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Bayon - First Recordings 1971-  1973 CD (album) cover

FIRST RECORDINGS 1971- 1973

Bayon

 

Prog Folk

3.12 | 9 ratings

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Sean Trane
Special Collaborator
Prog Folk
3 stars 3.5 stars really!!!

This Germanic-Cambodian duo is a rare East Germany group that played progressive pop or rock, and they played as a pair (with whoever else they chose at a given time) for some 15 years. To get such a long and productive partnership during the cold war in the GDR, there were obviously some kind of political agreement to go on ahead, the group starting out with Cubans and Vietnamese "brothers", played as an acoustic quartet and the political correctness of the Stasi-dominated regime was respected.

However they also delved in more electric prog rock as indicates the superb 12-mins+ epic Suite Auf Der Brüche, a full-blown prog track with flute, organ, violin, double bass, electric guitar and drums/percussion recorded still in 71, and sometimes reminiscent of Out Of Focus. Excellent sound quality, flawless execution, a certain kind of virtuosity and everything else.. In some ways the two Cd- opening tracks are the logical successors, Stell Dich and Die Nacht (both recorded in 72) are in the same vein of that 71 epic, developing an enthralling and inventive type of folk rock. Right up to now, we'd swear we're more with Pentangle than some ethnic folk rock group.

But the following short Die Lerche (also from72) is a far-eastern folk music song that contrast highly with what went on before, even if it's obviously the same band that recorded both types of songs. The disc goes on with next year's Mangobaum, which reflects some kind of cross between Hawaiian music with far eastern "jig". Both tracks I find annoying knowing the group could play some superb adventurous music, playing such "tourist trap tracks" could only discredit them. The live Synthetic Waltzer, still from73 shows them opening towards some excellent jazz-rock, but also returning to their previous direction.

One remark about the Cd track list, though: I can only regret the fact that the chronological order is not respected, even for that one exception. Another heavy duty negative point is the lack of information regarding the different (at least I suppose there were more than one) line-ups. Outside these inherent flaws (which I suspect will repeat in succeeding releases), it wouls seem that this writer is enthused enough to proceed with the following compilation from 73 to 77 where the group investigated chamber rock and jazz-rock. Definitely worth a shot;

Sean Trane | 3/5 |

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