IMAGINATIONS OF LIGHT

The late 60s saw a huge increase in cross-continental musical interest when The Beatles went on a little ashram retreat in India and suddenly gave a green light for the world to incorporate world ethnic music into pop and rock after their self-titled white album hit the market. After the initial British explorations, it seems that it was the German bands who took this cue and really expanded their tentacles into every nook and cranny of influence regarding the traditional sounds of the world. While many of those influences would end up in the burgeoning scene of Krautrock of the era, there were a few artists who would take those same visions of global fusion and run with them only in their equation the rock part was left out.

Coming from the Mannheim region of Germany, two musicians decided to collaborate and create softer and less harsh renditions of world music accompanied by Western styles such as jazz guitar accompaniments and Western musical elements. This duo known as FLUTE & VOICE was Hans Reffert who contributed the FLUTE part of the duo and Hans Brandeis who provided the VOICE. While the name is somewhat misleading considering their sole album IMAGINATIONS OF LIGHT (from the 70s) is chock full of guitars, recorders and sitar however it does indeed contain an ample supply of the elements in the artist moniker.

The original 1971 release contained only four long tracks however the 2006 re-issue had seven extra bonus tracks (that i have not heard). The title track starts things off and is the longest clocking in at over thirteen minutes and makes an extensive use of the sitar as the main melodic instrument of choice. This track sounds like it was inspired after a Ravi Shankar show with a droning sort of raga based compositional style that is fortified by chanting wordless vocalizations with a touch of reeds complementing the melodic counterpoints. "Thoughts" is more of a jazz guitar oriented track with lots of meanderings into vague and angular territories. The guitar basically noodles on in jazz mode for over ten minutes surrounded by ambience.

"Resting Thinking About Time" is a lot more interesting of a track as it incorporates jazzy guitar chords with a bluesy riff and a the most interesting vocal performance of the album with Brandeis creating an interesting off-kilter melody and a diving atmosphere of spiritual wakefulness. My favorite track on the album. After a two track escape from sitar, the sultry stringed instrument makes a reprise on the final "Notturno." This track is rather a mix of the sitar with the intro and then jazz guitar as it commences. The vocals provide a transcendental background as the guitar adds a zigzagging sort of path. The sitar also serves as an intermittent counterpoint to the guitar. This one is my next preferred track on the album.

My impression of IMAGINATIONS OF LIGHT is that these guys were passionately inspired by the musical world that was unfolding around them and particularly taken in by the exposure to the ancient wisdom and traditional sounds of the Indian subcontinent however for all this passion, there seems to be a lack of musical cohesion between all of the tracks and an overt lack of originality in interpreting these disparate influences. Being somewhat well versed in both traditional Indian classical music as well as jazz, the Indian parts seem very respectful of the traditional culture but not very adventurous either. Similarly with the jazz part as the guitar often sounds like a sedated Joe Pass.

Ultimately the album comes off as too disjointed and complex to serve as a meditative type of album and yet not adventurous enough in its scope to add that extra spark of creativity to pull off the synthesis of styles these guys were aiming for. Overall it's definitely a tripped out album although it only makes me think of infatuated hippies who had their minds blown by reading the Bhagavad Gita and took up Indian music but didn't quite reach primetime in the compositional construct department. I love the album cover but the musical experience is neither brilliant nor offensive. A nice obscurity from the era that is worth the chance to check out but not something i find compelled to track down either.