NEUMOND

Those who revel in the first six albums from this classically influenced German band will not even recognize this updated edition. Nevertheless, it's interesting to see how they assimulated themslves into the new decade of simpler and more clinical styles of music. The killer track here is Fruhsport in Sachenwald, Novalis goes new-wave if you can believe it! It's also refreshing to see an older band actually changing with the times. Once again not a trace of the earlier stylings. Worth a listen. I would even give it a further ½ star!

Yeah, they pretty much derailed the City-Nord by this point. The ridiculous attempt at contemporizing their sound on "Frühsport im Sachsenwald" is a new low. That said, it's mostly business as usual: another instrumental intro, a couple of bland ballads, a pop tune with sax. Ho-hum.

Proceedings pick up a good deal near the end, though. Detlef Job's "Nachttraum" is an epic in the best sense of the word. It's no "Der Geigenspieler", but it's certainly better than I was expecting from this album. Better yet is the very eerie instrumental album closer "Blauer Morgen". Lutz Rahn's synth lines absolutely send chills up and down my spine. It may be worth getting the album just for that!

I guess that this night is for me DEEPLY marked by the seal of Antoine who sadly passed away about a week ago. I only acknowledged today about the sad news.

One of his beloved band was ''Novalis''. When he asked me to review this band some months ago, I told him that I was quite resistant to German lyrics, but he was so insistent that I started some three weeks with their debut album.

Even if I knew that his health situation was extremely severe, I never thought at this moment that he wouldn't be able to read the whole batch of reviews I was going to post for this band.

I know that he didn't like the evolution of ''Novalis'' after ''Brandung'', and when I listen to this specific album, I can only cope with his feeling of course. This has nothing to do with the great ''Novalis'' of the splendid ''Banished Bridge'' of course.

Even if their latest albums were not reaching high levels, there were always some tracks, some instrumental passages which could raise the level of an album. With this ''Neumond'', I am afraid that it is not necessarily the case.

The closing track maybe. But I'm already talking about the last track of this work.just because there are hardly interesting stuff in here. The cold beauty of ''Blauer Morgen'' is saving the global feeling of this album, but still: more than two stars doesn't seem to be appropriate.

I closed my review for ''Sommerabend'' with these words: ''I dedicate this review to my friend Febus: hold on my friend. There is light after the tunnel''. I wrote it on November 29th. Antoine passed away three days later.

Unfortunately for Antoine, the light was turned off but he will always be a light for me. Repose en paix mon ami.

Survival is the biological imperative. Adapt or die, to quote P.W. Botha out of context. I therefore appreciate prog bands' efforts to roll with the times back in the increasingly bleak 1980s, provided their compositions remain at least partly true to the progressive spirit, if not the letter of the law. CAMEL proved it could be done. NOVALIS was a more qualified success; they never produced anything awful, but by 1982 they were a very different group, with less of a defined sound.

With "Neumond", the group finally surrendered to the Digital Deities, which casts a clinical shadow over cuts like the admittedly interesting "Anakonda" and the drab title track. Moreover, pop excesses inundate whatever prog tendencies one might have found in "Oft sagt man mehr, wenn man schweigt" and "Du bist schön", although the latter does make for a hypnotic German take on ATLANTA RHYTHM SECTION. Even where the group stretches out as in "Nachttraum", it seems like a watered down recycling of the already somnolent "Sommerabend".

The best cuts here are actually those that conjure up other German bands of various pedigrees. "Frühsport im Sachsenwald" sounds like something out of the AMON DUUL II playbook circa "Vive la Trance", while "Kein Frieden" could double in for "Performance"-era ELOY (I know, this album predates the Eloy work, but you will see the reference) except with Frank Bornemann finally singing in his mother tongue, which many felt he should have done out of the gate. The closer "Blauer Morgen" the best of several approximations to the nascent TANGERINE DREAM soundtrack era. It's no wonder NOVALIS was trying out these styles, as Eloy and TD in particular were enjoying significant success even at this late date. I might add that ANYONE's DAUGHTER was still pumping out quality German language product at this time, and in fact their shining "Neu Sterne", which means "New Stars" was released the same year as NOVALIS' "New Moon".

"Neumond" does represent a notable drop in quality from the excellent "Augenblicke", but it's actually somewhat better than mediocre, and 2.5 stars would be the accurate rating. A waning moon.

Well, I jump from Novalis' first record to a record late in their career "Neumond" from 1982. It is the band's eighth studio album and it was released nine years after the debut. After Novalis had done a yet quite progressive album in "Augenblicke", though with a clear touch of the eighties, they now two years after did a non progressive record which I have heard not. That doesn't mean the album was bad but still it was a further step down from their former heights. Also the cover making had taken a step down. Not it was almost just white but I suspect a face could be seen in the whiteness. Hartwig Biereichel plays drums, Detlef Job plays guitars, Fred Mühlböck sings and plays flute and guitars and variphon and Lutz Rahn plays keyboard. Help do also Heinz Fröhling(bass), Herb Geller(saxophone) and Gillian Scalici(song).

"Neumond" has many decent songs you can listen to a cold autumn night when you wan't some sounds of the eighties. The album is even. It hasn't the smashing highlights you probably want but it does not contain bad songs either. It is quite well done. Starting and ending with atmospheric instrumentals surround the record in a fine way(6/10). The second song has a wonderful saxophone that is a pure delight to hear and the song is a duet between Mühlböck and Scalici(6/10). "Frühsport im Sachsenwald" is almost an experimental pop tune with a minimalistic text. I really like the powerful guitars and keyboards here(6/10). "Du bist schön" (6/10) proves the great potential of Fred Mühlböck. I am so glad to hear his voice. He did it so great in the late seventies and he still made Novalis rock 1982. I'd say the same about "Kein frieden". The instrumental title track is a bit less interesting than the others (5/10) and the longest one "Nachttraum" has both interesting craftsmanship and passages I find boring.

If I would recommend songs from here, I'd do it with "Frühsport im Sachsenwald", "Du bist schön" and "Blauer Morgen". Then you get some different aspects of this band. Some wonderous aspects though are missing. They should be found somewhere else in the middle of the seventies. I am glad this is not a total disaster and if you listen carefully you'll find this record nice. I am confident to give it three stars. Now I look forward to continue my Novalis journey and go back in time.

When "Neumond" came out I was quite a fan of this band and I actually liked it a lot. Despite the music becoming less and less progressive and complex, I was happy that the band showed some fresh development and was willing to try out something new. My favourites were the catchy anti-war/military hymn "Kein Frieden" and the energetic and fast "Fruehsport im Sachsenwald". There are three other songs with lyrics on "Neumond". "Nachttraum" follows up on "Der Geigenspieler" and "Herbstwind" from "Clown" and "Augenblicke" as longer calm poetic song with some development, sung by Detlef Job's thinner and less dramatic folky voice, compared to Muehlboeck. Unfortunately it doesn't work that well. It feels less organic than "Herbstwind", and like a second rate imitation of "Geigenspieler". "Du bist schoen" und "Oft sagt man mehr wenn man schweigt" are melodic and somewhat sentimental pop songs the music of which I find rather uninteresting. On the positive side, all five songs with vocals combine the music very suitably with the lyrics, which offer a nice range of real life topics, if you're interested in German lyrics, that is. Then there are four instrumentals, which are all nice to listen to and which show some variety in mood and speed (and somewhat outdated 80s sound), although none of them stands out for me and I wouldn't put any of these on to listen to it outside the context of the whole album (as I'd do with Zugvoegel, Danmark, Sinus or City Nord from surrounding Novalis albums).

Overall I have to say that after all the years I don't find too much anymore in this album that really draws me in. It is not bad, nice to listen to from beginning to end, I can appreciate that the band avoided standing still and the taste in combining lyrics and music, but highlights are scarce and can't compete with what the band delivered elsewhere. 2 1/2 stars, this time rounded down so that Augenblicke and Neumond have 5 stars combined, which seems about right.