GIN ROSÉ AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL

This album differed aesthetically from the earlier works of Ash Ra Tempel, understandably the time of recording makes it more closer to Göttshing's 1980's solo and Ashra territories. Though I have not adopted fully that discography's sound, I found this still a very pleasant recording. The music on "Gin Rosé" is more synthetic instead of original band's 1970's classic period's raw analog and rock oriented sound, but the idea of improvisational music is still the same. The concert is presented here unedited as it was performed, and that's the way I think it should be. There are some little duller parts on the open sonic dialog, when Manuel and Klaus are searching the musical seeds to be grown on their electronic aural incubators. The overall final result is wonderful though, and small faults are usually the price of an improvisation. The drum parts are done with programmed percussion loops or such, but they didn't bother me as they were quite smooth sounding. And as they don't have a separate drummer, this is an understandable solution technically, and allowing more direct improvisation with lesser musicians. There are also some great ethereal passages on their performance, which reminded me of Tangerine Dream. If you are into that band, I would recommend checking out this CD.

The great duo on stage! This is quite an achievement after all these years.

This track is quite a daunting task to apprehend: it is a long story of almost seventy (70) minutes of music which starts in a very smoothly and totally spacey mood. Over fifteen minutes of a very quiet and pleasant journey to tell you the truth. To be faithful, I would also say that I miss the beauty and "froideur" (coldness) of their early works; but let's not show too much criticism here.

After some twenty minutes, the TD feel is quite obvious even if the masterpieces of this great shadow are of course not met. At least, the music developed reminds these great and glory days (at least, it is MHHO).

The rhythm is building nicely and leads to some more "upbeat" parts. Don't get me wrong: this is not to be compared to some TD adventures of the nineties. It only lasts for some five minutes and paved the way to a wonderful and melodic portion.

I wouldn't be honest to tell you that I listen to this album quite often; but what I can tell you is that when I do so, I am quite relaxed and serene after this very long piece of (improvised) music. Dramatic beauty and ethereal glory are not too much present during this oeuvre but the whole is rather enjoyable.

Some sections are quite average though, and as a whole I would not rate this album more than with three stars.