GÜNTER SCHICKERT

Gunter was also the leader of a Krautrock band called GAM and their masterpiece "Eiszeit" was recorded in 1978. So I have five albums that Schickert is on that I consider indispensable. "Samtvogel" from '74, "Uberfallig" from '79 and "Kinder In Der Wildnis" from '83 all solo Gunter albums and GAM's "Eiszeit" from '78. A nice run and I'm adding this one as I'm so impressed.

This is headphone music without a doubt and while recorded much later than the other four I value greatly from him it fits in nicely with those. A duo with Gunter playing guitar and shellhorn and a drummer who adds synths. There is usually so much going on and so much depth it's hard to believe this is just a duo. The drummer Andreas Spechtl also mixed this record and it sounds amazing. Seven tracks over 44 1/2 minutes. While I see everywhere a 2019 release date for this record my legit cd has 2018 on the back so either it's a misprint or that is the year of release.

There is so much atmosphere on this recording and it's often quite powerful and while listed under Electronic it would also fit under Krautrock in my opinion. I used the word "inventive" a lot when describing this and I really do believe that Gunter is a genius when it comes to composing music. I just can't get enough of his stuff. Tough to pick just a top three but the opener "Nocturnus" with that incredible atmosphere to open things with. Later it's like the whole soundscape is pulsing. It turns dark late like the start to end it.

I think the final two tracks make my top three with "Light" at almost 10 minutes opening in an inventive way and heavy. The flavour changes slightly throughout. Otherworldly guitar expressions come and go behind the main guitar melody before 5 minutes. So cool. The closer "Reflection Of The Future" is 7 minutes long and dark to begin with and mysterious. This is where Gunter plays the shell horn and it's pretty cool. He's played conch in the past. Just a unique tune that changes half way through when the soundscape bounces before ending like it began.

I have to say "Wohin" is one unique sounding track with those guitar sounds bringing to mind slide guitar gone mental. So much going on, I'm dizzy. The most beautiful moment is on "Flugelschlag" just after a minute and quite majestic 9 minutes in. This is the longest song at over 10 1/2 minutes.

So I'd like to go higher than 4 stars but feel that's the right rating here, for now anyway. What a come back album! 4.5 stars.

Nocturnus, its first track, is an intense war like soundscape constructed with wailing screeching siren like noises , atonal electronic pulses and dramatic strings building up a frantic crescendo which eventually dissolves alongside an imperceptible electric guitar counterpointing. Like a perfectly threaded blend between Progressive Electronic/Krautrock and Rock in Opposition *****

Ceiling- Is a highly polished and muddy raw Progressive Electronic / Krautrock composition which connects both genres as only the masterful and inspired Gunter Schickert does. The atemporal experimental feel adds up perfectly.****/*

Flugelschlag- Ellaborates, with a bit of a slower tempo, the previous track´s mood with simple but precise arrangements and gentle detours built up with his clean electric guitar riffs, atmospheric synths, electronic pulses and a restless african like drumming. Being one of this album´s lengthier tracks it could have moved a bit farther from its very promising initial structure, but then again it is like asking for what not has been given. ***/*

Track 4- Floor, is like a brief recount of the aftermath of Nocturnus.****

Wohin follows with a more experimental Electronic/Krautrock composition. It could have been easily included in last year´s release as one of its better tracks but in this album it is really not that impressive. ***

Light, the following track, gets back to business with the raw/polished Electronic/Krautrock drive which he so well handles. Its detailed yet free form structures move along with the kind of psychedelic frenzy which throws one back in time with no kind of nostalgia, quiet the opposite. ****

This album closes with Reflection of the Future. A very visual composition which actually and subtly evolutes from a kind of "out of this world" primitive electronic tribe´s ritualistic music into a more, but not less raw, futuristic electronic environment. ****/*

4 PA stars.

His 5th album is called "Nachtfalter" (Moth in English). The story has it that a moth flew into the recording studio while this album was being mixed and sat on the wall as a silent witness to what was going on. In the morning, the moth was dead on the floor. Gunter took a picture to pay homage to the moth and it ended up on the album cover.

Gunther provides soundscapes of some varied types on this album using guitars, synths and shell horn. The only other musician credited on this album is Andreas Spechti who provides drums, and producing loops and mixing. Spechti culled some of the best of Gunther's guitar to mix the album with special effects, drums and loops to create the tracks. The album's run time is just under 45 minutes stretched across 7 tracks that vary from 1 ½ minutes to 10 ½ minutes. The music has an avant-garde sound, but in reality is electronic and very experimental.

"Nocturnus" begins with a dark, almost industrial feel with heavy metallic effects and drones that come and go. The tone is deep and dark with the loops and effects providing a dark and apocalyptic atmosphere. "Ceiling" utilizes the echo-guitar effect that Gunter has made famous with dark sounds and ringing metallic sounds. There is an electronic beat to this one that actually sounds the most similar to his older Krautrock style. There is a definite pulsating sound with this track. Being the most accessible track on the album, it really isn't that accessible, but that is okay because that makes it more interesting.

"Flugelschlag" (wing beat in English) is the longest track at over 10 minutes. While it still has dark undertones, it is actually a nice, shimmering example of Gunter's guitar work and is a nice reprieve from the darkness that permeates the rest of the album. There is a rolling drum beat that pushes the tempo along while effects, loops and improvised guitar layers make this track stand out while it pulsates along. The rhythm breaks down and the track becomes atmospheric for the last 2 minutes.

"Floor" is a short track is a drone created probably by the shell horns I'm guessing with rattling percussion. "Wohin" (where in English) has bent guitar sounds layered over each other with a pounding drum. The result is a chiming layer and a micro- tonal layer making for a unique sound that's appealing in its own strange way. "Light" has a main rhythmic beat surrounded by other percussive effects and a heavy, dark guitar improvisation. Later, things turn really eerie with screechy effects and heavy echo on the guitar parts. Things lighten up a bit later and there is an almost surf rock style played with heavy echo in the guitar part. "Reflection of the Future" begins dark and forboding. Gunther almost mimics a warped train whistle with the conch shells. High pitched effects squeal around this sound. There is a slow thumping percussive noise that adds to the spookiness of it all. A wash of synth erases the slow rhythm, but soon is replaced with a heavy wall of droning guitar layers. Things continue with a dark atmosphere, but it all becomes rather spacey as layers add upon layers of effects keep getting added.

Except for a few of the tracks, this is quite an interesting collection of dark and experimental soundscapes. Even if most of it is not really melodic, it is still quite enjoyable, unique and intriguing. Some may find it a bit too experimental, but I find that I enjoy electronic music when it is more mysterious and unique like this. There is a bit of variety here too, with a couple of the tracks providing a break from the dark tones and venturing into a krautrock or space rock style. This is definitely a four star album because of it's ingenuity and some nice surprises. Excellent album.

So kind of a random and small discography plus a couple of releases with GAM ( found in these archive´s under the Krautrock listings) & a CD with Jochen Arbeit & Schneider TM entitled ASS (2016), are kind of his established trademark.

Anyway this 2018 album has been going on and off my reproduction list for some months. In some way my high expectations for having sonic news from Schickert, who I followed until his silence, have settled down to a more reasonable level which helps, more so, if writing a public review.

Labyrinth´s a nine track record which covers some different experimental styles, percussive ideas and a couple of lyric based proposals (the ones sung are surprisingly among the best tracks). Some work better than others and more than once the songwriting is actually poor, lazy or dated.

It´s super healthy to have a non-mainstream attitude, it gives you great artistic freedom but as uncle Ben commented: With great power comes great responsibility. And when you have to hand out some bucks, well, at least you expect an even deal.

Labyrinth is good news because it marks Schickert´s comeback (he is releasing a new album this month) but as for the music it is irregular. Some superb highlights but not enough. Sometimes its experimental approach masks lack of musical solutions and more than four tracks are truly expendable. To cut it short an uneven deal.

With reasonable doubts ***3 minus PA´s stars, because even if the songwriting is poor or flawed it is not a rip-off or a copycat (not even of himself), but aside from that, it´s still minus!

I hope things get better, I really do!

"Hollentanz" opens with what sounds like birds chirping crazily as a heavy drum and guitar sound joins in. Krautrock styled vocals a minute in and this is catchy but very underground sounding as the vocals echo and sound double tracked. So good though. Classic Krautrock right here as other vocals join in and other sounds dizzying the senses. Trumpet after 4 1/2 minutes.

"Rabe In De Nacht" opens with guitar and percussion along with experimental bits. Some vocal expressions too. Man this sounds good cranked up. Vocals are pretty much spoken after 3 minutes as the guitar grinds it out. Just a killer track. "Es Ist Schon Kurz Vor 12" has this raw sounding and fast paced guitar. A second sound of guitar I think arrives just before a minute. Distant words 3 minutes in as the guitar continues to power through the soundscape. More guitar like sounds 4 1/2 minutes in. It ends with fireworks and crowd noise and this will continue pretty much to the final track believe it or not.

"Guitarre Wlaurniam" continues with the fireworks and crowd noise as fast paced guitar sounds arrive but they suddenly slow right down, atmosphere too. Another guitar starts to solo over top at 3 1/2 minutes. Nice. Fireworks and crowd noise to the fore to end it blending in to "Suleika" where intricate guitar joins in, intertwining with another it seems. Very mathy as a beat joins in. So good! Catchy as atmosphere adds some depth. Spoken words around 5 1/2 minutes and the fireworks are back with crowd noise(haha) as it blends into the next tune.

"Schwarz Voll Weiss" is that tune as heavy drums join in along with atmosphere, vocals and more. More fireworks and crowd noise as it blends into "7/5" where some amazing guitar joins in then trumpet as it builds while the fireworks keep blasting off and the guitar keeps churning. The guitar steps aside as trumpet, fireworks and crowd noise continue as it blends into "Kinder In Der Wildnis"

"Stylistically, Gunter Schickert's music belongs to the Berlin school. Lengthy pieces with complex layers of rhythmic-harmonic sequences, expansive echoes and reverberation, extrapolated improvisations and naturally the cosmic touch of the 70's makes this ascription an easy matter. Not really a surprise, considering Gunter Schickert was Klaus Schulze's technical assistant and roadie at the time. And of course he was familiar with TANGERINE DREAM, ASH RA TEMPEL etc. It was only natural that his musical enviroment and personal contacts would influence him decisively."

"This influence did not lead him to copy anyone, however. Schickert concentrated on pursuing his own ideas and pushing the boundries of his remarkable aural creations. He is at pains to emphasize that, unlike almost all of his contemporaries, he did not use any synthesizers; his instruments are the electric guitar, his own studio with a multi-track tape machine and a comfortable arsenal of effects. Similar experiments had also been attempted by Manuel Gottsching("Inventions For The Electric Guitar") and Achim Reichel("Die Grune Reise"), but without stretching the multifaceted nature of their music to the point of microtonality, as Schickert dared to do on "Uberfallig".

Schickert's use of concrete sounds-field recordings as they are now known-and his completely autonomous way of working in his own studio presaged a stage of development more readily associated with the early 80's. Splicing preproduced noises into his music was almost too daring, too way out for Schickert's listeners to fathom. And working on his own , without a record company or expensive studio was a privilege enjoyed only by the "stars" of the scene at the time. In 1979 the album was a statement of the level of expectation of a potential audience, detached from the electronic mainstream. Gunter Schickert was one of the protagonists who furthered the development of experimental pop music from the outer margins."

Up first is the almost 15 minute long track called "Puls". Not a surprising title given that we get this relentless pulsating beat almost from the start. Man this has this catchy and repetitive rhythm along with the sound of water dominating the soundscape. In fact it's those water sounds that open the song before the beats kick in. Great stuff. The drumming really adds to this as well, no drum machines are used on this record. "In Der Zeit" opens with different sounds before we hear the birds chirping then the guitar joins in a minute in. Female vocals sung in German also join the guitar and birds. She's almost speaking the lyrics. Atmosphere before 3 1/2 minutes as she stops. It almost sounds like the tide coming in along with heavy breathing then spoken male words in German. Such a cool tune.

"Apricot Brandy II" is eventually overtaken with the sounds of waves and wind while that heavy breathing comes in. Percussion joins in and then the guitar 2 minutes in as the waves, wind and breathing stop. Male vocals echo after 3 minutes as guitar and drums help out in this very psychedelic setting. The vocals get passionate after 8 minutes but it's the instrumental work that blows me away here. Fantastic track ! "Wanderer" opens with guitar, nature sounds and more. This is so good. This is adventerous yet melodic.

I am completely blown away by this album. I must admit that when it comes to Electronic music I prefer guitar to be in it like HELDON and RADIO MASSACRE INTERNATIONAL, but it's the melodic yet adventerous compositions that impress me the most. Gunter Schickert is an incredible talent which I knew already from his GAM project.

For this his first solo album he had only two tape recorders at his disposal so he would play one track and while listening to that he would add a second one, this he would do 4 times. When he mixed it he borrowed a third tape recorder and so added the last track to the master. I can't imagine how frustrating and stressful this must have been because if he wasn't mixing fast enough with changing the tape he had to start all over. He had a small mixer with 2 stereo and 1 mono but it was possible to pan tracks. No equalization though and it all came out of his G2000 Dynacord guitar amplifier. If he made a mistake on track one he had to start all over again. Three months later "Samtvogel" was born.

Up first is the six minute "Apricot Brandy" which has some pretty trippy English lyrics. Gunter never did drugs but he certainly had an imagination. This is a slow paced piece with the focus on the almost spoken lyrics. Things get freaky after 3 minutes. "Kriegsmaschinen Fahrt Zur Holle" is my favourite tune on here. At 17 minutes this song describes a wish that Gunter had since he was young. That all killing materials such as weapons etc. would take a journey to hell along with the thoughts that stand behind them. He talks in the liner notes about his home city of Berlin where the German army was not allowed to go after WWII(once Germany was allowed an army in 1954) and that a lot of artists and free-minded people came there to escape military duty. This song is very Electronic as it trips along with the odd outburst. Sounds echo and we get some German words around 4 1/2 minutes in. It all turns louder 5 minutes in and man this is good. More spoken German words are added here and there. Everything seems more focused after 9 minutes and the words that are added really sound cool here. 11 minutes in more sounds are added like earlier. This is catchy but very bizarre. It settles down 16 minutes in to the end.

"Wald" is the final track clocking in at over 21 1/2 minutes. There are no lyrics and Gunter says this song initially was a protest to the increase in vehicles in his city. When he was young growing up in the fifties he could play on the streets without worry of cars but that changed of course. Anyway he changed his idea of this song from describing a walk through peaceful landscapes when suddenly it is crossed by a huge noisy highway to just describing a walk through a dark forest with strange creatures crossing his path. Man this is almost as good as the previous track and sort of similar in sound. It's such a cool trip regardless as sounds echo seemingly forever as other sounds come and go.

I really enjoy this album and if you like the style of A.R. & THE MACHINES with all of those echoing sounds then you probably will love this one as well. A solid 4 stars. Thanks Gunter !

Another masterwork, from any perspective. It was then re-worked by Schickert during its final takes in the re-mastering console, but the original songs are left intact. This of course, sometimes, show in the not that perfect pitch digital quality we are now so sensitive of, but besides that, this, I repeat, is masterful.

The music is experimental in spirit, the songwriting being so varied during its time of creation, enhance the scope and dimension of Schickert's abilities, both as a performer (no guests) and as a very daring but disciplined composer.

Played along pre-recorded material, his guitar playing "droning" riffs, are predominant, as his trumpet playing, but the real deal is the connection between his "very normal" pre-recorded material and how he creates the whole structure, fom this ordinary sounds and noises. It has the bravery of his first release "Samtvogel" & the expierenced hand of "Überfällig", PLUS the added talent of late "Schickert".

Rejoice "Krautrockers" & "Electronics", things are getting better with TIME! ****4.5 PA stars.

His music has always been like a "bridge" between Electronic and Kraut, but in "Somnambul", he takes on different rides, that go from "Canterbury", "Eclectic" , "RIO", "Ambient" and, because of the same, "Crossover". Of course this happens not song by song and obviously without that intention.

The feeling in general, although being "conceptual", is very refreshing and innovative, in each of these different orientations, without never losing its own identity.

So, considering that his work is usually electric/acoustic guitar focused, this work displays a lot of great guitar based songs and his scope as a performer, which as I have mentioned, has to do more with great song writing than mere "virtuosism". An excellent acquisition for any kind of Prog audiophile, therefore

****4 PA stars.

Anyway, how 2 minutes of a lower inventiveness, can affect an almost 'masterpiece" is my only regret. And this, I remember, was like that, since my first owning of the tape. But do not feel discouraged, I am talking about an almost flawless "jewel". To pinpoint the flaw (IMO), the last 2 minutes of the awesome and dynamic first song, are this work's only underachievers (the guitar riff is quiet silly and boring).

The rest is pure gold, as the first song could have been if it had been cut short. Each song is unique in its own way and yet, it all feels like a single structure. (In a far- fetched comparisson, like a highly, "reloaded" Steve Hillage's 'Rainbow Dome Musick' , of course with Schickert´s own musical idiom.)

Gunther Schickert's main "feature" is the electric guitar work, which then and now, still sounds daring and way ahead of the times, music-wise, without any, really any, kind of "flash" or "speed racing-fireworks". No, no!.

Every inch this project ascends, is achieved by great song writing and inventive experimentation, which in fact, creates the "uniqueness" of all the songs, by fierce and dynamic "soberness" in the approaches of the performances. This may sound eventually, quiet "un-Kraut" and closer to the droning effect of early "electronic music" as such. That is why, it is really hard to sit him only in one chair.

The songs are well written, but also are openly experimental, very "Kraut" like, and the "apparent" simplicity they display, in the long run, will turn out to be a "lesson" in a electronic/ Prog- guitar/drums/tapes/voices, compositions and performance. Way ahead in many ways and as "valuable" as the first "Ash Ra Tempel" project, (which sits comfortably in the "Krautrock" sub-genre). A perfect blend of both "worlds" into one unique project.

98% *****5 PA´s stars.