ROMANTIC WARRIORS IV: KRAUTROCK, PART I

Adele Schmidt and José Zegarra Holder have gone well beyond mere fans of progressive rock and have taken things to the next level by writing and producing excellent feature-length documentary films that chronicle the rich history of progressive rock with a series of films that narrate the artistic, cultural and social aspects of the progressive rock paradigm. While the lion's share of the footage is dedicated to the earliest artists who gestated the genre into the long lasting powerhouse that it has become, this married couple also included many of the newer bands that have contributed to the prog revivals that have kept the genre, well?. progressing.

The series started with the 2010 "Romantic Warriors: A Progressive Music Saga" but soon became more focused on the individual sub-genres. The film was followed by 2012's "Romantic Warriors II: A Progressive Music Saga About Rock in Opposition," the 2013 followup "Got RIO? Romantic Warriors II: Special Features DVD," the 2015 "Romantic Warriors III: Canterbury Tales" and 2016's "Got Canterbury? Romantic Warriors III: Special Features DVD." It's quite clear that Schmidt and Zegarra Holder are in no danger of burning out soon and to the contrary seems like their passion for prog has only increased.

The next phase of the ROMANTIC WARRIORS universe comes in 2019 with the first of a planned trilogy of releases. ROMANTIC WARRIORS IV : KRAUTROCK, PART I starts the series by focusing on Krautrock that developed in the Cologne, Düsseldorf and Hamburg regions of Germany. The focus of these films is to highlight the bands that were innovative in the progressive rock scene and for the sake of not including every band that existed, the film opted to leave out bands that were more derivative of English prog and copycats of others. PART I captures many of the musicians who are still alive from Krautrock's early years and allows them to tell their stories while capturing some archival footage. Bands included on this first edition are Can, Faust, Kraftwerk, Floh de Cologne, Neu!, La Düsseldorf, Japandorf, Krautwerk, Electric Orange, Wume and the Damo Suzuki Network.

While there is never enough footage to satisfy the hardcore fans in these kinds of documentaries as i could personally watch entire documentaries for each of the bands involved, this is a very interesting journey into the greater depths of Germany's unique contribution to the progressive rock universe and no matter how much you thought you knew already about this vibrant movement that began in the 70s, ROMANTIC WARRIORS is guaranteed to reveal some of the long lost secrets that have been tucked away behind the scenes for many decades. While only one installment of this series would've been woefully too short for such an all- encompassing music scene, this one is very satisfying for the region of Germany that it covers.

Part 2 is intended to be released in early 2020 and will focus on bands from Munich, Wiesbaden, Ulm and Heidelberg. Bands that will be included: Guru Guru, Amon Düül II, Xhol Caravan, Embryo, Kraan, Popol Vuh and Witthüser & Westrupp. Part 3 is intended to follow in late 2020. This third installment will cover bands from Berlin and Hamburg which will include Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schulze, Günter Schickert, Agitation Free, Conrad Schnitzler, A.R. & Machines, Nektar and some contemporary bands such as Robert Rich & Markus Reuter and Coolspring. All these films have been financed by Schmidt and Zegarra Holder with crowdfunding on Indiegogo for the post-production.

I have been woefully unaware of these fine Zeitgeist Media documentaries but am glad to have finally delved into the wonderful history of progressive rock in full feature length films. While i cannot compare to previous films, this one is absolutely fabulous as it allows the bands to narrate their own biographies with ample video footage of the venues where all the magic emerged. This one documentary has surely whetted my appetite for more and not only do i eagerly anticipate the next installment of this KRAUTROCK series but now must go back and seek out the previous documentaries that preceded. All i can say is BRAVO!