ASH RA TEMPEL

Recorded in March 71, ART is the debut of the second major group that Klaus Schulze managed to rise from the ashes and soon let it fly on its own to its great destiny. After Tangerine Dream, before the Cosmic Joker ventures (where he shall find Gottschinng again) and well before his own solo synth wizard career, KS was first a drummer and not a shabby by judging his playing on this album. With Hartmut Henke on bass and real leader Gottsching on guitar, ART's first album is another milestone in Krautrock's history among the early TD albums, Guru Guru's early tripped-out albums, Embryo's more world jams, ADII's utter-psyched-out folk and rock, Can's minimalist early 70's albums etc.

Just two tracks on this impressive space rock album, that somehow is much rawer than Guru's UFO album (if you can believe that), ART was recorded in Hamburg by producer Conny Plank and sported a stunning mythical Egypt artwork that opened down the middle and was release on the legendary Ohr label which makes it (in its original form) now an expensive item. While not really trying to reproduce it faithfully, the French label Spalax put out an excellent CD reissue in the early 90's and it is all you'll need for your space endeavours.

Amboss is one masterful number full of wild spacey guitars and solid drumming from Klaus Schulze, solid bass thumping from hence, Plank just content on recording it straight onto the master tapes under the principle that if you diddle too much in the studios, you end up taking all spontaneity from the recordings. The second side is as you might have guessed from the title (Dream machine) very dreamy and quite easier to adapt, even if some might get bored at the non-eventful ambient cosmic strut that takes its time developing. This second tracks is definitely more Floyd-ian.

This debut sets the standard blueprint for the next ART albums as the first side is a side long number full of energy and the second side is more reflective. Historically important, this Cd is a tough choice as are all ART albums as when considering the density of the music, this is relatively empty in terms of the usual "prog" canvas of constantly changing rhythms and very complex structures. Here we get the opposite, but it was certainly one hell of a groundbreaker. .