STARRING ROSI

As the title suggests, this is Manuel Gottsching's "let's have my girlfriend talk or sing over all the tracks" album. That said, it's not too bad, but I certainly don't love all the songs here. The album opener, "Laughter Loving," begins with Rosi laughing obnoxiously into an echo effect, followed by a suprisingly cheerful guitar jam. Cheerful (to not call it loopy) for a guy who made some intense, brain-searing music just a few years prior. Anyway, the next track, "Day Dream," has grown on me in a big way: it features acoustic strumming and gentle electric soloing over which Manuel and his girlfriend sing quite pleasantly, in a call-and-response fashion. "Schizo" and "The Fairy Dance" are also winners, each summoning up a brief slice of classic Ash Ra atmosphere -- the sort of stuff he would explore at greater length on other releases. "Bring Me Up" is back in goofy-jam territory, but it doesn't bother me much and the guitar playing is quite good. All in all, fans of Gottsching's music will enjoy this album, but don't come looking for"Amboss."

Contrary to the three first A.R.T albums, "Starring Rosi" put the stress on short compositions...Not as experimental and electronic in sound than the previous releases,Göttsching and musician friends deliver here a perpetual psych rock music with lot of wha wha guitars and reverbs...the result is quiet good, however I personnaly regret the lack of exploration in space electronic and free-spirited adventure. The self title album and "Join Inn" contain one side for dreaming and meditation and an other side to free form rock. To the contrary "Starring Rosi" is dominated by interesting but basic psych rock jams...Only two tracks can remind the abstracted and spiritual works of the beginnings: Schizo (with its deeply emotional guitar solo) and Fairy Dance...Globally this album is a more rythmical and rock affair...vocal and recitations made by Rosi Muller are added to these quick instrumental compositions.Not a landmark but well inspired and played...only for real fans and those who want to see an other side of A.R.T music...

ASH RA TEMPEL's "Starring Rosi" is a definitive trip into cerebral space land. "Starring Rossi" is a clash of Space & Psychedelic influences and is one of the most accessible spaced-out recordings of all time. Featuring the original space-guitar compositions of Manuel Gottsching smothered in the female narration of some cosmic chick named Rosi. An excellent album from start to finish and in my opinion an essential album.

On this 1973 album, Ash ra Temple turn to a more "song" genre with shorts pieces , unlike the early albums, with Rosi Muller's help on vocals. Manuel Göttsching shows his impressive guitar skills throughout the album, like in the excellent first piece, "Laughter laughing", a joyful opener with stunning acid and fluent guitar parts. All the short pieces features solid rhythmic and excellent guitar. « Interplay Of Forces », the long piece (almost 9mn) is much more progressive, in a space cosmic genre. The piece starts with an ethereal and acid introduction, while Rosi recites some esoteric psychedelic lyrics on an inspired tone, alternately in english and german language, creating a fascinating atmosphere. Then it takes off with a stunning drum /guitar flight. This piece is an absolute gem of the genre, sublimated by fantastic sound quality on this very piece. A very good album, ranging from lively pieces to space cosmic rock summits. Spalax 1993 CD version recommended.

Ash Ra Tempel was a German band centred around innovative guitarist Manuel Gottsching. 'Starring Rosi' is not as 'cosmic' as the previous albums but certainly has its moments. It is also quite accessible. Rosi Muller was Manuel's girlfriend at the time of this album and she contributes spoken words throughout, and to good effect. 'Laughter Loving' is a lengthy, cheerful song (with hints of country-rock) which features wonderful wah-wah guitaring, some droning synth, and a strong rhythmic prescence, with some echoed laughing from Rosi at the start and the end. 'Day-Dream' is just that - a very stoned and dreamy 2 chord sequence, strummed on acoustic guitar with some nice lead electric guitar lines, with spoken lines from Rosi, repeated by Manuel's singing. Nice, for sure. Next up is an all-too- brief instrumental piece 'Schizo', which creates a very detatched, spacey atmosphere, built around Manuel's affected and highly emotive guitar-lines. This could've been a side-long jam. 'Cosmic Tango' is a funky little number, with Rosi's take on space-whisper (not unlike Gong's Gilli Smyth) and is pretty cool. The almost 9 min 'Interplay of Forces' starts out with the most spacey section of the album, again reminding one of French space-rockers GONG, which eventually gives way to another lengthy jam in a similar, hippie style as 'Laughter Loving'. 'The Fairy Dance' is a pretty little instrumental track, with some synth and Mellotron to boot, very pastoral. Last song is 'Bring Me Up', which is a funky, blues tune, with a jammy vibe and more of Manuel's magical guitaring.

Don't expect any traditional Ash Ra Tempel music with this album (if there is any traditional ART music to expect?).

Klaus left again (for the second time) and Göttsching thought that it was a good idea to have his girlfriend being featured on the vocals (but it was already the case during the preceding "Jenseits").

The mood is more on the psychedelic side, even jazzy (especially during the opener "Laughter Voice") than before. The format of this album is also quite different: it is divided into seven songs while the band had always used us to one side epics so far.

I have to admit that this change of style has not my votes although psyche rock is of great interest to my ears. The acoustic "Day Dream" holds good moments and is somewhat precursory of "Birdland" (Patti Smith) but it is quite a shock in comparison with prior works.

You have to be prepared for this while listening to "Starring Rosi". The good ("Schizo") is mixed with the poor ("Cosmic Tango"). But the best is alien here. The long and inexpressive, almost inhuman "Interplay Of Forces" is another example of what NOT to do: impose your sweet heart into your professional life.

Fortunately, the second and instrumental half is much more convincing. Great beat and excellent guitar work. Again, the psychedelia of the late middle sixties is very much present. A fine track after all. Like the sweet and melancholic instrumental "Fairy Dance".

All in all, this is a good album. More structured than their earlier releases and almost totally psyche oriented but sometimes sounding old fashioned like during "Bring Me Up".

Three stars.

No one is really 'starring' here.

Ash Ra Tempel's 4th album is a very uneven album that will hardly be missed by anyone but ardent fans. Ash Ra Tempel toned down their experimental urges in both form and sound. In stead of side-long tracks we get 7 short compositions, instead of sonic exploration we get a fairly standard Kraut rock sound with dry drum and bass and spacey guitar.

I'm not a huge fan of the bossa nova styled world beat of Laughter Loving. That kind of fusion was still rather young around those days so it gets some points for innovation, but it's simply not my thing. Day-Dream is more to my liking, soothing, hazy and dreamy, a light whispering male voice echoes spoken words by a Rosi's girlish voice. Bluesy acoustic strumming and lead guitars provide for the required droning ambience. Beautiful.

Schizo is like a 3 minute excerpt from the side long ambient improvisations from earlier albums. Wonderful eerie piece. Cosmic Tango is the entire opposite again, it's down to earth and quite a silly take on Latin rhythms again. Interplay of Forces is a rather uninspired space-kraut jam with chaotic percussion and predictable guitar work.

The album ends with two great short pieces. The Fairy Dance is dreamily romantic and pastoral (Water's Julia Dream anyone?). Nice theme for your Sunday afternoon film classic. Bring Me Up sounds like the moody funk bits Can would start doing from Landed onwards. Ash Ra Tempel beat them to it apparently. It's the only track where the mix of Kraut psychedelics with Latin rhythms actually works for me. The vocals at the end almost make it into a Santana song. Great tune to dance to!

An uneven album with only 16 minutes that are really great. But nothing is really awful neither.

As can be seen, this album is made of shorter tracks that don't venture directly off into space but instead present a range of styles, in shorter not always very developed tracks that possess song-structure characteristics to mild and varying degrees. A broader variety of instrumentation here (sometimes acoustic guitar, synthesizer, female and male vocals, hand drums and shakers, psychedelic effects, mellotron...) and a generally mellower sound. Drums are not always present and jam qualities are less overt, though they do permeate the album. The album is bit inconsistent in quality, as well as fairly short at about 35 minutes. Definitely worth a listen for fans of Krautrock, and different in interesting ways from the better albums 'Join Inn' and 'Ash Ra Tempel'.

The album sounds a bit like a precursor to some Ashra albums ('Blackouts' and 'Correlations') in guitar/melody territory, and indeed the only instrumentalist present on any of the other Ash Ra Tempel albums is Manuel Gottsching (Rosi Mueller, Gottsching's girlfriend, did provide vocals on "Jenseits" on 'Join Inn'). Only "Day Dream," "Schizo" and "Interplay of Forces" really contain much resemblance to prior albums, and while generally less accessible than the rest of the music on this album, they are much more accessible than earlier material. Harald Grosskopf's drums are unsatisfying at times (e.g. "Bring Me Up"), because they can be a bit too minimal and dull in that way, and feel stilted. Some of the songwriting is amateurish and sounds a bit naive. Dieter Dierks, while a good producer, doesn't seem to be a great bass player though he was certainly capable.

My favorites are "Schizo" (a sad and compelling spacey almost Floyd-like trip out) and "Interplay of Forces" (a nice melodic rhythmic kraut jam). Of the others, "Laughter Loving" is good but too light-hearted (sounds a bit like stereotypical Hawaiian music) and begins with Rosi's overtly trippy and annoying echoed pseudo-laughing. "Day Dream" presents a reflective psychedelic melody/mood and has potential but gets a bit old from lack of song development and has silly lyrics (about a gypsy queen who lives in rainbow land who is sad because she doesn't know what's going on in the world, but learns from Achilles to look into a crystal ball), as well as poor male vocals. "The Fairy Dance" is a mellow and flowery melodic track and "Bring Me Up" is somewhat dull but decent enough to sustain interest.

All in all, a good krautrock album (and better IMO than the somewhat dull 'Schwingungen' and the hopeless 'Seven Up').

3.65

After three albums of intense, acid-fried space rock and a turbulent collaboration with Harvard jailbird / LSD advocate Timothy Leary, who can blame guitarist Manuel Göttsching for wanting to kick back and have a little fun with his fiancé?

In retrospect, however, he probably should have released the album under his own name. Anyone expecting another mind-bending, mood-altering Ash Ra Tempel experience is likely to be disappointed by the entirely earthbound results: a scant 35-minutes of sometimes pleasant but mostly negligible underachievement by one of rock music's more visionary artists.

Even with able assistance from drummer Harald Großkopf and veteran producer Dieter Dierks the album never rises above the level of a vanity project, and strictly speaking is for completists only. The music itself isn't actually poor, just...unnecessary, and too often undermined by its similarity to the sort of acts other Krautrockers avoided on principle, sounding at times not unlike Santana (in the song "Bring Me Up") or, believe it or not, the Allman Brothers ("Laughter Loving")

Clearly the unique creative spirit that had burned so incandescent during the Kosmische Rock era was in danger of becoming extinguished. And I think it's fair to say that girlfriend Rosi Mueller may not have been the most effective muse Göttsching ever had. Really, what else can be said about an album on which the best song ("Day Dream") is a drifting spoken-word fantasy about a little gypsy queen who lives in Rainbow Land?

Not really the same temple

3.5 stars

When did Manuel Göttsching sleep? "Starring Rosi" is ASH RA TEMPEL's third studio release during the year 1973! This record is an exception in the band's discography, as it does not feature long tracks or improvisations, as the previous records, but is composed of short-medium songs, the longest one lasting 9 minutes. Although the music can still be linked to space and krautrock, it incorporates elements from different musical styles such as folk, pop and even funk.

Why this evolution and this album title? Simply because Manuel Göttsching is the original member left now and does what he wants. Klaus Schulze continues his solo career, whereas Harmut Enke decided to definitely quit the music business! Therefore Göttsching asked for help from some friends: WALLENSTEIN's drummer, future Schulze's and ASHRA collaborator Harald Grosskopf, well-known producer Dieter Dierks and especially his wife Rosi Müller.

Wait a minute... Short songs, less improvisations, pop, funk, a conventional cover art... is this still ASH RA TEMPEL?

The opening track is surprisingly one of the weakest. "Laughter Loving". Beginning with an odd laughter, it mainly consists in a soft pop with slight country accents. Basic, boring and too lengthy. On the contrary, the floating "Day Dream" is an oneiric and beautiful folk piece. There is some future ELOY spirit here. The superposition of Rosi and Manual's vocals enhances the dreamy ambiance. Then comes the instrumental "Schizo", a spacey rock a bit mystical. It's no easy task to describe "Cosmic Tango", this nice funky-space-blues that can vaguely remind GONG.

The other weak passage of the disc is "Interplay Of Forces". The first half is mainly ambient and average , nothing really happens, whereas the second half, in the same vein as "Laughter Loving", is not really remarkable either. Fortunately, "The Fairy Dance" is an instrumental faithful to its title. A magical and aerial breathe, light and beautiful, with harp and mellotron. My favorite track of the record. The closer "Bring Me Up" shows glimpses of Manuel Göttsching's future musical direction in the late 70's with ASHRA. Original, this kind of dynamic floating funk resembles SANTANA at times.

Apart in ASH RA TEMPEL's discography, "Starring Rosi" remains the most accessible and varied offering of Göttsching and co. However, the music still remains pretty good and innovative in its own way too. Although not as cosmic and trippy as the previous albums, the compositions are more lively and colorful. Therefore you have no valuable reason not to give this record a try.

Don't expect deep immersive spacey soundscapes here, just enjoy this charming album and relax...

Starring Rosi was recorded by a lineup of Ash Ra Tempel very different from the group that had released Join Inn earlier the same year. Here Ash Ra Tempel is effectively a duo of Manuel Göttsching, who plays guitar, keyboards, and bass, and Rosi Müller, on vocals, vibraphone, and harp. They are joined by the famous Krautrock dummer Harald Großkopf and equally renown Krautrock record producer Dieter Dierks, who plays bass on the final song.

Stylistically, Starring Rosi is all over the proverbial map - - as exemplified by the three instrumental pieces on the album. "Laughter Loving," inexplicably to me at least, is a country-western instrumental with Göttsching playing a twangy lead, a strummed rhythm guitar, a suitable bass part, and one (or more) freestyle parts in the back of the mix. Großkopf pounds away throughout. The slower, darker, and decidedly non-country "Schizo" has a similar structure, but with much less of Großkopf. "The Fairy Dance" is more ambient, although not much like the atmospheric pieces on Ash Ra Tempel ("Traummtaschine") and Join Inn ("Jenseits"), insofar as "The Fairy Dance" has comparably substantial structure. It's a bit like synth-based new-age music of the 1980s and 1990s.

"Day Dream" and "Interplay of Forces" are the two songs with substantial vocals. I don't say "substantial singing," because throughout the album Müller speaks most of her parts. Each of these songs has a repetitive aspect. On "Interplay," after reciting each couplet in German, Müller recites an English translation; on "Day Dream," Göttsching sings each line after Müller says it. As it turns out, Göttsching is a pretty good singer.

Two other tracks are largely instrumental, with Müller contributing a few vocal lines. "Cosmic Tango" returns to the "Laughter Loving" sound, this time with pre-Beatles rock & roll guitar soloing over a galloping beat - - reminiscent of surf-rock. Müller recites the lines "ready, steady, go," "far out," and "cosmic tango." On the closing number she recites a brief poem centering on the lines "the moment I met you / I knew you'll bring me up." In another example of repetition, she later backs Göttsching as he sings those same lines at the end of the song. "Bring Me Up," a Santana-like rocker, is the most commercial song on Starring Rosi, and also the only one I find enjoyable.

I ordinarily don't give much consideration to an album's title or artwork when writing a review. But I have wondered why this album is called Starring Rosi when Göttsching is clearly the star. The title has to create an expectation among listeners that Müller's contribution will be substantial, and it must have been obvious that this expectation would not be met. This brings up the question: why not just call this a Göttsching solo album? Or why not Starring Harald?

Anyway, the album's title is not the only source of my confusion over Starring Rosi. Where Join Inn was spontaneous, Starring Rosi seems calculated. And although Join Inn (1973) was similar stylistically to the band's 1971 debut album, it still sounded experimental and innovative. Much of Starring Rosi sounds derivative by comparison. Or maybe it's fairer to call Starring Rosi a failed experiment in interpreting popular music styles. At any rate, I really can't recommend this album. "Bring Me Up," if available as an inexpensive, standalone download, wouldn't be a bad investment, but otherwise, I wouldn't suggest spending time or money on Starring Rosi that could be spent on Ash Ra Tempel, or especially on Join Inn.