SOWIESOSO

What a change form their first two albums. Gone are those wind swept soundscapes that I loved so much, replaced with more of a TANGERINE DREAM like sound but more experimental. In the liner notes Moebius and Roedelius talk about how they would send each other tapes of what they had created, and then the other would react to what the other had done and improvise over it. The tapes were mixed at Conny Plank's studio.

"Sowiesoso" has a pulsating rhythm as synth-like sounds come and go. It does become very TD-like later. "Halwa" has these darker guitar-like sounds with synths and percussion. I must say that you never know what they are using to create a lot of these sounds, so i'm just describing what I hear as usual. "Dem Wanderer" is kind of dark with synths, bass and twittering sounds.

"Umleitung" is lighter with piano. We get a beat 2 minutes in and check out the crazy vocals that woop it up during this song. "Zum Wohl" is another good one with the piano, synths and twittering sounds. "Es War Einmal" has these sax-like sounds with piano as synths pulse. I like it. "In Ewigkeit" is the song I really don't like. All week when this tune would come on i'd look at the track number and see it at song 7. It's the longest one too so that's disappointing. Sounds like alto-sax and then these high pitched noises come in. I just don't like it is the bottom line I guess.

I do think this is very close to a 4 star album but I can't pull the trigger with a good conscience. 3.5 stars.