Flamenco slant, coupled with pure chamber music. The Following RAA is obviously the album second highlight, constructed around some strong guitar strumming and tabla/bongo (obviously Rammi's influence) and Topsi's contrabass playing again a Spanish dramatic theme over a raga beat >> lovely chamber music ending too. The 5-mins Hochzeitsnatch (wedding night) starts on dissonant African metallic percussions, before two wind instrument (oboe and clarinet) take over and a steady beat, take on a classical twist before sinking in Aum psalms and full sitar psychedelia and obviously a one shot thing.

The only weird thing (and somewhat quite deceiving, even if the album is an incredibly success artistically and aesthetically) is that Rammi Mizrachi is not part of this album, although he appeared to be so instrumental in developing the album. The bonus tracks are from a Berlin concert prior to TdT's release and give us two "works-in-progress" tracks of the upcoming album and a Grateful Dead reprise and not adding incredible value, but not disserving it either. I would've preferred this track on the debut album instead on this one.

Tour De Trance is indeed one of the most stunning pieces of psychey prog folk with strong medieval tendencies and is considered a classic by connoisseur with every reason to be so. This album would then fill out the group's concerts set lists, with the Regenreigen track being the centrepiece, until the group's end in 81 with Rammy often starring on tables. In the very near future, the great label Garden Of Delights will release a live album of concert of the later period, which if you enjoy this album will most likely a must have for the fans. I know I will jump on at at sight.

Review by kenethlevine
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Prog-Folk Team
3 stars From a country more known for kraut rock, electronica, and a profusion of symphonic prog, a fair number of folk influenced groups do emanate. HOELDERLIN and OUGENWEIDE may be the best known of the lot, and were also among the first, although Hoelderlin left behind their roots early on. Cross these in their more reflective moments with a sprig of BROSELMASCHINE and, with the exception of one monster cut, you have the essence of EMMA MYLDENBERGER's "Tour de Trance".

The nearly 20 minutes of "Regenreigen" constitute something of a revolution in European folk prog, touching as it does on the whole continental diaspora from bygone and modern days, as well as Middle Eastern delectables, with superb oboe by Biber Gullatz. Part improvisation and part carefully architected composition, it is alluring but not very bracing, as it rarely shifts more than a third degree.in pace, an impeccably cooked repast served lukewarm. "Lenya's fantasie" and "Raa" are essentially a procedural protraction.

"Ein Bisschen" is actually a song more or less, and could have come from "Hoelderlin's Traum", while "Wassensteyn's hochzeitnacht" invokes POPOL VUH at times, which can't be a bad thing. Ultimately it and its live bonus version, along with the additional live bonus of "I Know You Rider", which clearly enunciates Myldenberger's lineage back to the original jam band, are my personal favourites, which unfortunately tells you more about me than about the album. The closing add-on is the purely foot stomping hoedown "Stromberger Siebensprung"

Because the extended compositions will have appeal to certain select listeners - you know who you are - in my tour-trumped trance I see three stars.

Review by Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars EMMA MYLDENBERGER were a Psych-Folk band from Germany who went from playing on the streets to full houses in a short period of time. Lots of good information in the liner notes including some pictures of the band and even a concert poster advertising a gig they did with GURU GURU on April 27th 1979. In the book "The Crack Of The Cosmic Egg" they say this about this band..."The second album,"Tour De Trance", with considerably longer tracks and much more instrumental interplay, broke even more ground with a uniquely styled music that even went beyond the pioneering music of BETWEEN or the THIRD EAR BAND, mysteriously ethnic and medieval, not really rock but with a lively rock energy, and an abundance of solos, surprising for what was still a totally acoustic ensemble."

I'm not big on traditional Folk music but this does have that Krautrock spirit kind of like fellow Germans WITTHUSER AND WESTRUPP. Heck it was re-issued by the "Garden Of Delights" label so you know it has a Krautrock flavour. They were a six piece band with two ladies as part of the group plus there are three guests helping out. Lots of different instruments including harp, zither, glockenspeil, flute, aboe, violin, mandolin, sitar, crumhorn, tablas, tambure and more. All six members sing and it is in the German language. One of the bonus tracks(which are all live and from the same concert in Berlin) is a cover of a GRATEFUL DEAD song. I love the album title and the album cover is what I'd call mystical.

"Ein Bisschen" opens with percussion as other sounds are added. Flute and violin are prominent here then we get multi-vocals before 1 1/2 minutes. Vocals only for a brief period but this will come and go. Very folky. "Regenreigen" is the over 19 minute epic and a top three track for me. Percussion, picked guitar, flute and more in this retrained start. I like it! Faint vocal melodies build before 3 minutes in this Krautrock flavoured section. It kicks into gear and picks up speed after 8 minutes including banjo. A calm after 10 1/2 minutes as male and female vocals take over in this melancholic and laid back passage. Vocals stop before 12 minutes as picked stringed instruments, violin then aboe and more take over. It's catchy but restrained after 14 1/2 minutes. The multi-vocals are back after 18 1/2 minutes and the singing is staggered.

"Lenyas Fantasie" opens with acoustic guitar and aboe but it builds rather quickly. It settles right down as the violin replaces the aboe. It kicks back in as contrasts continue. "RAA" is a top three tune. This is catchy with so much going on. The interplay is incredible. A calm after 2 minutes as percussion, strummed guitar and more take over. The aboe is back then we get another calm 4 minutes in before it slowly builds. Man I dig this one, they really shine when they can stretch out a song. "Wassensteyns Hochzeitsnacht" is the final song and the last top three for me. It sounds like vibes to start then before 1 1/2 minutes we get lots of strummed guitar and aboe. Vocal melodies take over before 3 minutes, sitar too. The adventerous vocal expressions continue and flute joins in as well.

I may not be the biggest fan of this style of music but it's easy to appreciate the compositions and band interplay. A solid 4 stars and Folk fans need to hear this.

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