NATURE

Tetragon had been a rather short-living band hailing from the north of Germany that released only one single album whose title "Nature" reflected their "green" concerns in some way. The band derived from a previous one called Trikolon formed by schoolfriends Hendrik Schapper (organ,trumpet), Rolf Rettberg (bass) and Ralph Schmieding (drums). They mainly played The Nice cover versions, but at times more in a manner closer to Dutch band Ekseption and as well some blues classics like "Spoonful" or "I'm a Man" in a Cream-like interpretation. These were mixed up with long improvisations and jazz influences of a Miles Davis type Schmieding used to be a huge fan of. They became a quite well-known (in their local area) live band and even made a record with one of their stage performances pressed in 150 copies. In 1971 Schmieding decided to leave the band and concentrate on his daily job thus the remaining two musicians were looking for substitutes. At their school they found the talented guitarist Jürgen Jaehner and the drummer Achim Luhrmann and called their quartet Tetragon logically enough. The band didn't really have a predetermined musical style; they played different styles as they pleased, favouring blues (for its emotional impact), jazz and the classics (adapting a Bach fugue along the way). This record here in review had been originally produced in a quite non-professional manner using a Revox A77 2-track tape recorder and seven microphones placed judiciously to best capture the sound of each instrument. The recording duty took place in an old farm which had been converted into a house by some friends of Luhrmann's parents. Re-recording wasn't possible and any imperfections had to be avoided in the 'live' taping conditions which inspired the band to great heights though. Schapper played organ and clavinet simultaneously, with one hand on each keyboard. Jürgen Jaehner meanwhile would switch to acoustic guitar immediately after an electric guitar solo. The line-up listed here is wrong by the way I just realized, there isn't any saxophone included. The correct one is Hendrik Schaper - Organ,clavinet,Cembalet,piano,vocals; Jürgen Jaehner - Electric and acoustic guitar; Rolf Rettberg - Bass and Joachim Luhrmann - Drums. Most of the tracks are all-instrumental, only the title song has some vocals. It's in fact very well-done early progressive rock rooted in blues with jazzy and classical leanings and there isn't any weak track at all on here. Fortunately Musea has done a CD re-issue of this forgotten gem in 1995 with the great jam-rockin' live bonus track "Doors in Between" added on. Certainly a worthy purchase for all fans of early 70's Prog!

Formed by members of the powerful German band Trikolon, this project is a musical odissey throw stoned-majestic-epic-neo classical rockin improvs. Strictly instrumental the album is an illuminated musical trip, reminiscence to Trikolon's exhuberent and catchy original sound but with the addition of technical jazzy counterparts. The ensemble is dominated by epic spaced out guitar leads mostly improvised and accompanied by groovy Hammond chords and neo-classical piano sequences. A few pieces as (A short story...) include pure jazzy rock performances with lot of variations, changes and moods. The technical aptitudes and skills of the musicians are clearly demonstrated in these lenghty jam sessions. Tetragon is a complex and technical hybrid jazzy rockin' experience that admits much more connections with refined and classy english combos (categorised as "Canterbury") than with tripped out-primal jazzy-kraut dementia. A propulsive, amazingly spontaneous without being amateurish. A high standard of fusion jazz music.

An interesting band from Germany who released this lone album back in 1971.To me they come off as a "jam" band with a strong Jazz flavour. I must admit this didn't grab me right away, and really it's still growing on me. What appeals to me is the way they mostly just jam as this is almost all instrumental except for the title track sung in English.

"Fugue" is the 16 minute opener. Some nice guitar and organ come and go until the organ and drums start to lead the way. Some nice bass 4 minutes in. A bass solo 7 minutes in as the organ and drums stop. A drum solo 8 1/2 minutes in.The guitar comes in as it settles around 10 minutes. It picks back up a minute later as the guitar leads the way. Organ is back after 14 minutes. "Jokus" is 19 seconds of sounds that echo. "Irgendwas" opens with piano as guitar and affects follow. Organ and guitar lead after 1 1/2 minutes as the tempo picks up. Piano 3 1/2 minutes in as it settles then picks up again.

"A Short Story" opens with organ as drums and guitar join in. This is raw. It's jazzy after 2 1/2 minutes. It calms right down 4 minutes in then builds. The organ is back before 7 minutes as they jam. Great sound the rest of the way. "Nature" is laid back with vocals. I like it. Vocals stop as it kicks in with bass, organ and drums around 2 minutes.The guitar sounds great after 3 minutes as it joins in. Sounds like fuzzed out Farfisa before 4 1/2 minutes. I should mention that in the liner notes it says that "Hendrik acquired a Farfisa organ which he cusomized in order to produce distorted effects like those used by Mike Ratledge of SOFT MACHINE". The vocals and earlier melody are back 7 minutes in to end it. The bonus track "Doors In Between" was recorded live in 1972 and is much like these other tracks. It's over 14 minutes with lots of jamming.

4 stars for me.