AND THE WATERS OPENED

With albums as "In den garden pharaos" (from Popol Vuh), "Aum" ( from Deuter). "And the water opened" has participated to the growing emergence for "world" / ethnic music in the complex universe of progressive rock. They all explain a new fascination for multi-influences and dialogues between East meets West. In those early years the sound of the band provided a fusion between "ethnic" music and krautrock experimentations. With their album "Dharana" Between will progressively turn to something more mainstream, into "new age" / traditional music legacy. "And the water opened" starts with a beautiful track made of modified electric "continuous" sound forms which express the serenity of meditation. The track carries on with a bright psychedelic dance for "tribal" percussions. "Uroboros" is more into an acoustic trip with "exotic" oboe parts and deep spiritual voices. An exploration throw a Persian / oriental theme maybe. "Syn" is a powerful, haunted "drone" which leads you to the most hidden parts of your subconscious, just hypnotic. "Devotion" is near to sacred music, really in touch with Middle East. Difficult to evaluate this approach but the piano & church organ passages are especially ethereal. "Happy Stage" is an "exotic" musical fairy tale organised around enchanting oboe / flute lines. A really strange item, an interesting discover. Rather unique in popular music.

Between's second album (this time released on the Vertigo swirl label) is another sumptuous adventures in the many realms of musics, ranging from classical to world/ethnic to medieval, among others. This album was released some two years after the debut and leader P-M Hamel had spent much time in India (and worked with Agitation Free), while Eliscu played with Popol Vuh and percussionist Black with Niagara. By recording time of ATWO, the group was now only a quartet, Stranz and Galway having understandably moved on. With a stunning colourful artwork, unfortunately not reproduced on the recent Wergo re-issue (which prefers a midnight sun photo montage), ATWO resembles much Einstig musically-speaking, but it is completely acoustic and has a few choirs/chants.

Starting on the cosmic/free form lengthy ATWO track and later on Syn(both filled with low freq drones from Detrée's moto-cello, the listener is reassured right away that he will find the same kind of superb unclassifiable fusion of musics found on Einstig, musics that originally don't have much to do with each other. Uroboros moves between Arabian, with Eliscu's oboe moving effortlessly on a tabla-led raga, something leading the listener to think of Third Ear Band. Aerial choirs open Devotion, soon joined by tabla and organ, the whole thing turning into esoteric chants that would probably be the rage during the new age music boom, some 20 years later. The lengthy Happy Stage returns to an Indio/Arabian that was laid out on Uroboros, with an extra acoustic guitar strumming along. Samum is more of the same ethnic realm, but this time fused with the spacey drones, which allow for the album to end as it had started. .

Oddly enough, the Wergo Cd reissue opts to start on a bonus track preceding the album, but Journey To Ixtland is actually quite well in place with the original opening title track, both being very close to Cosmic "rock" (lack of better word) as electronics, wild percussions and free form improvs make Ixtland a perfect intro to Waters. The other two bonus tracks close the album, both again very much in line with the album, both on the classical/medieval and Indian realms. All three bonus tracks date from early 76, which is chronologically questionable, but artistically it bodes well, and is really unnoticeable without the liner notes.

AZTWO is just as essential as Einstig, minus the then-surprise of the debut, but it is a bit calmer and concentrating a tad more on the Indian music, for obvious travelling issues of leader Hamel.

In the liner notes guitarist Roberto Detree says that their ambition in making "And The Waters Opened" was not that different from that of the debut. The big difference was that band leader Peter Hamel had been to India many times and practically showered the band with the Indian approach to music and spiritual ideas. The first album "Einstieg" was occupied with experimental sound research as it were, while this album was occupied with the Arabic-Indian tradition. Peter Hamel said "After the LP came out, we were told we were making music that did a lot of people good, that they used it to meditate, to relax, to heal themselves. Naturally we thought that was great ! We were making New Age music before the concept existed. By the time it(New Age) did, we didn't want to have anything to do with it, because it often concealed an extremely low musical level, shallowness in a culture of purity". What I love about this record besides how spiritual it is, is how dark and haunting it often is.

"Journey To The Ixtland" is very ominous with spooky sounds and percussion. 2 1/2 minutes in we get some flute-like melodies along with what sounds like violin screeches and pounding kettle drums. And "The Waters Opened" offers up more haunting music and humming sounds. After 2 minutes ethnic sounds take over. It comes to a dramatic head 4 minutes in as it gets very loud and experimental. As it settles down percussion comes in, and the tempo picks up a minute later. Congas 7 minutes in before what sounds like water a minute later over-runs the soundscape. Vocal melodies as percussion continues to beat. Strummed guitar and flute 9 1/2 minutes in. "Uroboros" opens with more ethnic sounds with this hum in the background. It gets kind of crazy 2 minutes in as all kinds of sounds can be heard. A melody then comes out of it with percussion. Vocal melodies followed by aboe as it gets an Indian flavour. "Syn" opens with waves of sounds as it feels like we are floating in deep, dark space. Yet I can see why this might be healing music. There is something about this that is moving my inner soul.

"Devotion" is a catchy but soothing song with vocals. I was reminded of POPOL VUH. Percussion and ethnic sounds are joined by keys 1 1/2 minutes in. This is great ! "Happy Stage" opens with aboe as flute, strummed guitar and percussion eventually join in. Some keys come and go. Strummed guitar and percussion dominate 9 minutes in. "Samum" opens with acoustic guitar that lasts a minute then percussion and aboe join in. It sounds like wind blowing before 3 minutes until it dominates the sound a minute later. This creates a very eerie soundscape. The final 2 tracks are bonus songs(as was the opening track). "Kalenda Maya" features aboe and percussion, while "Former Times" features some excellent flute with piano and percussion.

Well i much prefer this to the experimental "Einstieg", even if it's not nearly as adventerous as that one. This record just flows like the waters were opened.

Few Krautrock outfits, with the exception of maybe Popol Vuh, quite approach the mixture of sparse, minimalistic beauty and world music influences that Between display on the gorgeous And The Waters Opened. At the same time, Between also show a command of electronics and other cutting-edge sounds, with a drone kicking off the album that reminds me more than a little of the sonorous tones of Tangerine Dream's Zeit. Psychedelic jam music was already old hat by 1973, but Between manage to refresh the format beautifully here. Krautrock and early ambient music fuse at the hip here to yield an intriguing crossbreed.