LE BERCEAU DE CRISTAL

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This album is the soundtrack of a little known movie released by Philippe Garrel in the seventies. As the movie itself, the music score delivered by A.R.T is very oniric and represents one of the most representative illustration of introspective and dreamy evocations in sound.Each composition is unique and develops its own atmosphere sometimes plaintive, sometimes sad and grave. Stylistically, "Le berceau de cristal" is dominated by pure electronics from the seventies, electric organs,guitar echoes...put together to create delicate and peaceful musical lines.This album can't be ignored. It stands as a monument in electronic space music and soundtrack.

This "Berceau De Cristal" has to considered more as a solo effort from Manuel Göttsching than really a band's one. It was recorded a long time before its official release and the result is an excellent journey back into these splendid seventies.

The mood is mainly ambient keyboards oriented although some short passages like " Le Diable Dans La Maison" displays some good guitar like in the good old AST days.

Most of this album is full of nice melodies, early "Tangerine Dream" or "Klaus Schultze" inspired music. If you were attracted by these great bands, you can jump into this "Cradle Berth" without any apprehension.

Still, I can't be as laudatory as for the best albums of the ones I have mentioned earlier. It lacks something which made these ones memorable. My feeling about "Le Berceau" is that is a good release of prog electronic which renders some wonderful and poignant key moments like the title track, the closing number "Et Les Fantômes Rêvent Aussi" or "L'Hiver Doux" for instance.

At the end of the day, these three tracks only are good for over half an hour of great music. You have just to be aware that there are some experimental parts ("Silence Sauvage") or repetitive stuff ("Le Sourire Envolé") which are not so thrilling and can't compete.

Four stars (somewhat rounded up).

This is a live recording from 1975 recorded in both Germany and France. It's basically Manuel Gottsching and Lutz Ulbrich (AGITATION FREE) offering up spacey soundscapes like early TANGERINE DREAM, Richard Pinhas and Klause Schulze.

"Le Berceau De Cristal" is the longets track at over 14 minutes. Faint sounds build. This is laid back and spacey with gentle guitar. Some intensity after 6 minutes and especially after 8 minutes. It settles back 10 1/2 minutes in. "L'Hiver Doux" is led by organ early as other sounds pulse. A change before 8 1/2 minutes as these loud synth sounds come in. "Silence Sauvage" is mainly percussion sounds and electronics.

"Le Sourire Vole" is Electronics "101". Great sounding track. "Deux Enfants Sous La Lune" is very TANGERINE DREAM-like. It's like the electronic sounds are staggered. This sounds so cool. "Le Songe D'Or" is spacey as other sounds echo. There's organ and guitar in this excellent tune. "Le Diable Dans La Maison" is a short tune where sounds cry out and pulse. This is wild ! "...Et Les Fantomes Revent Aussi" sounds so good as waves of sound blow across the soundscape.

I have a place for this right beside my CLUSTER records. If your into spacey soundscapes this is a must.

Le Berceau De Crystal is more of a Göttsching solo effort then a real Ash Ra Tempel record. Bass player Hartmut Enke is not in this line-up, neither will you find any drummer. This album was actually a cooperation with Lutz Ulbrich from Agitation Free. It was mainly recorded live in 1975 but you can't hear any audience and the material is entirely original. So in fact, this listens like a studio album.

The music belongs to a completely different realm then the kraut rock of Ash Ra Tempel. This is a progressive electronic album, closer to what Göttsching would release under the of Ashra moniker then to anything krautrock. In fact, there is no rock at all here and people looking for action will have to seek elsewhere. This is one of those 'nothing happens' albums, an album of introvert ambient soundscapes, with lots of delayed guitars, electronics, effects, great compositions and of course tons of atmosphere!

The album is a near masterpiece in the style. Slowly spinning eternal melodies create an abstract and mystical ambience that transcends you to another world. But it's no new age. The music is too compelling and ominous for that. A piece like L'hiver Doux is simply gorgeous and can proudly stand next to Schulze's and Tangerine Dream's best early works. Don't expect bouncy sequencers, apart from a few exceptions, all tracks are created without rhythmic pulse. Only Silence Sauvage and Le Sourire Volé have a sort of dark droning pulse that remind me of Schulze's Blackdance.

This is a marvellous album, it similar to the early works from Schulze and Tangerine dream, be it slightly more melodious and accessible. Also all fans of Richard Wright's keyboard playing on the early Floyd albums should lend their ears. 4.5 stars

One of the best Ash Ra Tempel albums by my reckoning, Le Berceau de Cristal is a collection of synthesiser-dominated atmospheres and mood pieces for a film soundtrack. The material holds up well with the best of Ash Ra Tempel's earlier works, and shows the influence at points of early Tangerine Dream (of around the period of Alpha Centauri, with perhaps a pinch of Zeit - Largo In Four Movements to sweeten the deal). Recorded with a stripped-down two member lineup, Le Berceau de Cristal is a nice capstone to the first period of Ash Ra Tempel - after this they would metamorphose into Ashra, but this album points the way to that new style nicely.

A crystalline soundtrack

Recorded in 1975, but not officially released until 1993, "Le Berceau De Cristal" is the soundtrack of an obscure experimental French movie directed by Philippe Garrel, featuring VELVET UNDERGROUND's ex-female singer Nico as an actress. Not quite in the psychedelic rock style of the first four classic ASH RA TEMPEL albums, the music is much more electronic and atmospheric, in the vein of early Klaus Schulze's material, with a slight touch of Manuel Göttsching's "Inventions For Electric Guitar". These oneiric, fully instrumental and slowly evolving soundscapes sometimes announce the direction the German pioneer will later take with his future band ASHRA.

This record also marks Göttsching's first collaboration with AGITATION FREE's ex-guitarist Lutz Ulbrich. He will return four years later as a member of ASHRA, with Harald Grosskopf.

Longest passage of the disc, the 14 minutes title track is an exception, as it's a live recorded improvisation. The first half deploys spacey synthetic textures mysterious, but the second half sounds rather strange and spooky. Uneven, and lacking a bit of coherency. The ethereal "L'hiver Doux" is nice and delicate, whereas the ambient and aquatic "Silence Sauvage" features somehow futuristic percussions. Original.

In the vein of "Inventions For Electric Guitar", the trippy repetitive and minimalist "Le Sourire Envol'" and "Deux Enfants Sous La Lune" shape the style Manuel Göttsching with adopt for ASHRA. Then comes one of the most beautiful moment of the album: "Le Songe D'or", slow and contemplative. In this peaceful landscape, the weird tortured "Le Diable Dans La Maison" looks like an intruder. The weakest track of the record. "...Et Les Fantômes Rêvent Aussi" concludes the disc with an ambiance à la Klaus Schulze.

Despite a few odd passages, "Le Berceau De Cristal" is a very cool soundtrack. Driven by synthesizers, the style follows Göttsching's logical evolution in the mid-70's. To better represent the music, this should have been released under his artist name instead of ASH RA TEMPEL's.

A forgotten and spacey little gem, recommended if you enjoy early Klaus Schulze, Manuel Göttsching's "Inventions For Electric Guitar", or even the first ASHRA albums.